COLUMN: Efforts to revitalize downtown seem to have paid off

It was often said about 20 years ago that you could fire a cannon up the middle of Commercial Street after 5 p.m. and you wouldn’t hit a single person.
Downtown Nanaimo was going through a bit of a crisis back then as people and businesses began gravitating towards the city’s other, newer centres in the northern parts of the municipality, including the Woodgrove and Country Club areas, leaving the downtown core looking pretty empty.
A number of businesses decided to stay put and ride