A LETTER FROM CHRIS SUAREZ
YOUR GRITTY UNDERBELLY
Today I decided to take a long run around Victoria Island. I am up here for a friend’s wedding. Oddly, as close to Bellingham as it is, I had never ventured over to the island, although for years I had heard how beautiful it was. And yes, it lived up to its reputation. The ferry to Victoria weaved between incredible islands with speckled shore lines of equally incredible real estate.
I am staying with my family right along the water in downtown. This morning my wife had set up high tea at the Empress Hotel with the girls. I suppose you know you are a girl dad when you get dressed up to have 6 pots of tea over two hours while your girls eat finger sandwiches, food shaped like flowers, and desserts that look like art. The Empress is regarded as one of the top 10 tea experiences in the world - pouring over half a million cups of tea each year. It is the same hotel that the Queen and Princess Diana used to come to for tea service when on the island. We had a meal fit for, well, a queen.
After tea, the girls decided to go shopping which gave me the opportunity to go for a run. We promised to meet up at the bookstore in a couple of hours. Running through a new city is one of my favorite activities. It allows you to get a good look at a city as any resident would. Of course I look for the scenic route to begin, but a few miles in, I always find what I like to call the “underbelly” of the city. Every city has one. It’s the gritty, oftentimes neglected neighborhoods. It could be the rundown older part of downtown. It could be the undeveloped land just outside of the city core. It could be the rougher neighborhood that doesn’t show up on the tourist map or get pitched at the Chamber of Commerce. But without a doubt, every city has one, and I always find it to run through.
That expression “underbelly” is an interesting one that holds a lesson for all of us. The term gained its figurative meaning based on the underside or abdomen of an animal - or any living thing. That section of the body is usually more vulnerable as it contains major organs, is often softer, and unprotected. It is the weak point for an animal. It is also the weak point of any given city. Cities are living things, and they all have their unpleasant or vulnerable parts.
As I ran past boarded up buildings, what seemed to be abandoned railcars, and definitely my fair share of barbed wire, I knew I had found the underbelly of the city. Interestingly, these parts of the city are usually not miles out of town, hard to get to, or on the other side of a freeway away from tourists. I often find that I run into those neighbourhoods suddenly. One block I am running past fancy shopping windows and high end retailers, and the next block I come across an empty lot, a graffitied store-front, and a Chevy Impala with broken out windows. Many call this finding yourself in the “wrong part of town.” I call this finding myself in “reality.”
As I ran a few miles through this part of the city, I couldn’t help but think that this section looked like every other city that I ran through. I began to realize that our businesses reflect this same basic structure. We all have our beautiful buildings, waterfront promenades, our instagram worthy shopping districts, and our picture perfect tourist neighborhoods within our business. This is what the public sees, our friends see, and definitely our competitors see. But just a block over, we all have the underbelly of our businesses. It’s the grittier parts. It’s the messier parts. It’s the parts that make us wonder how we get anything done. It’s the part that is perpetually under construction. It’s the part we hope no one stumbles upon. And so often, we put all of our time and attention on our storefronts - what others will see - that we neglect the underbelly of our business.
We forget that it’s the underbelly that holds the most vital organs. It’s the underbelly that is most vulnerable. If we all realized that we all had one, we’d be more willing to talk about it, to solve the problems, to do the heavy lifting to clean it up and protect it. We get frustrated when cities and governments brush the real problems under the rug or don’t address the actual causes or go upstream to find solutions. And yet, in our businesses we too often act like city officials. We hide our profit margins where no one will see them. We have broken down systems behind the curtain that were built years ago and never kept up. Our culture is that vacant lot now overgrown. Our tech looks a lot like that railcar that used to run, but now just sits un-oiled and unused.
There will always be an underbelly to every business. No business is perfect, just as no city is perfect. As I run through these sections in every city I am reminded both of what once was, and what could be. With a little attention, with a little focus, with a little love, with a little time, those streets that we often hope no one sees can be the next area of revitalization and boom for our cities and our businesses.
Chris Suarez