Economic growth is great – it means jobs and prosperity. But sometimes, it has side effects, including knocking down beloved local institutions.
The latest business to get walloped with this is Aldergrove’s own Twilight Drive-In, the last drive-in movie theatre in the Lower Mainland, and one of only three remaining in B.C.
There are plenty of reasons for the decline of drive-ins over the last 70 years, but one of them is the lack of cheap land. The Twilight is seeing a big property tax increase, because when it moved to industrial land in Aldergrove, that land was cheap. But now, industrial land is scarce, and it’s going for big bucks, and that’s driving up land values.
Between a petition and the intervention of Langley Township’s politicians, it looks like something may be done to ease the tax burden.
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Hopefully, the owners will keep it going, or pass it along to someone invested in the idea of the drive-in.
A community is more than economic growth and jobs and housing.
It’s about places where people can get together and actually spend time doing communal activities. These are often dubbed “third places,” as in, places that are neither work nor home.
A lot of those places are supplied by our local governments – pools and rec centres, public ice rinks, libraries, playing fields ranging from soccer fields down to pickleball courts.
But many of them are small- and medium-size businesses. From used book stores to coffee shops, from big movie theatres to little performing arts centres, small entrepreneurs with a dream and a storefront also provide a lot of the places we need, the places we missed out on spending time during the worst of the pandemic years.
A drive-in is a pretty big, unique third place. Here’s hoping Langley can keep it open.
– M.C.