True Value Hardware

Many people comment that the attraction of Mike Evan's store is it's old-fashioned character.

Whatever odd thing you may be looking for, Mike Evans has it. Furthermore he knows where it is.

He came there in the seventies. Home Hardware was upset. But they moved out to where they could grow and forthwith grew like gang-busters.

The Aurora Banner was in Mike's location in the seventies. They constructed the barn board facade . For old-time ambiance.Like in a western movie.

Many retailers move from downtown to where they can expand because of success downtown. Unhappily, they take their shoppers with them.

Malls were built north and south of us in the sixties and seventies because our growth was frozen. We were not growing a market.

There was an exodus of shoppers with Hillcrest. Then retailers went with the advent of Upper Canada Mall. Yet we didn't have the same experience as downtown Richmond Hill.

Stores there were vacated and stayed empty. Litter gathered in the doorways and blew about in a swirl. Empty windows were screened with yellowing newsprint and coated with grime.

Our stores rented quickly to service providers and were well maintained. .

Newmarket's downtown was pretty run down for a while. Now it's looking prettier than it ever
did. Standing at the top of the hill, looking down, the street scape is a picture postcard. They have the advantage of having a real Main Street and not a Highway to the North Pole running through the middle of their town.

There is a concern though. Merchants are worried about town plans to replace shoppers' parking with a park. Some are closing up shop.

On the other hand, Richmond Hill also has Yonge for their main street.. The same traffic and parking problems as Aurora Yet Richmond Hill's downtown came back to itself. A building like the one we rejected has been constructed on Yonge Street. They also have many high rise apartments at the north end of town.

Mike Evans came out to support the Centre Street application every time.

Indoor malls have their problems as well. . They are lovely and amenable and attract many visitors. But rents are steep to cover all the amenities. Visitors are not necessarily shoppers.

New businesses don't start up in malls. Old shops present the best opportunities for new enterprise.

A town can quickly grow a reputation for being hostile to business.

Taking hundreds of dollars for an application for a sign variance and refusing to accept
staff advice that it's O.K. to grant it, is no way to win friends and influence people.

There are some things the municipality cannot control. We certainly can't advise retailers how to run their business. But we can examine how we run our own and make sure we do nothing to discourage others from joining our enterprise.

Businesses are a municipality's partners in more ways than one.

Merchants generally don't do what Mike Evans does on a regular basis. He shows up at meetings and gives Council a piece of his mind.

If business is not doing well and the odds are against them and they think they're not getting a fair shake from the people who should be conscious of their problems, business generally just ups stakes and moves.

I'm not sure that's what's happening in our downtown.

Mike thinks it is and I'm afraid it might be.

We've missed a lot of chances to make a difference and we have created new problems.