To the Editor,
Why are taxpayers footing the bill for business?
The Downtown Nanaimo Business Improvement Association has spent $12,000 to build a seating area for a downtown restaurant and taken away premium public parking spaces. I wonder if the restaurant is paying money for a lease on this public property and if it is paying taxes on it like I do on my property I use. Looking up and down the street I also wonder if other restaurants using the taxpayer-paid-for-and-maintained sidewalks are paying a fee. or is it the rest of us paying taxes so they can enhance their bottom line?
If the BIA wants to make Shangri-La areas downtown, it should start with that vacant concrete slab called Diana Krall Plaza.
George OliverNanaimo
