Small Business and the City

Rafael Gomez is an associate professor of Employment Relations at Woodsworth College and the Centre for Industrial Relations and Human Resources at the University of Toronto. Andre Isakov is currently the Manager of Park Planning and Design with the City of Coquitlam, British Columbia. Previously, he was the Community and Economic Development Officer for the Village of Harrison Hot Springs and the Executive Director of Business Improvement Areas of British Columbia (BIABC). Matt Semansky is an award-winning journalist based in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. His work has appeared in publications such as This Magazine, the National Post, The Halifax Chronicle Herald, The Coast, and Marketing.

Foreword, by Michael Thompson

Acknowledgments




Introduction: Small Business and City Life

Part I: The View from Main Street




The BIA Movement: Setting the Stage for Main Street Revitalization
The View from Main Street Halifax: The Challenge of Being the Big Fish in a Small Pond
The View from Main Street Vancouver: A City Region with an Emerging Sense of Place
The View from Main Street Toronto: The Bottom-Up, Top-Down Conundrum

Part II: Unlocking the Potential of Small-Scale Enterprise




The “Art and Science” of Small Business Survival: Lessons in BIA Practice
Of People, Profits, and Place: Lessons in Local Economic Development
Small Business and the Main Street Agenda: Lessons in Public Policy
Recommendations for Making Small-Scale Enterprise a Transformative Force
Conclusion: Cities, Small Business, and Distributed Decision Making

Afterword: Or … Why Staying Small, Local, and Independent Matters to City Life


About the Authors

Notes

References

Index