Revisiting downtown Yarmouth

That downtown Yarmouth is not as vibrant as it once was is no surprise.

The arrival of malls, the development to Starrs Road and land to the north of Starrs filled with big box stores has created a shift in the vibrancy.

The days when the Royal Store anchored Main Street and served as a drawing place, a shopping centre where you could get just about everything and a meeting place as well, have long been relegated to the history books.

The demise of the two movie theatres that drew hundreds every week to the downtown area was another blow. One that sadly didn’t seem to get the attention it should have gotten. Certainly nowhere near as much attention and concern as the closing of a liquor store. Yet the theatres were mainstays in the area, particularly the old Capitol, later known as the Odeon. When they went, there was not a whisper in protest.

Efforts to build an arts centre in the downtown area—surely something that would draw people to the area-- have also failed to gather steam.

The result of those closures and the shift in shopping to Starrs Road brings us where we are today.

And where are we?

Main Street buildings that are vacant for long periods of time, huge empty lots in the centre of downtown and despite the efforts off several progressive stores that give the area character, service and choice, not a pretty picture. If it wasn’t for offices being restricted to that area we suspect there would be even more vacancies.

We have upper stories throughout the downtown that sit all but empty.

Surely a plan to develop those unused spaces into apartments would bring a benefit.

The picture painted throughout the central core is not an inviting one. Signage, with few exceptions, shows a lack of imagination, often amateurism, and certainly a lack of consistency. Vacant storefronts that could surely benefit by putting in welcoming displays referring to some of the things worth seeing and places worth spending time at in the area instead say get out of town to the shrinking number of tourists traveling through.

And travelling through they do. Through being the operative word.

There has historically been an understanding that the downtown is vital. There have for decades now around council tables been talk of doing what needs to be done to preserve the downtown, specifically Main Street. But more needs to be done. And quick.

And there’s a need for leadership like never before.

Take the recent debate around the council table where the issue of the reserved parking spots on Main Street for vendors arose.

Councillors Hood and Dares wisely, we suggest, said that if the town is going to sell those spots there ought to be stipulation that the people who buy them aren’t just buying them up to keep competitors away, but are actually going to use them.

That makes sense.

But the mayor said he didn’t think it was his role—by inference we presume council’s role as well —to tell businesses what to do,

Well we beg to differ.

Vendors add to communities. But in the past the spaces were marked out along Main Street as restricted to vendors only and there were no vendors. A better approach would surely be to strike a deal with the folks running the Brown Street parking lot and say, let’s line up vendors along the perimeter of that space in the middle of town. Let’s not forget that before the fire that leveled that block and brought about the parking lot it was also a prime business block with numerous stores. Allow people to sell their wares—fish, vegetables, arts and crafts, whatever, in stalls there and that would generate traffic to the downtown area. The market concept works in Annapolis Royal and elsewhere, why not here?

It’s time considering what’s going on on Main Street someone leads the revitalization and actually takes control.

Main Street is not just a collection of independent businesses. It is vital to the community and it should be seen in its totality. Efforts should be made to help the entire area and when things like the vendor spot issue arises council—and the mayor is included in this—ought to ask themselves if this concern, but ultimately hands-off protectionism approach, is wise. Just ask themselves how good it would be for the betterment of the downtown shopping district as a whole if a businessperson decided to be the only business on the street and rented or bought up a bunch of storefronts to keep others from setting up shop. The vendor issue, on a smaller scale we admit, is no different.

Downtown needs to be re-visited as a vital element in this community’s future and there needs to be leadership in ensuring it gains some of its former glory.

That will require imagination, involvement and the ability to see a bigger picture.