For the past while, the Media has picked up the story of some businesses on Islington Avenue who lost parking for a beautification project that the street desperately needed. 
What was unfortunate was that a story that could have told of the plight of the business community in the Emery Village area, the efforts of local leadership to clean up the area and create more foot traffic, and the balance that needs to be struck in the decision making to achieve this, simply turned political and focused on Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti because he helped the BIA to be created, and spoke about the Islington parking situation in 2008.
Mammoliti pushed for the beautification of areas along Islington Avenue in areas where it could be done simply because this village needs it. That, the Voice wholeheartedly agrees with. From selling your home, to attracting customers to your retail enterprise, curb appeal simply matters.
And facts are, in an urban area, if you are going to make drastic changes to try and improve the physical landscape, some are going to get the short end of the stick. This area is urban, it is not rural. It contains more than 2,000 businesses, the biggest economic district in Toronto.
It is a juggling match the likes of which many could not handle, and in this productions opinion, one of the reasons leadership in a community like this can become polarizing. Because decisions need to be made for the whole. For the best!
And sometimes, they may hurt a few.
Sure, we feel for the businesses that lost their parking. Store front parking is a joy to have. But it isn’t the sole reason a business is going to suffer. And beautifying the landscape around the businesses, is only going to aid the bigger group.
So a larger plaza across the street negotiated a deal to keep their parking, and it’s because they joined the BIA previously, as thousands of businesses have done?
Or perhaps it was because they had an organization like the BIA advocating for them and providing advice on how to negotiate with the public leadership?
So Mammoliti had family members who sold out of businesses in 2004, four years before he was at a community meeting first discussing the parking situation?
Is that a conflict? No.
Does that seem more circumstantial than direct evidence of wrong doing?
Heck yeah.
What is clear is that the goal of Mammoliti, and all of the members of the BIA board is to have the businesses help themselves. To have an organized group, making difficult but wholesome decisions that serve the entire community, and advocate what is best for the entire catchment area.
Now, the loss of a few parking spaces in front of one of dozens of grey, dreary plazas for some grass and trees. Something shoppers want to be around while they walk and enjoy their day, that’s being painted as a bad decision?
As shady?
As a vendetta against local businesses?
No, that doesn’t seem like the story is straight.
Sean Delaney,
Publisher, Emery Village Voice