There’s nothing wrong with downtown, except the parking
KAMLOOPS — “The downtown core in Kamloops is going to hell in a handbasket. All the businesses are moving out and nobody wants to shop there anymore.”
That’s what you’d think, the way some people have been talking the past week or so. A bakery moves to a different part of town and a restaurant lays off some staff and, woe is me, the downtown is dying.
Well, we’ve gone through this news cycle many times before. I don’t have enough fingers on both hands to count the number of times the downtown was supposedly in dire straits and, sure, it’s had its problems from time to time.
Panhandlers, street prostitution, parking or empty storefronts — every once in a while, something will pop up and dominate the headlines until we move onto something else.