Re: “Downtown needs people, and we need downtown,” commentary, Feb. 6.

I’ve lived within shouting distance of downtown for nearly 20 years, and its health and vitality are very important to me. So I was excited this morning to see what the CEO of the Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce had to say.

Next time, I’d like to see an actual example balance sheet. What does a downtown store’s 2025 profit and loss statement look like compared with 2019’s?

In addition to what John Wilson stated, several other global factors are at play.

A major global pandemic hit in 2020, disrupting lives for years and sending people home to work, which disproportionately affected downtowns.

Supply chain disruptions increased inflation, which reduced disposable income. Increasing wealth and income inequality have resulted in real estate consolidation and commercial rent increases above inflation.

Housing remains expensive. Social and health spending has not kept pace with the challenges we face, resulting in disproportionate impacts on vulnerable populations.

A quick web search reveals that many North American downtowns have recently struggled with business challenges and troubling retail trends.

Victoria is not unique. Unless we grapple with these structural issues when creating a plan to help downtown, we are only recycling “round up the usual suspects” (to quote the great classic Casablanca).

Bharat Chandramouli

Victoria

Re: “Downtown needs people, and we need downtown,” commentary, Feb. 6.

As someone who is frequently downtown day and night, what I need is for people to portray downtown accurately.

Yes, at times, there is a knot of people spilling onto the sidewalk, but not once have they ever interfered with me. Yes, I do see someone huddled under a blanket in an open spot from time to time, but not once have they ever caused me harm.

And while the City of Victoria and the B.C. government continue to plough resources into reinvigorating downtown, here’s to people doing our part.

Instead of demonizing downtown based on falsely misinterpreting what we don’t like the looks........

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