SHIM FAMILY FEELS THE LOVE FROM CALGARIANS
Icy bureaucracy at Calgary City Hall comes into full view
The outpouring of care and concern for the hard-working Shim family is proof positive that the warmth of the people of this city is not reflected by the icy bureaucracy at Calgary City Hall.
Many hundreds of emails flooded my inbox with countless people seeking some way to help John (Jukyung) and Wendy (Heesin) Shim, the franchisees of a Dairy Queen that burned down on Oct. 8, 2019.
After reading about the family's plight in my Postmedia column, Jonathan Denis, a former attorney general and justice minister for Alberta, has offered his legal expertise for free to the hard-working Korean immigrant family who lost everything when their restaurant on Centre Street, just two blocks north of 16th Avenue, burned to the ground following an electrical fire some 18 months ago.
Robin Strathdee, along with her friend Barbara Surplus, was so upset after reading about what's happened to the Shims that they set about setting up a Gofundme page for the family, whom they do not know, and who initially didn't want to accept the help, saying there are other people who are more in need than they are.
“The family is going into debt and selling their possessions to live and it's just shameful how the city has treated them so we just knew we had to do something,” said Strathdee.
The Shims' son, John, 30, broke down in tears several times Thursday as he spoke to Calgary's subdivision and development appeal board in a virtual meeting as he recounted how his normally cheerful parents have been crushed first by the loss of their restaurant and then by the city's refusal to approve a new Dairy Queen to be built on the site where it's stood for more than 50 years.
John cried again on Friday.
“I'm very emotional hearing about this incredible support,” said the chemical engineer who lives in Toronto.
“My parents are so grateful for this kindness, it's really lifted their spirits.”
Even the Calgary Chamber of Commerce weighed in.
“Calgary's entrepreneurial spirit is one of the greatest prides of our City, and we call on City Council to support the resiliency and grit of our Calgary business community — including by supporting entrepreneurs such as the Shim family,” Murray Sigler, interim CEO of the chamber, wrote on Twitter Friday.
In a comment retweeting the Postmedia column about the Shim's ordeal, Ward 1 Coun. Ward Sutherland wrote: “This is so wrong on so many levels. I hope they win their appeal.”
Ward 7 Coun. Druh Farrell “strongly” recommended that the city's planning and development committee refuse the application to rebuild the restaurant.
Had Don Gordon, the 88-yearold owner of the property, applied to rebuild the exact same building on the site, the application would have been rubber-stamped. Not surprisingly, however, the architecture and design have changed over 50 years. The new design is more pleasing to the eye and is structured for greater worker efficiency.
The slight changes provided Farrell and city planners with an opportunity to foil the development that doesn't meet with their vision of Calgary.
In her objection to the application, Farrell argued that the DQ restaurant would be just
300 metres from a Green Line LRT stop. “There is a significant potential for a mixed-use, high-density development at this location, either with this site alone or combined with the adjacent parcel that is prime for redevelopment.”
But Sheila Gordon, the daughter-in-law of the land's owner who once helped to run the franchise, says she heading into retirement and none of them have the money, skills or appetite for risk that building a high-density development would incur.
“We just want to rebuild the DQ,” she told the appeal board.
Would she be amenable to building the restaurant without a drive-thru? She said that would “be a death sentence for a fastfood restaurant.”
Jeromy Farkas, Ward 11 councillor and mayoral candidate, says the story of the Shim family hit close to home because he got his start as a kid “working at the Forest Lawn DQ, making Blizzards and dipping cones back when I was 13 or 14.”
On Friday night he launched an online petition urging city council to find a way to help the Shim and Gordon families see their development get built.
Farkas says he was “furious” over the statement put out by the city's administration.
“We have heard recent concerns circulating about the development permit for a Dairy Queen at 1906 Centre Street
NE,” wrote administration. “We empathize with the owner and franchisee in navigating a difficult situation in trying to rebuild this business after this tragedy,” said the statement, which was released on Twitter.
“In circumstances such as this, applicants have the ability to build a like-for-like structure to replace the original building. This is an option for any business owner in this situation.
“However, the applicant proposed changes to the previous structure and site plan which included a different configuration for the drive-thru and a modest expansion of the building. This then triggered the project to be evaluated against current bylaws and policies,” said the community planning department statement.
“Part of the city's job should be to help these folks get back on their feet rather than keep them down,” said Farkas. “It's a terrible injustice what's happened to them.”
Thousands of Calgarians are outraged at the callousness of a city administration and a councillor who forget that these businesses are run by people who suffer when city hall stops them from making a living.
There's so much love and warmth in this city, but it's met with so much coldness inside the big blue glass building downtown. Here's hoping this pressure helps melt that ice.