By Daniel Smith
Bank Street business owners are divided over a recent proposal by local gay and lesbian community activists to officially recognize the strip between Gladstone and Laurier avenues as Ottawa’s gaybourhood.
Centretown News surveyed 116 street-level businesses. Of the 56 that responded, 39 per cent were in favour of the idea, 32 per cent did not support it, and 29 per cent were indifferent or unsure.
The informal poll showed no majority position, but those on both sides had plenty to say.
“This will only encourage business growth,” says Kerry Beckett, advertising manager for Capital Xtra, Ottawa’s gay and lesbian newspaper. She lives and works in the proposed gay village and says businesses should welcome the change with open arms because it will be an economic boon.
“Studies have been done and gays and lesbians on average have 23 per cent more disposable income, because they are less likely to have kids and whatnot. This would be nothing but a positive for the area.”
Dwight Thompson, a member of the Ottawa gay community who also lives and works in the area, agrees. He says the issue boils down to the fact that gays and lesbians have more money to spend on average and, in the end, “money will speak louder than sexual orientation” for Bank Street shop owners.
Laura Lyons, who works part-time in a Bank Street bakery, says the initiative would attract out-of-towners as well.
“I think it is an amazing idea that would be really good for tourism. It’s already considered the gay area, so why not advertise it as that? This area has been doing badly financially, we need something to bring people down here.”
Most of those who spoke in support of the plan said it would not really affect their business one way or another as it would only be making official what already exists.
“This won’t change a thing. It’s already considered a gay village anyway,” says Chris McCarthy, owner of the Gap of Dunloe Pub.
“It won’t affect business at all and people won’t avoid coming down here. It will just be business as usual.”
Nearly all of the restaurant and pub owners surveyed were in favour of the proposal or indifferent to it.
“This won’t change anything for us,” says Quizno’s franchise owner Rob Saikaley.
“People still work down here, people will still eat down here. If you go outside and look around, you can’t tell the difference if it is called a gay village or not.”
But shop owners such as Darrell Thomas, owner of Darrell Thomas Textiles, say if this proposal becomes a reality, it won’t be business as usual at all.
“We are a gay friendly, higher-end store, but this would definitely hurt our business. I don’t think this is justified.”
As a member of the gay community, Thomas supports its cause but thinks that another area would be more appropriate, such as the smaller section of Bank Street from Gladstone Avenue to Gilmour Street.
“We have a lot of elderly clients here who would be turned off by it. It just doesn’t make sense.”
Losing clientele was a common worry among those who did not support the proposal.
“If you start to label everything, it starts to exclude other people,” says Christine Clayton, owner of the housewares shop My First Apartment.
“Those other people make up a large part of my market. It is already informally called the gay village anyway, but if you make it formal, it will exclude people and people will stay away.
“It will affect business for the worse.”
Richard Teahen, owner of Cue’N Cushion pool hall, says while he happily serves gays and lesbians and supports their cause, there is no need to label an entire area for any group of people.
“Are they going to have non-gay villages as well? A transsexual village? A boys’ village and a girls’ village,” he asks.
“If they want to promote the idea, that’s fine, but why not use all of Ottawa, why use only a small part of it?”
Andre Jacques, a member of the gay community who spends a lot of his free time on Bank Street, says this proposal is not just about recognition or even about promoting the gay and lesbian cause; it is more about security.
“People say that this is bad because it’s making a ghetto. Well I’m sorry, but I don’t mind a gay ghetto for the time being,” he says.
“Sometimes I want to be around people where I can feel comfortable kissing my partner.
“I am totally for this. Ottawa is getting bigger, and for a big city it is just about time.”
The gaybourhood proposal is tied in to the city’s Bank Street redevelopment program.
The first stage of the revamping, between Wellington Street and Laurier Avenue, is slated to begin this summer, but construction between Laurier Avenue and Gladstone Avenue will not likely start until 2009.