Downtown is not what is used to be – that is evident; what is not so evident, however, is whether downtown will ever be what it used to be.
In the case of Vancouver, that is looking more unlikely by the day.
In the case of other downtowns around the province, that is also looking increasingly unlikely unless municipal governments and residents deem that a return to a pre-COVID downtown norm is a priority, and the majority of businesses, residents and community leaders demand that return.
As it stands now, the courage to make that demand seems lacking on every front.
For evidence, take a walk down any urban back street or, in many communities, a walk down any street where there was once was a standard of decorum and civic pride and you will find instead graffiti, garbage, vagrancy, vandalism and despair.
Some of that urban rot has been around for decades; some of it might be understandable considering the economic train wreck ushered in so quickly by the onset of a global pandemic.
None of it, however, is excusable.
And none of it should be tolerated any longer or left to fester and expand any further.
In Vancouver, urban decay is migrating into a city core vacuum created by COVID-19 lockdowns, restrictions and prohibitions.
Many buildings once occupied are now either not occupied at all or occupied by a small percentage of full-time staff. So, garbage, witless graffiti, vagrancy and petty crime gradually seep into all those empty spaces unopposed.
More disturbing than that inflow of urban decay is the inability of civic governments, businesses, law enforcement and residential communities to turn the tide against it.
Have the better judgment and higher standards of Canadian communities become so intimidated by complaints from vocal minorities that all we have left are apologies and angst?
If so, we deserve the fate of hollowed--out downtown cores and the economic and moral bankruptcy they breed.
