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Old City excluded from decisions

To the Editor,

Re: Downtown disagreements, Jan. 25.

It’s time to clarify what’s going on here. The Old City Quarter Association invented the Old City Quarter name and administered the Business Improvement Area funds for BIA2 from 1993 right up until 2010 when the Downtown Nanaimo Business Improvement Association was formed. Over the past 17 years the Old City Quarter developed into a successful and desirable area, as a direct result of the efforts and hard work of the OCQA and its members.

During that time we witnessed the problems that plagued the downtown core but we kept our heads down and got on with the job of improving the Old City Quarter. We kept quiet even as we were branded as unco-operative while all we wanted to do was to control our own destiny and avoid the ongoing disputes in BIA1’s downtown core. The success of our effort speaks for itself.

Now, after 17 years and having brought the Old City Quarter to this point, the OCQA is being told that the DNBIA will now take over and administer the funds generated in BIA2.

The OCQA board and its members and volunteers are ready and willing to continue administering the BIA funds and working to strengthen our area of the downtown. We have stated clearly from the outset that it is the BIA funds, not the city’s matching funds, that we are interested in.

However, the DNBIA is now excluding the OCQA from any part of the decision-making process. Instead, the Old City Quarter’s future and fate is to be decided by a 10-person board with two reps from our BIA2 with no input from the OCQA. That, in a nutshell, is what the problem is all about.

Eric McLean,

president

Old City Quarter Association