Escoba Bistro is Closing Down

[polak]

The next election is going to be a blood bath.

I really hope the Alberta Party steps up with a good candidate base.

[Sliver]

Originally Posted by TheAlpineOracle

I don't see them laying teacher and city employees off, but I can certainly see them being given salary roll backs like everyone else has taken. I can see this being a big election issue with the Wildrose/PCs attacking the NDP for protecting their union base while all other Albertans have been bearing the brunt of the sacrifices. My wife works for the government, and if the price of oil remains low I can see the next election results being very unfriendly towards her income.

Is there any history of public employees in Alberta losing a single benefit or pay cut ever?

I'm pretty sure your wife doesn't have to worry about her job or her compensation.

[Resolute 14]

Originally Posted by CliffFletcher

I also find it funny how people here are criticizing a small business owner for complaining about his business failing. Why is that less sympathetic than someone who gets laid off?

Because people who put up their own money to employ others and offer a service are just evil leeches profiting off the back of the downtrodden masses, obviously.

[Resolute 14]

Originally Posted by polak

The next election is going to be a blood bath.

I really hope the Alberta Party steps up with a good candidate base.

Or the PCs come up with a good leader and a good plan.

[cracher]

Terrible news with Escoba. Been a monthly patron for years. I will miss their stuffed pimentos (been off menu for a bit now), crab cakes, and seafood paella. One of the classy places where either the chef or the owner will come ask how everything is (and they are super responsive if anything is not right). It is a true loss to the Calgary scene if Mr. Hamelin ditches the restaraunt industry.

[EldrickOnIce]

Originally Posted by Sliver

Is there any history of public employees in Alberta losing a single benefit or pay cut ever?

I'm pretty sure your wife doesn't have to worry about her job or her compensation.

Ralph Klein

[TheAlpineOracle]

Originally Posted by Sliver

Is there any history of public employees in Alberta losing a single benefit or pay cut ever?

I'm pretty sure your wife doesn't have to worry about her job or her compensation.

Not worried about her job, but i'm predicting there will be a salary realignment within the Government when the NDP are gone in 3 years. I fully expect the Wildrose/PCs to base some of their election platform on that.

Ralph Klein did it, and it's part of the reason our public sector costs are so high and out of whack today.

[Zarley]

Originally Posted by TheAlpineOracle

Not worried about her job, but i'm predicting there will be a salary realignment within the Government when the NDP are gone in 3 years. I fully expect the Wildrose/PCs to base some of their election platform on that.

Ralph Klein did it, and it's part of the reason our public sector costs are so high and out of whack today.

Can you explain the bolded portion?

[Locke]

Originally Posted by Zarley

It's really an unfortunate situation. Small businesses are being squeezed from all sides right now and it's disheartening to see the lack of empathy that some posters have for this. The property tax increase this year has been quite substantial for commercial asset classes.

Here's another Herald article on the situation:

http://calgaryherald.com/news/local-...ary-businesses

Those lazy ne'erdowells need to stop complaining and get back to work. They are WAY off base. Taxes are never the problem its the price of oil and only the price of oil.

[jammies]

Originally Posted by OMG!WTF!

Who's narrative is that? Not mine.

This narrative, which I didn't mean to imply was yours - I should have been more clear:

Originally Posted by pylon

Thanks NDP!

Originally Posted by stampsx2

The trickle down effect is making it's way down.

Originally Posted by MelBridgeman

So the 16 year old dishwasher is now making 15 bucks an hour - forced by the government

All from the first page - this is already in some people's minds as confirmation that the NDP and City Hall are grinding down the little guy. Six months from now it'll be a fondly remembered talking point, "Hey, remember that guy Notley forced out on the street 'cause she only likes hippy granola vegan organically sourced street food? **** you NDP!" And a decade from now, it'll be the "Harvest of the Restauranteurs", with salad dressing running in the gutters, and "proof" of how Nenshi ruined the city.

Originally Posted by OMG!WTF!

I just said any situation where your taxes go up 100%-300% is probably a government policy that is bad for business and should be changed. Especially when the city has admitted they erred. I'm not exactly sure how anyone benefits from that.

The intent of changing the system wasn't to lay punitive taxes on certain businesses, it was a side effect of trying to make the system better in general - more efficient and fair. You could equally argue Escoba had the benefit of years of being undertaxed comparative to the actual worth of the property.

Sometimes change is going to be bad for some but better overall, It certainly sucks if you're on the bad side of change, and I actually do feel for this guy a bit, I just find the same old people who use the situation to complain with the same old BS anti-government crap, with no context and ridiculously overblown hyperbole vexing and sadly amusing.

Originally Posted by OMG!WTF!

I'd love that explained. Oh and I also said it's idiotic to suggest restaurants fail all the time so every failed restaurant is nothing more than status quo.

I think the point is more that restaurants failing when the economy tanks is especially unexceptional, so conspiracy theories about bike lanes have a pretty strong burden of proof to be convincing. That's all.

Originally Posted by OMG!WTF!

I'm more than willing to wait for minimum wage to increase business profitability and for bike lanes to create more customer based business though for sure. Don't pin the anti-socialism badge on me just yet.

Again, I didn't mean to lump you in with the CP Tea Party mouth-foamers, although I'm sure even now I'm being lumped in with Comrade Rube in their minds.

[TheAlpineOracle]

Originally Posted by Zarley

Can you explain the bolded portion?

Mostly education and health care. With Ralph's attack on health care and education people left the profession and others refrained from entering them. So when things turned around and the boom started again they were completely understaffed even to begin with. This caused an even greater need for people to be enticed to work here, and that caused salaries to balloon in both those fields at an even greater rate, and we are left with what we have today. Education and Healthcare costs that are out of whack with the rest of the country. They are always going to be a little different with the boom and bust cycle, but Ralph's cuts further exasperated that.

[Sliver]

Originally Posted by EldrickOnIce

Ralph Klein

Look at that, a 5% wage rollback for provincial employees in 1993. TIL.

[Raekwon]

Originally Posted by Resolute 14

Or the PCs come up with a good leader and a good plan.

I don't think the PC's will need a good leader or plan, The name PC alone will win the next election and that is kind of scary.

[OMG!WTF!]

Originally Posted by jammies

The intent of changing the system wasn't to lay punitive taxes on certain businesses, it was a side effect of trying to make the system better in general - more efficient and fair. You could equally argue Escoba had the benefit of years of being undertaxed comparative to the actual worth of the property.

Sometimes change is going to be bad for some but better overall, It certainly sucks if you're on the bad side of change, and I actually do feel for this guy a bit, I just find the same old people who use the situation to complain with the same old BS anti-government crap, with no context and ridiculously overblown hyperbole vexing and sadly amusing.

I'm not an expert on this but I think you're totally wrong. Escoba was not under taxed for years. It was taxed the same as comparable restaurants. The problem is that the price of vacant downtown land is extraordinarily high because it's best and highest use warrants that pricing. People who bought vacant downtown land did so to develop it and generate massive rents to make the investment worthwhile. They did not buy it to hold onto for 18 years while paying upwards of a million a year in taxes.

So when you have an existing land owner operating well below highest and best use, it seems unfair to make that business pay as if it were in the same boat as high rise commercial use. Unless your goal is to get rid of independent business, this is a bad idea. It seems like a great way to create a bunch of worthless vacant lots. You seem to think he's complaining about typical property tax increases. He's not. A %100 increase is punitive.

The proof is that the city itself admitted it was wrong and reverted to the lower tax rates in both cases....Escoba and Diversified.

I think the assessment process was likely botched. I'm sure there have been only a few sales in the area over the past decade. That makes it harder to determine a true fair value in the first place.

One more thing regarding parking....businesses in strip malls pay extra for parking in front of their business. They put signs up. Those spaces essentially belong to the business. They absolutely have a value to the business. Escoba didn't have assigned parking in front of it's building but those spots would still have value to that business. Even one or two tables a day makes a difference.

[edslunch]

My wife was there last week and commented to me that they must be hurting for business given the few patrons and extent of discounts they were giving. I would guess a drop in business might be the biggest factor though rising costs would no doubt make it worse

[Resolute 14]

Originally Posted by Raekwon

I don't think the PC's will need a good leader or plan, The name PC alone will win the next election and that is kind of scary.

If that happens, it really does so because Jean and Notley drive the Wildrose and NDP names into the ground.

The PC name keeps the party in the hunt. A good leader would put them over the top.

[Slava]

Originally Posted by Sliver

I'm a small-business owner in Calgary so I'm going to chime in here.

The relationship you have with your business is unique. It's an inanimate object, but it also kind of has a life of its own. It's not like your child or anything - I don't love my business - but I feel kind of paternal toward it. It's a different relationship than one you'd have with a company at which you're employed. If it's not doing well, I feel completely responsible and like I'm failing it.

I feel really bad for this dude. I'm sure it was series of consecutive bad months with expenses outweighing income. Alternating feelings of optimism and dread. Sleepless nights. Feeling like a failure. The blame game. Feeling mad. Having a great week and feeling hopeful. Then two bad weeks. Etc. He can't just walk away and start a new job. Winding down a business is a job unto itself. Basically, it's rotten.

The problem for Escoba Bistro, however, is this:


Escalating costs are just a fact of owning a business, but losing 45% of your business would be lethal for most small businesses. And that needs to be blamed on the economy and not anything else.

COSTS IN BUSINESS ONLY GO UP. If revenue doesn't grow, you're toast. He's going to basically have his same fixed costs from when he was bringing in 45% more revenue. I doubt he was running huge enough margins to cover a 45% drop in revenue, so these other changes are irrelevant. I know if you took away 45% of my revenue I'd be out of business in a matter of months.

The only thing you can count on in business - or life, for that matter - is change. I've been at my racket for over 10 years. In that time my rent has doubled. Taxes have gone up. I have to jump through more hoops and red tape with the City for a couple of different permits I need. I buy my raw materials in US dollars and they've all gone up. The economy is crap and I can't raise my prices. These are just realities. My margins are down. Most businesses in Calgary are running lower margins.

If you had thin margins to begin with, you will not survive. That doesn't mean our municipal government doesn't have a city to run still. That doesn't mean your landlord doesn't still need to be in the black. That doesn't mean we shouldn't build bike lanes.

The problem here is a 45% loss in business. I believe that alone - independent of all other factors - would have finished him off.

I entirely agree with you and obviously the 45% drop in revenue is the main issue. That said, increased taxes on top of the economic reality means that some business who could've otherwise weathered the storm won't be able to. That's the concern I have with the policies of the governments of the day. Small business owners are dealing with enough at this point just trying to keep the wolf away from the door, but then you throw in these costs on top and its not possible.

[heep223]

Raising taxes during a recession is a disaster.

The issue isn't that the government is stabilizing/stimulating the economy using fiscal measures during said recession, ie. by spending and growing. This is a good strategy. But in order to make this type of policy work, the government should have been generating savings and paying off debt during the boom years, so that they have room to borrow and stimulate during the bust years. So that they wouldn't have to raise taxes during the recession. The PCs were too complacent and screwed up to have the long term vision and clarity on this.

Furthermore, after fiscal stimulus during the bust years, gov't then needs to lower spending and shrink during the boom years in order to fight growing inflation and costs. This will never happen due to unions, populism and entitlement from the NDP crew.

What we need is a socially progressive, fiscally conservative party with a long term vision to manage the province through multiple stages of the boom/bust cycle. Is this so much to ask?

[peter12]

I think that a principled social conservative party wold also stand a really good chance

[Locke]

Originally Posted by Slava

I entirely agree with you and obviously the 45% drop in revenue is the main issue. That said, increased taxes on top of the economic reality means that some business who could've otherwise weathered the storm won't be able to. That's the concern I have with the policies of the governments of the day. Small business owners are dealing with enough at this point just trying to keep the wolf away from the door, but then you throw in these costs on top and its not possible.

And thats exactly it. Businesses have to deal with rising costs of doing business, thats fine, thats part of the deal, but at the moment the day-to-day costs and the fixed overhead costs are skyrocketing while the money isnt coming through the door and this is a systemic problem. These are issues that are externally applied.

The general economic downturn shoulders the Lion's share of the blame, theres no argument there but theres still plenty more to go around and its disingenuous to completely discount that.

For instance, Escoba has weathered two prior downturns of similar severity to this one, what makes this one special? Are there perhaps additional contributing factors that made this particular downturn insurmountable? Maybe a couple of unprecedented shifts in policies that made something bad into something much worse? Maybe?