From Business in Vancouver:
Owner of Railway Club not optimistic about future of other venues
Steve Silman closed the Railway March 29 after he couldn’t find a buyer for the business or keep up with the mounting costs to operate the popular club at Dunsmuir and Seymour, which served as a live music venue that attracted the likes of the Tragically Hip, Barenaked Ladies and k.d. lang.
“It’s hard to pin down the effect but there will certainly be one, and not in a good way,” he said in an email to the Courier, when asked what the closing of his club does to the cultural fabric of the city. “I think as the cost of doing business and living in Vancouver continues to rise, we will see the trend of more closures and fewer small businesses continue. I also think we’ll see even more and larger new developments as owners look for a way to cover the cost of the land [that] buildings in the city are sitting on.”
.
The Railway Club on its 80th Anniversary
I was at the Imperial on Main Street for the Quantic Soul Orchestra concert on Saturday night and it was packed with young people and the creative set. I agree that the loss of venues like the Railway is a problem but the clubs downtown location surrounded by office towers may have something to do with it. The younger generation is all about the Eastside and the venues there.