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No more free parking, October 1
14 September 2010
I was the lone voice, last night, speaking out against going back to paid parking downtown. Of course you knew it was inevitable - not just from the comments made about by my colleagues in the past, but the town erected faux-heritage parking meters on the side streets, long before the debate about whether we would drop paid parking even came to the table.
I understand paid parking on the main street. We want to keep the traffic flowing and not have anyone camping there all day. But I think - and based on my conversations with downtown merchants - that we should allow the sidestreets and the back lots to continue to be free for two hours. We need to do whatever we can to encourage people to shop downtown.
My colleagues - particularly Councillor McNabb - commented on how much "free" parking costs the taxpayers but I also wonder how much it costs the taxpayers in lost taxes and other revenues when a downtown merchant closes it doors because it can't compete with the malls (or the First Street restaurants that offer free parking).
And never forget this council has approved another 500,000 sq. ft. of commercial sprawl-mall in the west end, so the competition for the small number of consumers here will become increasingly fierce. There will be more stores, more restaurants and more services for shoppers out there. And acres of free parking without the slightest chance of getting a parking ticket.*
Yes, we pay by-law officers to enforce the two-hour limit. Yes, we do need money in our reserves to maintain and upgrade the parking lots, yes we do need money to deal with legal issues like court challenges to tickets. But in part that could be paid for by the BIA - siphon a part of the BIA levy into the parking fund. After all, the town controls the BIA budget and the merchants already pay a lot in BIA levies - why not use some of it for that purpose if it's in their interests to have free parking?
Why not look at some creative ideas, like free parking from 4 p.m. to 8 a.m., or free parking on weekends? Councillor Edwards mentioned some of these ideas, but there was no discussion about any alternatives. And, as expected, there was no public input - the signature style of this council. No one asked the public to comment how anyone outside council feels about paying for parking downtown.
Should we really consider parking a revenue stream? A self-paying service? A profit centre? Or a part of the service the own offers in exchange for your taxes? We've wasted a lot of money this term that could have been used for parking, had this council had any collective common sense or foresight. We've never had any serious debate on parking as a service or what we expect from it, just discussions about the revenue side.
I'll be we could have put close to $1 million into parking reserves this term, had we not wasted it on other, less productive things.
Would you rather have put $428,000 into parking reserves or into the mayor's futile fight against education development charges? Or $110,000 into parking instead of the mayor's legal battle against the Admiral Collingwood site? Would you rather put $40,000 a year compensating and paying expenses for our representatives on the AMO and FCM boards, or into a parking reserves? What about the money it will cost to restore the mess at Heritage Park, now that we stopped the construction in the mud-pit stage?
That could all have gone into parking.
But getting back to paid parking has been a theme several members at the table - including the mayor and Councillor McNabb - have been pushing ever since the free parking was implemented.
The downtown and sidestreets go to paid parking, Oct 1., The back lots will remain free for two hours until Dec. 31. After that, it's a newcouncil and who knows where the debate can go?
~~~~~
* Paid parking that will deter downtown shoppers. 500,000 sq. ft. of sprawl mall in the west end that will compete against the downtown. Moving main street patios to the curbside despite protests by restaurant owners and the public. Killing the downtown Admiral Collingwood and The Strand developments. One would almost think some members of this council are anti-downtown. To be fair, this council did support the revitalization project. But will we end up with a beautiful downtown with no one on the street and stores closed?
I understand paid parking on the main street. We want to keep the traffic flowing and not have anyone camping there all day. But I think - and based on my conversations with downtown merchants - that we should allow the sidestreets and the back lots to continue to be free for two hours. We need to do whatever we can to encourage people to shop downtown.
My colleagues - particularly Councillor McNabb - commented on how much "free" parking costs the taxpayers but I also wonder how much it costs the taxpayers in lost taxes and other revenues when a downtown merchant closes it doors because it can't compete with the malls (or the First Street restaurants that offer free parking).
And never forget this council has approved another 500,000 sq. ft. of commercial sprawl-mall in the west end, so the competition for the small number of consumers here will become increasingly fierce. There will be more stores, more restaurants and more services for shoppers out there. And acres of free parking without the slightest chance of getting a parking ticket.*
Yes, we pay by-law officers to enforce the two-hour limit. Yes, we do need money in our reserves to maintain and upgrade the parking lots, yes we do need money to deal with legal issues like court challenges to tickets. But in part that could be paid for by the BIA - siphon a part of the BIA levy into the parking fund. After all, the town controls the BIA budget and the merchants already pay a lot in BIA levies - why not use some of it for that purpose if it's in their interests to have free parking?
Why not look at some creative ideas, like free parking from 4 p.m. to 8 a.m., or free parking on weekends? Councillor Edwards mentioned some of these ideas, but there was no discussion about any alternatives. And, as expected, there was no public input - the signature style of this council. No one asked the public to comment how anyone outside council feels about paying for parking downtown.
Should we really consider parking a revenue stream? A self-paying service? A profit centre? Or a part of the service the own offers in exchange for your taxes? We've wasted a lot of money this term that could have been used for parking, had this council had any collective common sense or foresight. We've never had any serious debate on parking as a service or what we expect from it, just discussions about the revenue side.
I'll be we could have put close to $1 million into parking reserves this term, had we not wasted it on other, less productive things.
Would you rather have put $428,000 into parking reserves or into the mayor's futile fight against education development charges? Or $110,000 into parking instead of the mayor's legal battle against the Admiral Collingwood site? Would you rather put $40,000 a year compensating and paying expenses for our representatives on the AMO and FCM boards, or into a parking reserves? What about the money it will cost to restore the mess at Heritage Park, now that we stopped the construction in the mud-pit stage?
That could all have gone into parking.
But getting back to paid parking has been a theme several members at the table - including the mayor and Councillor McNabb - have been pushing ever since the free parking was implemented.
The downtown and sidestreets go to paid parking, Oct 1., The back lots will remain free for two hours until Dec. 31. After that, it's a newcouncil and who knows where the debate can go?
~~~~~
* Paid parking that will deter downtown shoppers. 500,000 sq. ft. of sprawl mall in the west end that will compete against the downtown. Moving main street patios to the curbside despite protests by restaurant owners and the public. Killing the downtown Admiral Collingwood and The Strand developments. One would almost think some members of this council are anti-downtown. To be fair, this council did support the revitalization project. But will we end up with a beautiful downtown with no one on the street and stores closed?
Admiral Collingwood Place
Patios
free parking
roundabout on High...and the grows longer