Bert's Restaurant was impacted by higher property taxes and parking meters
If you’ve ever frequented the area near 13th Avenue and Main Street in Vancouver, you’ve likely come across Bert’s Restaurant.
Established in 1948, the eatery quickly became a favourite destination for local working-class residents who wanted to chow down on Bert’s inexpensive and legendary breakfasts.
Last week the restaurant was in the media spotlight as it served its last meal before going out of business. On hand to mark the occasion were a couple of NDP politicians who claim this Vancouver institution has become the latest victim of the much-maligned Harmonized Sales Tax.
According to MLA Jenny Kwan and MP Don Davies, the restaurant was forced to close due to a loss in business as a result of the HST. However, if you listened carefully to Bert’s owner, there is plenty of blame to go around when it comes to explaining why it had to shut its doors.
In several media interviews, owner Gerry De Kova pointed the finger squarely at the City of Vancouver as the source of some pressures forcing him out of business. Curiously, both Kwan and Davies were silent regarding the fact their political ally Vision Mayor Gregor Robertson may also be partly to blame for the demise of the diner.
According to De Kova, his annual property tax bill was jacked up by over $6,000. He also claims new parking meters helped to chase away customers.
“They’ve (the city) put in parking meters in front of the restaurant and that’s another dollar they [customers] have to spend.”
Interestingly, during the 2011 civic election, Gregor Robertson’s Vision Vancouver promised to help small businesses by continuing to fully implement an NPA initiative that scheduled moderate tax relief through 2012.
However, the city’s budget chair Coun. Raymond Louie recently confirmed that city hall will be backtracking from that commitment. As a result you can expect tax rates for small businesses like Bert’s Restaurant to be raised even further in the coming weeks.
The truth is several factors helped to kill this establishment, not the HST alone. Higher food prices and increased labour costs were also cited by De Kova as reasons why he couldn’t keep the lights on any further.
If you strip away the partisan politics, the reality is this working class restaurant simply wasn’t keeping pace with the needs of a rapidly changing neighbourhood. It’s obvious that latte-loving urbanites moving into million-dollar eastside homes have tastes that go well beyond what any $3.99 bacon-and-egg breakfast can offer.
- Post by Daniel
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Iwould like to comment that not all of the residents in the neighbourhood are “latte-loving urbanites”. Many of us moved here years ago when it was one of the last affordable pieces of real estate in Vancouver. As far as a changing financial situation goes, taking a family out for breakfast is not cheap, even at Bert’s, so even with two incomes going out for breakfast adds up to a tidy sum. There have also been changes in choices people are making about food and a greasy spoon is not going to be a regular habit as it may have been 10 years ago. I liked going to Bert’s and will misss it no longer being in the neighbourhood but as your title states there are many factors involved in its’ closing. Making generalizations about the entire neighbourhood really isn’t fair.
Governments are notorious for their inability to anticipate and prevent the unintended consequences of their policy decisions and this is just another example.
Can’t make transit and cycling attractive enough to entice people out of their cars? Well then make driving a car less attractive by increasing the costs of parking and slowing traffic through dedicated bike lanes. That will force people out of their cars and onto transit.
Wrong. People have another choice. Drive somewhere else. Why spend over $20 in parking to shop downtown when you can drive to Metrotown and park for free. Perhaps when the For Lease signs outnumber the occupied premises and businesses start moving out of Vancouver those Green geniuses will figure out that the answer is to make transit more attractive and not make cars less attractive.
I guess I was a semi-regular at Bert’s. I certainly have really fond memories of the many meals I’ve shared with my friends and family there. This came out of the blue for me. Thankfully somebody let me know, and there was the opportunity to enjoy one last meal there before the doors closed for good. I don’t doubt that parking meters, the HST, and other gov’t decision related issues contributed to the loss of this piece of local history, but it’s fair to say those factors are affecting every restaurant in that area. And there are lots of them. One thing I’ve noticed about that stretch of Main Street is just how many other restaurants you can now choose from in the area. I would venture a guess that the increase in population hasn’t kept pace with the increase in restaurants. Rough guess, there’s probably twice as many places to eat along Main St. between Broadway and 16th since the first time I ordered a breakfast special at Bert’s back in the mid-90s, and probably not twice as many people living nearby. As soon as I read the original article in the Courier I’ve been waiting with trepidation for this story to turn into another reason to bash the bicycle. It seemed inevitable that somebody would try to use this unfortunate outcome as a reason to be critical of the City’s transportation policy. But dedicated bike lanes certainly had nothing to do with Bert’s closure, as Main Street doesn’t have them, and as the article notes, there’s parking in front of the restaurant in the curb lane.
A $6000 tax increase is a helluva lot of $6 breakfasts,so I would say this is the first of many small businesses that will die due too the tax burden put on them by Vision.Why Chris would jump to bike lanes in such a sad situation is beyond me.
My response was to address Bill’s comments in the post previous to mine gman.
cheers,
CK
The Thought of The Morning
“I want to take this comment thread over 100. Who’s with me, eh, who’s with me?”
Here’s how Munich did it. This is how their respectful approach to their heritage, their proud approach to handling mom and pop businesses along their “Main Street”, their understanding of how to rebuild a city from its ashes.
They did it because they are… “The Germans”. They had their own taste of a “Vision” gang for a long time there too, but they were run out of town… and, unfortunately for us… they “moved” to Vancouver. If you catch my drift.
Following is an older post dealing with cities under siege from speculators, rent hikes and declining tourism… or not!
From
http://www.francesbula.com/uncategorized/cities-make-life-difficult-for-cars-only-in-the-tourist-centres/#comments
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Glissando Remmy // Jul 4, 2011 at 12:23 am
The Thought of The Day
“While in Germany, the only three words you’ll ever need to master are: Bier, Bierwurst, and Danke!”
Out of pure luck, one of my best friends and an Architect working for my studio, moved his family to Schwangau a small municipality in Bavaria, two hours away from Munich. That was many years ago, BTW.
But that gave me the opportunity not only to establish a business office in the village but I took many trips to Bavaria ever since. To say that Munich is my favourite city in Germany is an understatement.
Munich is a pedestrian’s paradise with streets after streets of no car traffic, with small vendors, designer’s boutiques, mom and pop shops, cobbled streets, street width to building height ratios that are humanely designed, with festivals, street performers all year round.
For goodness sake, are they the same people that lost the war 70 years ago? Yes they are!
Believe it or not, like the majority of the German Cities, Munich was flattened out during the Allies bombings of the 1940′s.
Faced with the inevitable and horrendous choice of rebuilding their country from scratch, the German cities went their own different ways, Frankfurt (because Lewis pointed out this one) went the modern skyscraper, financial/ banking look (idiots)…the Manhattan look.
Berlin being divided for so long after the war, grew up with mixed approaches, old and new.
But Munich, didn’t want any of that. No Siree, Bob. Munich wanted back what they’ve lost. Their identity, their character, their old city. They wanted to recapture their old German ‘feel good’ feel.
That’s why now Munich is IMHO Germany’s most liveable city. And before I go any further I have to bring it out in the open, it’s not the great architects, the planners or the city officials that did it, though them being open to public discussion helped, it’s the people of Munich. They did it! They’ve been blessed with not having to put up with idiotic Messiah of Solomonic proportions as we do here in Vancouver, every three years or so.
Munich, it’s also considered Germany’s Silicon City meets Hollywood City, all in one.
Where here in Vancouver we have “I Scream’ View cones and View corridors they have Marienplatz (Mary’s Square) that marks the centre of the city and it was also the starting point for their city’s reconstruction, plus the tiny fact that any new building cannot exceed the height of the St. Peter’s church spires. Wicked, eh?
That’s what I call a City Hall administration with Public Balls instead of Developer’s Key Holders.
BTW, their City Hall dominates the plaza, and is a beautiful piece of Neo Gothic art.
Contrary to Vancouver’s down-town, Munich’s is a shopping magnet. People go there instead of going to the… malls.
Shopping in Vancouver, Thy name is Metrotwon!
Even when they go downtown, Vancouverites are shopping underground in the Pacific mall.
Geniuses! You think?
Back to the pedestrian adventure.
Munich’s main show off is their original great pedestrian areas.
Forty years ago the business district was on the verge of a local riot, when cars were first prohibited. Now? Not so much. With 120,000 + people passing by their stores every business day, they are ecstatic.
During holidays the $$$ take in is even better.
Anyhoo.
The philosophy was simple. Keep it local, have lots of green spaces, small human sized streets and buildings, no cars, walking made feasible, you didn’t hear me mention any biking now, did you, no, but one will have to provide an excellent public transportation system at their fingertips.
Vancouver? Still talking…
You can smell the small-town Munich aromas inside these boundaries, go ahead, smell the fresh produce and talk with the grocers. But here’s the kicker, are you ready for this? Contrary with what is happening in the Cowboy town of Vancouver, where if your horse dies, you are left behind too, to die, (only think of the small businesses that were ravaged in the riot and more recently remember the former maternity store “Hazel” on Cambie Street, in a david against Goliath fight with the Canada Line thugs and their lawyers – funny thing though, that happened under the ineffective trademark watch of one former MLA by the name of Gregor…who knew?) there you have the approach of neighbor helps neighbor, and then, the city helps both!
Get that? The city helps both!
How many times have you read about decrepit landlords, greedy landlords, development sharks waiting in the shadows for a business to fail, for the building to catch fire, so they could move in hike up the rents, or build 100 condos where before there was only a meat shop and a caffe.
A million times!
Well, while this (the pedestrian district) is the most expensive real estate in town (as per last appraisal) Munich keeps the rents low so these old-timers can carry on, and and on…
You go there every day for one week and I guarantee, you will go inside seven different eateries and end up asking for the same thing: Beer and Wurst. Even Vegetarians are having at it, incognito.
Now, I’ll have to look in the freezer, for some sausage, well why don’t I just ‘fogettabatit’ I’m out of beer too!
Dressed in a checkered shirt, traditional lederhosen with suspenders, off white slouched socks pulled down, Haferl shoes and served by a voluptuous blonde showing her… necklace, in a white trachtenblus’n, blue-white-blue drindl, with a red-white pinafore, carrying 1 litre Beer carafes around the garden… in my tonight dreams, for sure, godamnit!
I’ll blame Lewis!
Bier ist gut! Darf ich noch eine bitte? Vielen Dank!
We live in Vancouver and this keeps us busy.
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On Main it is Berts, on Granville it was the Normandy. On 4th… in Marpole…
While I am sentimental at heart, neighbourhoods evolve, residents evolve and businesses have to look out their front door and notice the changes around them – or die.
I am the first one to point at rising property tax rates and added pressures to the expense side of the ledger for business – it is horrific and unfair. I also understand that customers are fickle. They don’t patronized a store or restaurant for years because the new slick store up the street or at the mall suites them better or is more interesting but then cry foul when the local establishment surrenders.
If you want the business to remain in your community – make sure you shop there. If the city wants to retain its character and jobs – stop assuming they have endless pots of money behind the front counter. To business owners – owning a successful retail business involves paying attention to what is going on around you and adapting – nobody owes you a living.
Main Street is not the only area where busineses ar leaving.
If you travel down West 4th from Burrard to Yew, you will see many ‘For Lease’ signs, as well as other shops with closing out sales.
It is sad. These neat little one-off shops are being replaced by chain stores. It certainly changes the fabric of the neighborhood – and not necessarily for the better.
WEst 4th doesn’t need anymore sushi, yoga or baby shops.
Well, more good sushi maybe. I have talked to a number of the shop owners on W 4th and the main issue has been rent increases. The rents being asked for seem quite high to me and we are seeing the Robsonization of West 4th. When I get to 4th and MacDonald I now turn west in search of interesting stores.
I wonder if one sollution is to encourage more stores on side streets. The Vancouver model of long strips of stores favours the car over pedestrians and does not provide enough niches for innovative retailers. Could we get more small stores on the North South streets?
Good comments Julia. Is there any process in place to investigate and address the tax imbalance? I agree that as a resident I should pay for my fair share of services and that I will benefit (I hope) by having a greater range of shops in my neighbourhood.
Glissando..
You are without a doubt,one of the most astute individuals I’ve ever had the pleasure of following.
Brilliant, absolutely brilliant.
I was fortunate enough to have had one last meal at Bert’s.
One of the charity organizations I volunteer for, hold their annual Christmas dinner at Bert’s…it will be missed…Christmas won’t be the same.:(
Steven – http://www.fairtaxcoalition.com
anyone read the budget projections for 2012?
Interesting math in the revenue side.
How’s this for logic… the city considered taxes from new construction as ‘bonus’ revenue rather than an expanded pool of residents to share the expense.
Based on their logic, that new construction does not cost a dime to service. It also hides $2 million of budget increase in a corner of the budget that comes back to bite everyone the following year – but is sheltered from the current disclosure of additional spending increase.
make sense? and we wonder why our spending is out of control.
“Based on their logic, that new construction does not cost a dime to service.”
How does paying for servicing work in Vancouver? I know in other cities if I want to redevelop I am responsible for any costs related to servicing upgrades. So, there is no cost to the City for those local servicing requirements/upgrades.
I am not referring to the DCC’s… I am referring to the day to day costs of services delivered to every resident of Vancouver- like garbage, sewer, water, road maintenance etc.
New residential units come available and the first year of taxes is not offset anywhere by the addition of services delivered – it is viewed as pure revenue and therefore a clean offset to budget increases.
Deception is what I call it.
Glissando… goddammit,
you just made my mouth water after a pair of Bierwurst sausages and a pint of cold Bier.:-)
Your travel/cook urban description of Munich is awesome, man. I wish I could visit that city, hell, maybe move there.
Thanks buddy for a very interesting read.
Julia, your answer to boohoo
“Deception is what I call it.”…
From your lips to God’s ear. Who knows, maybe there is one!
Great weekend everyone.
@Chris Keam
While I agree with you that the biggest contributor to Berts downfall was competition, that area has become quite dense with not just new condos, but also the various heritage conversions in the City Hall area a couple blocks away.
Sadly, I found Berts just wasn’t that good compared to the competition. If you’re going to be a diner, you need to play that up, like the new Lucy’s down the street. Berts just seemed tired and also too big a space for how many people it attracted.
I find it hard to believe that parking meters played a part. If you’re going to drive to a restaurant you can probably afford $2 for parking. As you pointed out there are no dedicated bike lanes, though I would not be surprised to hear that Vision had Main in mind for one. After the election Gregor was careful to say they didn’t plan any more dedicated DOWNTOWN bike lanes.
Glissy, I just finished reading your comment over a nice cup of coffee. Wow! Despite being so cold outside and kinda gloomy, your words warmed me a great deal.
)life goes on.
I hope the City bureaucrats, especially the overpaid egomaniacs at the top, will get the chance to read this little piece of lesson in urbanism. With your way with words you could probably fill the SFU’s auditorium, with stories like this… that of course, if the mouthpieces like Toderian, or Sadhu would take a step back from their nonsense chatter on the same subject, yeah right, LOL!
Bert’s demise has many culprits, but IMO the most damaging one is the property tax jack up and the increase in rent, the fact that the brainwashed generation is making their way onto Main St. is not helping either. Not far away at “Star-big-bucks” the same crowd that would not spend $3.99 for breakfast would liberally pay $4.89 for a… Tallchaisoylatecrapuccino.
Just ask your kid how they are spending their allowance. Sad really.
Have to go, babies to deliver(this business is always in demand
Sadly, I found Berts just wasn’t that good compared to the competition. If you’re going to be a diner, you need to play that up, like the new Lucy’s down the street. Berts just seemed tired and also too big a space for how many people it attracted.
Food is obviously an area of personal preference but my two meals at Lucy’s were ‘meh’, but I’ve never been disappointed with Bert’s. In fact I ordered my ‘usual’ at both places (Monte Cristo) and Lucy’s was a pale imitation of the Bert’s version IMO. I doubt many of the new and trendy restaurants along Main will still be there in a few decades, seems it’s not the norm anymore.
No it is not normal. Have Toyota check it.