Business owners are fed up with the lack of action being taken on some of the social issues downtown including drug use, cleaning up needles and in some cases, abuse against store owners.
Bernie Schneider owns 1st Avenue Tavern who told MyPGNow.com the level of frustration has reached an all-time high.
“We want a city hall that listens, we want a business community that’s together on these issues and we want what I call the new Skid Row to be cleaned up because it has gotten worse, it hasn’t gotten better.”
He adds several owners are banding together so that their voices are heard.
“We’re in the process of setting up a downtown business owners society and we’ve got a lawyer working on our behalf to do that. We intend to take a point of view on a number of issues, I want to bring the issues forward that we collectively discuss.”
Schneider also spoke about a recent meeting that was held between business owners, which then spurred an emergency get together with the Prince George Chamber of Commerce.
He then outlined some of the horror stories that have been told by the owners themselves.
“From that meeting, we heard of the store owner that was punched in the face, we heard of businesses that experienced shoplifting right in front of them and we’ve got employees of businesses that are afraid to walk to their car.”
“We tell these people to leave and in one case, a store owner was threatened with a dirty needle and I have been threatened to stabbed too by chasing people off my property. Those things happen, it’s not acceptable and unfortunately, it is what we live with on a daily basis down here.”
The social issues along with the frustration over the current parking rules have pushed some entrepreneurs to the brink according to Schneider.
“Everything combined is causing huge anxiety among business owners, some businesses are closing, have thought about closing and that’s really where it is at. Our point of view is that we need a seat at the table.”
Simply put, Schneider and fellow business owners along with community groups and different levels of government need to come together to form a permanent solution so that this isn’t dealt with again in another five years.
“There needs to be a committee set up and it has to include people like Northern Health and it has to include the provincial government and the federal government in a lot of ways. We have to sit down and we have to find our way past this exact catastrophe we are facing and solve it.”
Schneider plans to attend the special meeting that was announced by city council on Monday.
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