Editor:
The recent closure of The Giraffe Restaurant (It’s been a great run, Dec. 1) was the latest in a long line of sad events, not just for the businesses along Marine Drive but for all of us living on the Peninsula.
Slowly but surely, the beachfront is dying.
I remember the days of going down to “the strip,” having dinner and then joining the happy throng strolling the promenade. And it wasn’t just in the summer, but for a good deal of what is now called the off-season.
Alas, now except for a few short months of good weather, it’s a pretty quiet place down there.
The problem isn’t just the pay parking, it’s also the increased competition from other restaurants. There are now so many places to spend your dining dollar and, it must be pointed out, virtually all of them have free parking, so it’s a double whammy. Unless some as-yet-unimagined new approach is developed, we’ll lose the one thing that set our little city by the sea apart from every other municipality in the Lower Mainland.
But maybe it’s a done deal. Maybe the cards are so stacked against restaurants that it’s over. But it seems to me we’re giving up without much of a fight.
Too bad though – it sure was fun while it lasted.
Don Comber, Surrey