A Nanaimo business owner says she will have to close the doors after 26 years because people are too scared to shop downtown.
Madeline Crane says she has operated the Friends of Haven Thrift Store and since relocating the business to Albert Street 19 years ago she never dreamed of closing because of what she refers to as an escalating problem.
“We have seen a steady decline in business, and usually it is due to the season, but this is more than usual,” she says. “We’ve noticed a lot of people saying they’re uncomfortable coming downtown.”
Crane adds over the past few years safety has become a major issue with downtown residents and businesses are seeing the effects of social disorder, drug use, and fires which she says is adding to the fear of venturing into the city’s core.
“There is a lot of stuff happening in our streets that we have no control over,” she explains. “People are using drugs, fighting, and they’re using the side of our building as a bathroom in the daylight.
“When we have a customer coming into our store, and this is what they’re faced with either coming into the store or leaving.”
She says community perception is out of focus when businesses downtown start making complaints of this caliber, but she says politics aside the situation is very real.
“I am not a political person, I only know what is happening to my business and the lack of control we have over what’s going on,” Crane adds. “People think we are making this up as an excuse because our business is failing, but it wasn’t failing before. We even made it through the pandemic.”
Crane says staff layoffs have already occurred since they decided to close their shop, and other services in Nanaimo are going to be affected because of government inaction around this growing concern.
