Corbella: Druh Farrell sends hardworking family’s dreams up in smoke

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It’s not very often that I cry while listening to a City of Calgary meeting.

But on Thursday, I filled several tissues weeping over the story of the Shim family and what’s happened to them since their Dairy Queen restaurant burned down on Oct. 8, 2019.

Basically, the family who ran the DQ franchise north of 16th Avenue on Centre Street was forced to plead for their livelihood before the city’s Subdivision and Development Appeal Board.

Ordinarily, such development permits — to essentially build the same development on the same piece of land following a fire — would go through without a hitch.

Except, Ward 7 Coun. Druh Farrell doesn’t appear to like fast-food restaurants with drive-thrus and parking lots.

Perhaps if the Shims dished out expensive gelato or lattes instead of inexpensive fries and soft-serve sundaes, the red carpet would have been rolled out for their redevelopment permit.

“We are sympathetic to the owner and the franchisee, but this situation actually represents an opportunity for them to build something so much better on the site than what is proposed,” wrote Farrell, as she strongly recommended refusal of the development application.

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Farrell wrote to the board that she wants “a mixed-use, high-density development at this location, either with this site alone or combined with the adjacent parcel that is prime” for redevelopment.

“Such a project could even include a new Dairy Queen, but of course without a drive-thru. This is a tremendous opportunity for the owner to extract significantly more financial value out of the site than with what is proposed,” wrote Farrell.

The owner of the land, Don Gordon, is 88 years old. He was represented by his daughter-in-law, Sheila Gordon, who argued that they are not land developers. There would be enormous financial risk for them to build a high-density development with the hope that the Green Line LRT is going to be built soon and people would want to live on such a busy corner. Their insurance will pay to rebuild what they lost, but not a “mixed-use, high-density development.”

Farrell didn’t return my repeated calls. Had she, I would have asked her how she would feel if after a building she owned — her home, for instance — burned down and her redevelopment permit was denied by some city official who wanted her to build a six-plex rather than another single-family dwelling regardless of her financial ability to do so.

John Shim, 30, the son of franchisees John (Jukyung) and Wendy (Heesin) Shim, quietly broke down in tears a few times while speaking to the virtual board meeting from his home in Toronto, where he works as a senior project engineer with a food manufacturing company.

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He relayed how his parents decided to move to Calgary from Korea in 2001 “with the hopes of a better future for their kids.

“I remember as a kid, my parents didn’t own a vehicle for the first three years of our life in Canada. For those three years, my father, who was an engineer back home by profession, worked three jobs as a cashier at two different gas stations and as a storekeeper at a convenience store. My mother also did her part, working two part-time jobs at two different locations of a fast-food restaurant,” he said.

“Rain or shine, in a blizzard or not, they walked and sometimes commuted their way around. Thinking back, I really don’t know how they did it, but they did it with a smile on their faces all while raising myself and my sister,” said John, who says his sister, Jenny, who has a science degree, has returned to university to become a teacher.

In September of 2004 his parents bought a car and his dad “finally got a job as an engineer even with his broken English,” but he kept on working at the convenience store in the evenings and over the weekends. “My mother still worked hard at two locations of the same restaurant, becoming a store manager.”

In 2013, just as John was graduating with a degree in chemical engineering from the University of Alberta, his parents told him and Jenny that they planned to invest in a DQ franchise at 1910 Centre St. N.E.

“I wasn’t too crazy about their idea,” said John. “One, it would cost all our family’s savings at the time — literally every penny. However, they sat me down and explained the situation, and how this opportunity would provide them the ability to do positive work for the church, community members and close friends and family.”

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For 50 years, that Dairy Queen has been “an iconic location in the community,” said Arnie Brownlees, a director with the Tuxedo Park Community Association.

The idea of building another DQ there without parking “isn’t realistic,” he told the board, because a lot of sports teams go there after games.

Besides providing employment to 20 full- and part-time staff, the Shims handed out scholarships for their staff and raised money for local hospitals and their church — Calgary Korean Presbyterian Church.

Then that horrible Tuesday night arrived. John said he still vividly remembers his mom — breathless with sobs — crying over the phone, “our DQ is on fire, everything’s burning down.”

“Now, thinking back to then, looking at the burning building was like seeing everything that they’ve worked so tremendously hard for ever since landing in Calgary being set on fire,” he said.

John said he’s helping support his parents — who he says are being treated terribly by their insurance company — and they are living off their line of credit.

“The financial impact has been so detrimental that my parents had to put up a for-sale sign on their home . . . and they’ve been selling off used furniture and personal belongings to support their living expenses whenever required,” he said, his voice cracking with emotion.

John said the amount of “mental, emotional and physical exhaustion” the fire has caused has been compounded by the city’s rejection of the redevelopment permit, what he calls the “final straw that sunk my parents’ hearts.”

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It was heart-wrenching to behold and listen to. This hard-working, salt-of-the-earth family who are charitable, kind and have raised two exemplary, professional children should have a city councillor who helps smooth things out for them.

Instead, Farrell’s obsession against the automobile and in favour of higher density has caused her to forget what’s really important. People.

It is to weep.

Licia Corbella is a Postmedia columnist in Calgary.

lcorbella@postmedia.com

Twitter: @LiciaCorbella

Note to readers: Late on Friday evening, two women unrelated and unknown to the Shim family, started up a GoFundMe page to raise money for them. Here is the link to the page.