The COVID-19 pandemic has turned the city center into a long-term ghost town, and as people slowly return to their workplaces, they will likely find a different look to the core. “The idea that everyone is going to go back to work five days a week is gone. That’s over,” said Ian Lee, an associate professor at the Sprott School of Business at Carleton University. “This will have profoundly negative effects on the city centre.” There are efforts to change downtown spaces from the gray, beige high-rises that now dominate them, but this will be a long process.
Hope, despair and defeat
The end of one business became the beginning of another for Edward Khamis, who came to Canada from Lebanon with the dream of opening his own barbershop. After he completed his barbering course, the pandemic hit. He worked in a few barbershops, but he clung to the dream of a place that would bear his name. In June, the 22-year-old took over the former Imperial Barber Shop on Slater Street. A few glass comb jars still bear the former shop’s name, but all others bear its new logo and the name “Edward K Barber Shop.” Edward Khamis, 22, runs his barbershop largely by himself. He hopes he can grow his business and become part of the revitalization of the downtown core. (Alexander Behne/CBC) The lack of foot traffic hasn’t deterred him as he said things have picked up slightly this month with more workers returning downtown, but “would like to be busier.” “I want it to be full,” he said. Three months into owning his business, he said most days he sees fewer than a dozen customers. He runs the store mostly by himself, although his mother helps with the paperwork. Success will take effort and good social media exposure, he said, but he’s prepared for the steep learning curve. Khamis dreams of having all seven chairs in his barber shop fully booked, but currently sees fewer than a dozen customers a day. (Alexander Behne/CBC) A few blocks away, on Sparks Street, one man’s dream ended. Jason Komendat, owner of Retro Rides bike shop and co-owner of the Ottawa Bike Cafe, says it “shuts down the whole place.” Komendat said he signed a lease in 2019 and invested heavily in renovating the interior. It sustained several closures throughout the pandemic, but the writing was on the wall for a business that depended on serving the needs of those commuting downtown by bike. Jason Komendat said despite his best efforts to keep the business alive, he will close Retro Rides on Sparks St at the end of October. (Alexander Behne/CBC) “The pandemic happened and our neighborhood literally burned down. All these people went home,” he said. At the end of October he will leave. He hopes to relocate the business, but there is no firm plan yet. “Every single small business, every storefront that we see in this downtown core … that’s closed is somebody’s dream and somebody’s passion,” he said. “When you lose a business like this … it’s a loss, almost like a child.”
Retro Rides is calling it a post-pandemic Sparks Street stop, convoy
Jason Komendat, owner of bike shop Retro Rides, says he made the difficult decision to close because of a lack of downtown customers, blaming both the pandemic and the convoy protests.
“A different vision for the city center”
The slow recovery for downtown cores is not surprising, Lee said, since the “anchor tenant” — the federal public service — has seen the majority of its employees stay home for most of the work week. Lee calls them “knowledge workers” who can just as easily work from home as in front of a computer in a high-rise, but the economic impact continues to play out around the downtown core, which can no longer be relied upon in the same customer base. “These are small, family businesses. A lot of them will fail because the demand isn’t there,” Lee said, adding “They’re going to have to come up with a different vision for downtown.” Ian Lee, an associate professor at Carleton University’s Sprott School of Business, said downtown areas will have to adapt because “the idea that everyone is going back to work five days a week is gone.” (Alexander Behne/CBC)
Surviving the age of remote work
A recent study entitled “The Death of Downtown?” found a pattern across North America: recovery from the pandemic has been particularly slow in centers like Ottawa that depend on professionals and tech workers. The joint project between the University of Toronto and the University of California, Berkeley used cell phone data to compare activity in the downtown areas of 62 major cities in Canada and the United States. In the spring of 2022, Ottawa saw less than half the activity it had before the pandemic. It was ranked 46th in the list of 62 cities. Lee says the federal civil service has a huge impact on the number of office workers returning to the city centre. (Alexander Behne/CBC) The study concluded that inner-city areas “will need to diversify their economic activity and land uses” to “survive in the new era of remote work”. Christine Leadman, executive director of the Downtown Bank Street Business Improvement Area, said the pandemic and its lingering effects have had a “devastating” impact. A row of storefronts sit empty on Bank Street, a busy shopping strip before the pandemic caused many businesses to fail. (Alexander Behne/CBC) He added that plans are underway to redevelop the Bank Street area with green spaces and more cultural activities. “We just need to add some life and interest to downtown that wasn’t there before,” Leadman said. “It needs to have more of a village feel.” He emphasized the importance of keeping the city center alive and thriving. “Our core is the heart of our city and if our heart is not well, our city is not well,” he said. “It will come back, but in a different form.” Christine Leadman, executive director of the Bank Street BIA, said downtown areas should embrace more green spaces and cultural activities to attract customers to their businesses. (Radio-Canada)
