Student protest group gathers signatures to fight decision
Mike Sholars
Editor-in-Chief
@Sholarsenal
With Blueberry Hill set to close down at the end of April, students across campus are uniting to show their support for the popular York Lanes restaurant, but they are running out of time.
The restaurant was almost closed last summer when the York University Development Corporation (YUDC) chose to not renew its lease. A mixture of student outrage and legal action enacted by Alex and George Kapassouris, brothers and co-owners of Blueberry Hill, earned the eatery some extra time.
In a joint statement from the brothers and YUDC, it was determined that Blueberry Hill would be allowed to operate for another school year with its lease ending April 30, 2012. The agreement also said that YUDC had no obligation to open new negotiations on the matter.
Unless YUDC—the organization that oversees all business in York Lanes—had a serious change of heart, little could be done to keep Blueberry alive throughout the summer.
However, a renewed student-led campaign is trying to bring about that change of heart; the “Save Blueberry Hill” movement from last summer has returned with a vengeance.
Every student college on campus (with the exception of Calumet and Bethune) and the YFS have united in support of the restaurant. The group is using its Facebook page and face-to-face tabling in Vari Hall to obtain signatures for a petition to be presented to the YUDC and York president Mamdouh Shoukri.
The new petition has over 600 signatures in under a week.
Michael Cannon, president of McLaughlin College and a key member of the movement, is vocal about what the loss of Blueberry Hill would mean for the campus as a whole.
“We need community on this campus, and we want Blueberry Hill,” says Cannon. “It couldn’t
be more clear what the students want. We had over 3,000 signatures over the summer, plus the 600 since last week. It’s obvious that students want this place to stay.”
Bud Purves, president of the YUDC, says that his organization has been canvassing students in York Lanes and conducting focus groups with the specific goal of finding out what students want from the space going forward.
He says the results from these activities will be released within the next couple of months.
“York Lanes is getting to the point where it needs revitalization; it looks tired,” says Purves. He lists new tiling, air conditioning, paint, and outside bricks as key improvements he wants to bring to the campus mall.
Purves says that the main objective of the YUDC is to “protect students in terms of a food safety operation, as well as make York Lanes a more pleasant place.”
When asked about the petition, Purves referenced the agreement made last summer.
“We entered into an arrangement with Blueberry Hill where they decided to leave York Lanes, so we’ll be following up with some of the students organizing the petition in order to understand the students better,” he says.
However, Alex Kapassouris disagrees with Purves’ statement about Blueberry Hill.
“We have not chosen to leave. We made an agreement to leave, because staying in court is expensive,” he says. “We don’t have unlimited resources.”
He says that he is open to changing the location of Blueberry Hill if it meant being able to stay on campus.
“We’re looking for a new location, but not actively,” he says. “We don’t want it to come to that.”
While he wonders if anything can change YUDC’s mind at this point, Kapassouris truly appreciates the efforts being made by Cannon and the other members of the group.
“I think the petition is wonderful. It’s nice to feel wanted,” he says with a smile.
