Re: Business Owner Frustrated (Letters to the Editor, Trail Times April 4) … that, I am sure, is how many business owners in Trail feel, and have felt for many years.
I think it is safe to say that most citizens in our area have watched the businesses in the downtown core vanish over the years and wondered why is it so prevalent here.
Castlegar seems to be flourishing very well.
Nelson is, in many ways, nothing short of a phenomenal with people scurrying about, at all times of the day. There are shops, restaurants, offices, not only on the main street, but on the side streets and alleys as well. Each one of those businesses seem to have people coming and going, stopping and making use of whatever the establishment is at all hours of the day. There are people walking about not just during business hours but also during what would be seen as the slow times. Have you ever driven around Nelson on a Sunday afternoon? It is busier there than any time of the day, any day of the week here in Trail.
While it is true that the “downtown” that many of us remember is a thing of the past in most communities, it is also hard not to ask why Trail has become what it has while two communities close by have not... I wonder, could it have anything to do with those ‘closed door decisions’?
Situations like the one that Mr. Berukoff has encountered could easily cause one to throw in the towel and close the doors of an already struggling small business.
It is often said that the dictatorship that some council members exhibit may have something to do with the growth… and shrinkage of the local business community.
Maybe if some of the money that is so quickly passed out on studies of how to improve the downtown core was used to help the downtown core there could be some growth.
Maybe then Trail could really become, more than we imagine or maybe even with a little luck a little more like we remember.
Geri Coe
Trail