Secondhand is not sleight of hand, or a scam, says Charlene Croft.
“I’ve always bought, sold and traded stuff to supplement income,” offers the co-owner and operator of Book of Joe, a vendor at Harbourview Weekend Market (in the former Value Village location on Canal Street, Dartmouth). Book of Joe sells secondhand books, vinyl records, movies, art, retro dolls and toys and kitsch, including retro-fitted items such as fridge magnets fashioned from pages of damaged books. Croft and her colleagues aim to further “diversify” their stock to include, for example, classic videogames.
Now, as she researches the possibility of opening a Book of Joe storefront to be located in downtown Dartmouth, Croft has discovered two bylaws whose thrusts have taken her aback.
“If you engage in the buying and selling of anything, including antiques, you are required to have a licence,” says Croft, referring to bylaw J-101, which pertains to “the licensing of junk dealers, secondhand dealers [sic] and pawnbrokers.”
The bylaw has no equivalent in Halifax, Bedford or Sackville, she points out. The licence costs $400 and it must be renewed every year. But Croft is offended by the lumping-in of the three businesses, particularly the association of secondhand goods as junk. Also, the licence comes with other heavy-handed provisions.
For example, Section 8(1), states: “Every junk dealer, secondhand dealer and pawnbroker shall file records, in the form attached hereto as Schedule “A”, with the Chief of Police of the City.” Schedule “A” is appended to the bylaw. It requires the type and description of each item, the date and time received, the name, height, weight, address and the “nationality” of the person who was selling it and must be filed weekly.
Croft plans to apply for a licence. “We’ve connected with a lot of people in the neighbourhood,” she says, adding, if they opened a store, “the community would support us.”
Croft is also confounded by the Land Use Bylaw for Downtown Dartmouth. Firstly, it defines a “secondhand shop” as “a building or part of a building in which used goods, merchandise, substances, articles or things are offered or kept for sale. This is deemed to exclude used bookstores, antique stores, sports-card shops, used-clothing stores, and the sale of used bicycles as an accessory to a new bicycle shop or repair shop.”
“Sports cards and not music? That seems weird to me,” says Croft, pointing out that objects need be 80 years or older to be called antiques. Secondly, permitted commercial uses of space in the “Downtown Business District Zone” are outlined as follows: “Any retail, business, office, entertainment or service use excluding automotive service and repair outlets, vehicle sales, outdoor display courts…and drive-through establishments, cabarets, adult entertainment, pawn shops, secondhand shops…and any obnoxious use.”
If you reconcile the definition of a “secondhand shop” and the permitted commercial uses, you realize Book of Joe, as a potential secondhand shop in downtown Dartmouth could sell used books and clothes, but not music, movies, toys or kitsch. Similarly spirited and established stores exist elsewhere in the HRM. What’s more, Croft says, they are sustainable businesses that “reflect the human scale of development,” a stated goal of Dartmouth’s Land Use bylaw. District 5 councillor Gloria McCluskey was unavailable for comment, having returned from hospital after knee surgery. Croft contacted her last month, but the councillor only offered to send her copies of the bylaw, she says. Tim Olive, executive director of the Downtown Dartmouth Business Commission, didn’t respond to requests for comment.
www.halifax.ca/legislation/bylaws/dartmouth/d_j-101.html
www.halifax.ca/planning/documents/downtowndartmouth_lub.pdf
This article appears in Sep 16-22, 2010.
Nothing in HRM (Horribly Run Municipality) surprises me any more.
Oh, Hipster Angst!
“Why doesn’t the world revolve around me and my crafts?”
The best kind.
“Oh, Hipster Angst!
“Why doesn’t the world revolve around me and my crafts?””
I think you’ve got it the wrong way ’round. Charlene’s “angst”, if any, is more of a “Why is the world (council) involved in my crafts etc. in the first place?”
Useless red tape is quite common place here, it seems. Fight the good fight prospective retailers!
I believe Mr Olive is too busy trying to close down the bars on lower Portland street. He hasn’t got time to be helping business people…that gets in the way of screwing them over !
All these by- laws help facilitate monopolies.
Capitalism within the HRM as we know is dead.
When it comes to Sobeys and Irving developments new by-laws are implemented and improved to cater to their needs.
Small businesses are left to lick up the leftovers and battle for not in front of a bought and paid for group of councilman .
I find it ridiculous that there is a bylaw on the books that will dictate the kinds of merchandise that Charlene Croft can sell in her store, assuming she finds a spot (shouldn’t be difficult with the vacancy rate in downtown Dartmouth) and is willing to fork over $400 annually for the privilege of operating a business that deals in used goods.
The requirement that this type of business should keep meticulous records of the source of some of these second-hand goods, like a pawnshop, might appear at first glance to make sense, until one realizes that Charlene won’t be in the pawnshop business, anymore than the Salvation Army or Value Village are.
Further to that point, I find that record keeping requirement silly, in view of the fact that the police obviously spend very little time (like none) trying to track down stolen goods at pawn shops. On two separate occasions I’ve known theft victims who, after filing detailed reports with the HRM police and being informed that there was very little chance of recovery of their stolen goods, visited a few Dartmouth area pawn shops and found their stolen items displayed for sale. The ‘record keeping system’ did not lead to an arrest in either case.
I understand that Ms. Croft hasn’t received much help from the Downtown Dartmouth Business Commission and I think I know why – they’d prefer to see something more upscale in the area than a shop that sells second-hand goods. I don’t think the good folks at the DDBC really have any idea of what goes into making a vibrant urban neighbourhood. While they save their energy for an upscale clothing boutique or another Starbuck’s franchise, Dartmouth store fronts remain vacant. I will be less sympathetic the next time the Downtown Dartmouth Business Commission complains about commerce being hindered by City Hall.
Good luck to Charlene Croft.