By Kristy Moffitt
The sidewalks of downtown Bank Street are less cluttered than they used to be.
Sandwich-board signs used to dot the strip, advertising just about everything, from this week’s lunch specials to tanning salon deals. But a newly enforced bylaw is threatening shop owners to bring those signs inside.
Bank Street business owners are angry and confused about why they have to remove their sandwich-board signs from the sidewalks. Rob Spittall, the owner of the Comic Book Shoppe, says earlier this month, he received a hand-delivered flier stating he had to take his sign down by Oct. 15.
“They do these things to try and kill our business,” says Spittall, referring to the Bank Street Business Improvement Area. He has taken down his sign. “I’m the kind of store that depends on walk-in traffic for business.”
The BIA was asked to comment but did not respond by press time.
Somerset Ward Coun. Elisabeth Arnold explains that the notice was an attempt to get business owners to comply with an already existing bylaw.
“The bylaw was one from the old City of Ottawa, and is just now being amalgamated,” she says.
It requires that business owners pay an encroachment fee for any sign that is located on city property, which includes sidewalks.
“To me it seems like just a really sneaky, conniving way of taxing business owners,” says Wyatt Boyd of The Invisible Cinema, an art gallery and video rental shop. The business is actually located just around the corner on Lisgar, but used to have a sandwich-board sign on Bank Street to lure customers. Boyd says since his store is not on a main street, without a sign, The Invisible Cinema really is invisible to passers-by.
“The sign increased our business 40 to 50 per cent,” he says. “A business like this relies on new blood coming into the store and I don’t do as many sign-ups anymore.”
Arnold says the bylaw exists for safety reasons. “The sidewalks are not very wide. You cannot obstruct traffic,” she says.
Teena Tomlinson, executive director of Disabled Persons Community Resources Ottawa agrees that sandwich-boards can cause safety problems. “They certainly are a hazard for people with wheelchairs and low visibility if the signs protrude onto the sidewalk,” she says.
Pravin Rajani, the owner of the Esquire Smoke Shop on Bank Street, has had a sandwich-board sign out in the same location for many years. He says when people see the familiar sign, they know the store is open. “We are not big businesses. This is our way of advertising,” he says.
But Rajani says that being a small business, he cannot pay the encroachment fee to keep his sign out on the street. The fee is $110 for a 60-day permit.
Flat Planet Computers is one of the few businesses that is willing to pay to keep their sign out. Chris White, the Internet cafe’s manager, says the sign was just too valuable to lose. “Our sign brings about a quarter of our business,” he says.
Arnold says the Bank Street BIA is working on a few free advertising alternatives for business owners, such as small billboard- type kiosks, and co-operative advertising in local papers. Business owners say they have yet to hear about any alternatives.
Boyd says Bank Street has always been a hot spot of unique small businesses, but wonders if less advertising will mean fewer small businesses, and a change in the make-up of the community. “What do they want? Another row of chain store boxes?”