A Vancouver bike repair shop has permanently closed but not before owners expressed their frustration once and for all.
In a letter posted to Instagram and on the door of their now-shuttered business on Victoria Drive, Central Valley Flat Fix thanked the community for its support over the last two years but says its goal was to offer affordable bike service to the community while paying staff a living wage which "is no longer possible in Vancouver due to runaway housing costs."
"We give up," reads the post.
'Without workers, Vancouver doesn’t work'
Flat Fix reportedly started as a team of five full-time professional technicians but has since dwindled down to one person, "with no help in sight" which they say "is not sustainable."
They claim that the cost of housing is pricing Vancouver workers out of the city.
"Without housing for workers, there are no workers. Without workers, Vancouver doesn’t work," says the post.
According to the letter, Flat Fix isn't necessarily advocating for more condos but owners say that over the years they have made pleas to politicians to implement stronger protections for housing and laws against money laundering, unproductive real estate speculation, empty homes/storefronts, and illegal short-term rentals.
'Vancouver's housing crisis has gone from bad, to worse, to untenable'
"Despite calls from all kinds of people from all walks of life including small and (big) business owners, no effective action has been taken by any politician, from any party, at any level," claims the letter. "Vancouver's housing crisis has gone from bad, to worse, to untenable. Meanwhile, our federal housing minister, and many other politicians, run lucrative side hustles as landlording specu-vestors (look it up)."
"We wish we could end on a positive note, and we do feel gratitude," it concludes, "But we are also sad, and mad. And if Vancouver is your home and you care about the city, you should be sad and mad too."
Along with the letter, the Instagram post includes a list of other bike shops in the Vancouver area and asks people to treat them with loyalty and to understand that customer service is a hard job these days because the public is prone to "acting scared and scary."
They also reportedly have a sister shop called Sidesaddle on Commercial Drive that will be remaining open.
Flat Fix's website is now a landing page that announces the permanent closure and encourages people to "keep rolling along."
V.I.A. reached out to Flat Fix for further comment but did not receive a response.
