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Is City Council killing our downtown? This man thinks so

'I would have thought that when Walmart and Sears get up and leave the downtown, you would realize that you are killing the downtown' - Michael Adams
2018-07-28 Downtown Street Mixer DMH-2
If Queen Street is dying, you wouldn't have known it during this Downtown Mixer on July 28, 2018. Donna Hopper/SooToday

Sault Ste. Marie city councillors were quiet as a Chopin nocturne at their most recent meeting, as the 800-pound gorilla of music retailing got permission to sell pianos and other musical instruments at what's now the Northshore Sports & Auto location at 647 MacDonald Ave.

Long & McQuade isn't really a big-box retailer.

Its new location near the MacDonald Avenue, Black Road and Trunk Road intersections will be about 8,400 square feet, about one-sixth the minimum 50,000-square-foot definition for a big box.

But Long and McQuade is the closest thing Canada has to a music superstore and longtime downtown resident Michael Adams had plenty to say about its new location.

The following are Adams' remarks at last month's City Council meeting, followed by a response from Mayor Christian Provenzano: 

Micheal Adams

I have nothing personal or specific against this application.

I appear here as a matter of principle about what the city is doing to the downtown business district.

Over the years, the past decade or so, this city has allowed a secondary business district to create itself up north where the hospital is.

Offices, retail stores, all the rest of it.

Now, you're doing the same along the eastern highway.

The adjoining property has already been re-zoned for office and retail use.

Those are things that are supposed to be downtown.

I would have thought that when Walmart and Sears get up and leave the downtown, you would realize that you are killing the downtown.

Frankly, I have looked and I can't find a single application to rezone property outside the downtown business district, not one has this council denied.

You're killing the downtown, slowly but surely.

The two anchor tenants of Station Mall are gone. They're not coming back.

And you don't see anyone lining up to come back in.

It's not long until all the stores in Station Mall will close and you will be left with a vacant mall downtown.

You've already got a mainly vacant Queen Street.

I live downtown, have for decades.

You have removed the reason for people to come downtown, which was to shop, to see their doctor, see their insurance agent, to go to a restaurant.

After six o'clock at night, there's nothing downtown.

You can have ball hockey tournaments every single day of the week and the only interruption would be when the bus goes by every hour.

There is no reason for people to come downtown, and creating another retail/ commercial district is just exacerbating what already exists.

I'm pretty sure none of you live in the downtown district.

Living downtown, it follows a sense of community and has some advantages.

You can go for a walk. You can go to the store. You can find entertainment. You can get something to eat.

Not here in Sault Ste. Marie.

There is no place you can go to get a newspaper or a bag of milk or a loaf of bread at this time of night.

The very closest one is the corner of Wellington and Pine Street.

When the main business district, which the official plan is supposed to be protecting, when you live in that business district and have to leave the business district to do business, there is a problem.

And the promise is the city's continual acquiescence to developers wishing to rezone property for commercial use.

You all got a letter from me. It asks one question. If you can tell me one reason that this application granted would benefit the residents of Sault Ste. Marie, the residents of the business district, the occupants, the tenants, the businesses in the Sault business district, I'll shut up and go home.

But none of you could find a reason.

I think it's time this city acknowledges the fact that the continual exodus of retail and commercial space from the downtown, supported and actually promoted by this city by changing the zoning laws at whim, has killed the downtown.

If that's what you're attempting to do, you're succeeding.

You have all the information at your fingertips, of the vacancy rates downtown.

If this proposed tenant wants to give piano lessons, you want a zoning for this sort of thing, put a condition in. Only for piano lessons. 

This is just the straw that broke the camel's back.

I've written over 20 letters over the years about exactly these sorts of applications. They go unheeded.

I believe right now the same thing is going to happen.

Maybe you'll order a study or something to find out how we can rescue the downtown.

Here's how you rescue the downtown. Stop promoting all the businesses to move out of the downtown.

Then you'll have a vibrant city.

Mayor Christian Provenzano

Mike, I want to say in principle, I do agree with you.

We have to be very conscientious about changing zonings to discourage businesses from locating in the downtown.

There were a number of decisions made prior to 2014 that I probably, if I had participated in, wouldn't have agreed with.

I wasn't the mayor at the time but I was disappointed to see the PUC move out of the downtown core.

I don't think though, that you're accurate to say that this council has been doing that with any kind of indiscriminate speed or haste.

That hasn't been happening.

We haven't approved a lot of changes outside the downtown core so that people could locate outside of the downtown core.

In this case, I strongly suspect that the business that's interested in buying the building is interested in that specific location.

If they don't buy that specific location, I'm not sure that they would move to Sault Ste. Marie and move into the downtown core.

But that location is a location where you can go and buy retail merchandise.

This operation is going to go in there and sell retail merchandise. 

As opposed to getting a Sea-Doo you're going to get a piano. And you're also maybe going to be able to take some lessons.

So that's the difference.

I don't think that's a substantial difference that's going to excavate our downtown.

But I agree with you.

I think we have to be very careful about agreeing that large office buildings can move up to Great Northern Road.

It's not something that I would personally have supported or support on a going-forward basis.

But this application in itself, judging this application on its merits and separating it from the history of previous applications, I think is important.

For that reason, it's an application that I would personally support.


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David Helwig

About the Author: David Helwig

David Helwig's journalism career spans seven decades beginning in the 1960s. His work has been recognized with national and international awards.
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