Foot traffic plummets in Strathcona, other neighbourhoods during pandemic

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) — Normally flooded with people out for a stroll or a bite to eat, main streets in Vancouver and across the country have become places to avoid during the pandemic.

New research from Vancity credit union highlights what this is meaning for individual neighbourhoods. Vancouver’s Strathcona neighbourhood, for example, saw foot traffic drop by an estimated 30,861 this September, compared with the same month in 2019.

Michael Brennan owns the Heatley pub in that neighbourhood, and has had a front-row seat to the impact.

“For me, it just comes down to, I’m not willing to throw good money after bad,” says Brennan, acknowleding he has considered at various points during the pandemic about closing his pub’s doors for good. “Thankfully, thus far we’ve been okay and managed to keep our head above water. But, when you start having to dig into your own savings to keep your business going, those are the moments when you’ll start to question, how much do I put into this?”

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Brennan says government supports like the wage subsidy have helped, but his staff are still feeling the pain because tips aren’t covered by that program and fewer people are coming in the door.

“You almost get to the point, where, it’s so far beyond your control — you could drive yourself — you could get extremely stressed out about it,” says Brennan. “You almost have to accept the reality of the situation. I think a lot of us just have to remind ourselves, we could certainly be in a far worse position. Thankfully we have had some assistance from the government with the wage subsidy and some rent relief, so that has allowed for a small business like ours anyways to keep the doors open and keep things moving along, even with such a drastic reduction in revenue.”

Brennan says he’s grateful to the people who live in the neighbourhood for continuing to support his business during the pandemic.

Of the businesses surveyed as part of this Vancity research on our country’s businesses on main streets, 58 percent report operating with reduced revenues.

“Right across the country small businesses are struggling,” says Christine Bergeron, Vancity’s interim president and chief executive. “And if we let them fail, the whole country will be poorer for it. Local businesses form the backbone of the Canadian economy and they have shown determination and resilience during the pandemic. Given the extraordinary measures and investment they have made to continue operating, they are now counting on us to get behind them.”

The research also finds Downtown Victoria foot traffic was down by nearly a million visits from April to September, when we compare to the same period in 2019.