Whose Vision is Driving the Changing Face of Downtown?

The future of Owen Sound must be guided by strong leadership making informed decisions, and that requires a healthy dose of reality.

EDITORIAL

My grandmother, Edna Hewitson (nee Hall), was a resourceful woman. She was just a teen when she began travelling to the Owen Sound Farmers’ Market with her older brother, Harvey, to sell eggs from the small brood of hens she kept on the family farm.

Early each Saturday afternoon, her market business complete, Edna walked over to D.C. Taylor’s on 2nd Avenue East. There, she purchased one more piece of china with her earnings—a teacup here, a plate there. One day, she had finally fully paid for the entire 12-setting collection she wanted for her first home, complete with sugar and cream set, salt and pepper shakers, gravy boats, and all. It took several years.

Over the next 50+ years, Edna returned to D.C. Taylor’s in downtown Owen Sound for gifts, collectible figurines, watches for my grandfather, and the tea sets our family members cherish today.

When I was a child, shopping downtown Owen Sound and visiting the Grey County Mall on the way home (with dinner at The Village Square, of course) were exciting days out with Grandma Edna and Grandpa Earl.

Sadly, D.C. Taylor’s left the downtown earlier this year. They’re not the only longstanding business to have done so.

Hewitt & Milne Land Surveyors, Kokoro, and Bikeface Cycling have all relocated; Just a Cup is moving out. Shoppers Clothing, Second Avenue Gallery, and Audrey’s Alterations have closed their doors for good.

The buildings that housed Coffee Culture, the Bank of Montreal, Legate’s Furniture, the Bleeding Carrot, and Norma Jean’s have all sat empty for years.

The River District Board of Management (formerly the DIA), purportedly representative of all business owners but now seemingly run by City staff, doesn’t have an office downtown anymore. It was once a place for downtown business owners and residents to gather and discuss what was going on and how to improve their community.

No more.

The City of Owen Sound released performance metrics this week that it says demonstrate it is “making strides” in increasing brand recognition, promotion, and experience development in the Owen Sound River District.

Vacancy rates are down 3%, they say, since the River District Action Plan for branding and marketing was implemented in 2020. Page reach on Instagram and Facebook is up!

See:

City: Downtown Owen Sound Foot Traffic Steady & Vacancy Rates Improving

There’s no mention or even acknowledgment that many businesses have had to relocate or close their doors.

When the City boasts about increased foot traffic downtown, there is no mention of the increase in homelessness and use of social services located in the downtown core. The SOS Market that brings community support agencies together at OSHaRE every other week, for example, took in 70 new families in need of assistance over two months (July and August) this summer, according to the director of OSHaRE. The most pressing issue is that the cost of accommodations is leaving working families unable to afford food.

Media releases from the City can’t cover everything, of course. But too often now, one-way communications like this from the City are not the beginning of a conversation; they’re the last and only word. The options for open dialogue and real discussion are shrinking.

Over the past two decades, we’ve seen the face of our downtown steadily change. Family-run businesses, professional services, and boutique shops have been replaced by addiction services, dollar stores, and pot shops.

People still come downtown for shopping, dining, and entertainment. But now many come for access to mental health and housing supports, drug addiction treatment, and other social services.

Some come and stay, sleeping rough, because it’s simply too difficult to access washrooms, meals, and drugs if they leave.

Yes, many other cities are experiencing these same issues. But not all. There are still vibrant, thriving downtown communities all over Ontario. I refuse to believe that’s just not for us and there’s nothing that can be done to change our fate.

I understand we’ll never return to the 1930s Owen Sound of my grandmother’s youth. We’ll never see the 1980s-90s version of my time at the Farmers’ Market helping my mother, nor even the early 2000s Owen Sound I raised kids in.

It’s time to get real about the present and look to the future. What type of Owen Sound are we leaving our children and grandchildren, and whose vision is driving what we are becoming?

Our collective future is being shaped as we speak, but not by Facebook Likes or “Vision 2050” surveys or millions of dollars spent on back alley renovations someone thought up a quarter of a century ago.

Owen Sound is being defined by the experiences real people are having right now. All the marketing campaigns, canned quotes, and cherry-picked data points in the world cannot stop or change that.

Strong leadership can, though.

We don’t go through the process of electing new faces every four years to have them execute five, ten, or twenty-year-old plans. We’ve elected a council of representatives to lead Owen Sound today, and into the future. They have the power to challenge legacy plans and long-standing narratives.

Whether they’ll exercise it remains to be seen. Challenging the toxic positivity coming out of City Hall and demanding a complete picture informed by real, meaningful data would be a good start.