Greetings, fellow Scarborough residents.
We all know the importance of having vibrant local retail in our communities. Local shopping helps make our neighbourhoods more welcoming and more pleasant places to live.
In fact, one of the recurring themes of SCRO’s political advocacy is to ensure that Scarborough evolves as a complete community as our streetscapes evolve over the coming decades. With so much housing development pressure in play at the moment, it’s it’s easy for our political leaders to diminish the importance of neighbourhood retail. Hence why our neighbourhood strip malls and plazas are being bulldozed at a relentless pace, to the detriment of our local neighbourhoods.
How can we give our local retail businesses a fighting chance in this environment, using public policy tools already at our disposal?
One way is through the creation of business improvement areas. You’re likely familiar with some of them: Greektown on the Danforth, The Beach, Little Italy, Chinatown, Bloor West Village, Gerrard India Bazaar. In fact, there are 84 BIA’s in Toronto, mostly in the old City of Toronto. BIA’s have helped to breathe commercial life into those retail communities and provide their local residents with great local shopping and dining experiences.
There’s a recurring theme in many of these BIA’s: main street retail. The BIA model is purpose-built for main street retail. Perhaps that’s why it works so well in the old City of Toronto.
How about Scarborough? Well, not so successful I’m afraid, in a retail environment dominated not by main street retail, but by strip malls and plazas.
In fact, out of 84 BIA’s in Toronto, Scarborough has had just four:
· Kennedy Road (historically famous for its furniture and appliance stores, but quite different now),
· Wexford Heights (which runs the hugely successful Taste of Lawrence Festival),
· Sheppard East Village (from Midland to Markham Road), and
· Crossroads of the Danforth.
Can the main-street-retail-oriented BIA model be adapted to meet the retail environment of Scarborough?
Well, we’re about to find out, through the launch of Scarborough’s newest BIA, the “Cedarbrae Markham Lawrence Village BIA”, which is now up and running.
This BIA is unique in Scarborough. It consists of an indoor mall (Cedarbrae), an outdoor mall (Cedar Heights Plaza), and a series of strip malls and stand-alone retail, along Lawrence from Bellamy to east of Markham Road, and along Markham Road from south of Lawrence to Painted Post Drive.
In November, I had the opportunity to attend their first annual meeting, to celebrate their successful launch. SCRO congratulates the organizing committee, which has put a huge amount of effort into this over the past two years, supported by the cheerleading and guidance of Deputy Mayor Paul Ainslie.
BIAs are funded by the local businesses through a tax levy collected by the City of Toronto. Funds collected are used by the BIA board to create a distinct local identity for the shopping area, market it well, improve
neighbourhood streetscapes, and improve public safety, thereby drawing more people to the area and making the local businesses more prosperous.
We all wish the CML Village BIA well. In fact, we’ll be cheering it along. If the folks at CML can perfect this version of a BIA, built for a retail environment dominated by plazas and strip malls, there could be opportunities to roll this out in other Scarborough communities too.
Let’s do our part to support our local retail businesses and help them create more prosperity in Scarborough, the place we have all chosen to call home.
Larry Whatmore
President
Scarborough Community Renewal Organization
A catalyst for Scarborough community progress
Larry.Whatmore@rogers.com
