| The article below was clipped from a newspaper in Scarborough, but the date and name of the source newspaper were not provided. The article indicates BIAs are being disbanded in places where we have not visited, but the problems are being seen, by this group at least, as they really are. The newspaper does editorialize about the loss to the community, trying to undercut the logic behind the move to disband the BIA. |
Birch Cliff Loses B.I.A.
On March 23, Members of the Birch Cliff Businessmen's Improvement Area voted to disband the association.
Reasons given for disbanding were that the work of the Association fell on too few shoulders and in particular, one man, Val Valetta, President; that the Association does not have any clout in preventing businesses coming into the area that defeat the purpose of "improvement"; that purchases made by the B.I.A. do not even belong to the Association, but to the City of Scarborough, that they could not donate money to any cause: any monies spent had to be spent on City property.
In the brief life of the Association, (6 years), close to $70,000 has been spent - a sum of money which seems incredibly high for the results obtained. All of this money has come out of the pockets of the merchant members in the form of a separate tax imposed by the City when the Association was formed.
Without this association, Birch Cliff will now lose the benches and flower containers. The flower bed in front of the T.D. Bank which was once serviced by students hired for the summer by the association, will in all likelihood be concreted over now. Manager Shirley Samis is now searching for a solution.
The appearance of our neighbourhood is certainly going to suffer by this loss.
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last updated on April 28, 2002
