A post about the future of
Wasaga yesterday, was an “I’m throwing in the towel” rant. It seemed to support
the notion that our tourism industry is no longer important and condo
development is the future of our town. (https://www.facebook.com/groups/wasagabeach/?ref=group_header) Wed 2;52
“The slightly sleazy,
‘party-on’ beachfront must die. Nobody will retire to the area as it is now.
The area must be gentrified.” was a
quote from that post.
So here's my rant....
To start with, there have
been condo dreams for the beach for over 20 years, and all they did directly or
indirectly lead to the destruction and neglect of existing buildings a
facilities. Do not bull doze any thing else, till we build something new first
or we will end up with nothing.
Secondly, the term “Gentrification”
while it has been whitewashed by it’s proponents, is deeply rooted in the
classist and racist ideology of the Gentry or so called Noble class of the
wealthy aristocrats. It would of course preclude the Government mandate for the
urbanization to include low income housing and facilities for the less
fortunate. When the Park was created, the statement was made by the government
that the Beaches are being preserved for the recreation uses of all of Ontario,
so we have to get over the notion that it belongs to us! It does not. It
belongs to the whole population of Canada.
I think we need a dose of
realism.
First many of the residences
here are secondary homes for empty nesters or retirement homes for snowbirds.
No amount of growth will help
support year round business if in continues on this path.
So that leaves us with summer
tourism.
Big problem is, as many say,
they are day trippers and don’t spend any money.
Why is that?
We did it. Since the late
60’s there has been a steady decline in the amount of overnight accommodation
along our beaches.
We had a real estate boom all
across Canada then. More and more people saw an opportunity to make a fast
profit in that game. Wasaga had cheap land and became a target.
We also had the bad habit of
electing real estate agents and brokers to our council that had an obvious bias
in favour of redevelopment.
They intern, for some strange
reason invited the province to come in and take over control of the beach
fronts.
Ontario Parks then set about
to expropriate and tear down another estimated 30% of our overnight
accommodations.
But then we had a little boom
in our cottage industry, and land was carved up and sold to build weekend
cottages.
That helped turn around our
tourism. People came up, often stayed for a week or 2 and spent money.
They also invited family and
friends to do the same.
So much so, that the
remaining cottage courts and motels were starting to feel the competition. Some
took the easy road and sold out to wealthy people to build big waterfront
homes. Others quietly chewed on the ears of our local politicians and they used
the nuisance complaints as an excuse to regulate private weekend rentals.
That only lead to a further
decline in our overnight or week long visitations of tourist.
Now we want our complaint of
“day trippers” to become a full reality by allowing the conversion of all of
our remaining tourism accommodation to town house and condos.
It is a downward spiral that
is getting faster everyday.
In a short 10 years we will
have killed almost all of our tourism in favour of retirement homes.
This will kill most of our
remaining retail industry. People downsizing need to get rid of stuff not buy
more. That demographic does not dine out much, nor do they go to bars till the
wee hours of the morning for entertainment. And once again, just look around
your own neighbourhood to see, that most of those go south for the winter.
As the person who did the
other post said, “commercial lease rates can not be supported with the kind of
retail we have”.
So that leaves us with the
only choice of relaxing restrictions on zoning, and allowing Mom & Pops to
open up a little shop attached to their home.
We had lot’s of these all
over the area back in the 50’s & 60’s.
Somehow we fell under the
spell of “urban planning” and the need for order and structure, zoning vast
areas as “residential only” or “commercial only”.
Can you just imagine how the
2 or 3 immediate neighbours would scream and stomp their feet, if a little
variety store was allowed to open along Shore Lane near the entrance to Park 4
or Park 5. God forbid our “day trippers” should be encouraged to buy an ice
cream or bag of potato chips.
Now I fully agree that a lot
of our full time citizens and many neigbourhoods have been ignored for years.
We are a small town (by any standards) so ditches and culverts are common here.
They are also problematic, but the solution is not to go into huge expense by
replacing them with buried service, but rather just do the required regular
maintenance that part of our tax dollars is supposed to pay for.
And then let’s use some of
the money the town collects for parkland dedication from builders and
developers, to actually build a few parks and playgrounds.
Yes a big brand new library
would be very nice. But for the near future what is needed more is a small
second library in the west end of town. Doesn’t need to be fancy, just
functional and more accessible to residents living out there.
We are fast becoming another
Elliot Lake, in a time when many other towns are making the same mistake. It is
quite possible that we may never attract a young demographic to live here, but
at least we should make it easy for them to come and stay for a while.
Change the zoning back to
tourism accommodation for all the areas still operating as such.
Encourage and assist those
businesses to improve and upgrade.
When approving new
development, ensure that corner stores and small retail is allowed every 2
blocks so things are “walkable”.
To bring back overnight
visitors that do spend money, make allowance for B&B’s all over town, not
just in one little corner. This would also help ensure that a good deal of the
money stays with-in the local population and wealth pool!
Make our Town affordable for
young people by encouraging secondary residences and lower the minimum square
footage requirements on new builds.
We may never be able to
afford and/or support the expense of a large modern double pad arena, but we can afford to do major repair
on out existing one, build a second outdoor ice pad, and put a roof over the
existing outdoor pad.
Ask yourselves, is building
concrete curbs and sidewalks on every street in Wasaga really that much more
important that building up our public transport service?
I agree with the person that
wrote that post, the Town had no business buying up land with tax payer money
and a lot of mortgage debt, to facilitate our condo dreams.
If we want to see rapid
redevelopment of our Beach 1 and Main St. area, the best way of doing that is
to bust up the holdings into smaller more affordable parcels and putting them
on the open market. Let’s not fall prey a 4th time to a single
persons grandiose vision and sales pitch.
If we really want to buy into
the former Liberal Government’s dream of intensive urbanization, then read the
“Places To Grow” act and preamble carefully. When you do that you’ll see that
the area along Mosely from Schoonertown to 45th St. is clearly the
most ideal and suitable location for such urbanization. Leave our tourist area
as a tourist area.
Now it seems, our newly
elected council is enamored with the prospect of a local Casino. It will
provide entertainment and recreation for our ‘ignored’ retired population. It
will also kill what’s left of our tourist orientated hospitality business. They
need the support of locals to carry them through the winter months. How will
the compete against a subsidized Casino restaurant that sells a fish &
chips dinner for $5.95 or has an all you can eat buffet for $10.95.
Next summer when the tourist
come up and ask “were can we get something to eat?” we can just send them all
to the casino I guess.
Finally go to the planning
department website and have a look at our “active development” map and you’ll
see that growth in our town is still exponential and does not need further
encouragement. We do not have the infrastructure nor the funds to increase services
to facilitate much more. We need to stop and do a little catch up.
