On the day I am told of two more established downtown businesses leaving the downtown core because of lack of and cost of parking…..
The City of Charlottetown is going to double the cost for parking at metered spaces to bring the price in line with the downtown parkades.
CBC News - Prince Edward Island - Charlottetown parking rates to double
23 Feb 2010 at 04:23 pm | #
Over here on the ledge, we have rocks smarter than these goons. Shooting one’s self in the foot is beyond stupid. Over here, our politicians don’t do things that way. They’d rather simply lie and dissemble. They are actually stupider - they just make it look better.
We make our most foolish village idiots into politicians, because they are much easier to keep track of that way. Getting to vote for them is a nice change from the lottery - almost nobody wins in either venture......
23 Feb 2010 at 04:26 pm | #
The level of genius one has come to expect. Too few people going downtown to shop so double the parking rates in order to encourage them. Free but with duration more rigorously enforced would make more sense, surely. At present all the long term parkers know the meter guy’s schedule in detail - and his aversion to rain…
24 Feb 2010 at 05:13 pm | #
Ah Yes - the memories of two decades of parking downtown on two or three bucks a day - feed the meter with a Loonie when you got there, again at coffee, and on your way back from lunch. No tickets after 3 pm, no tickets on rainy or snowy days, no tickets between Xmas and New Years. Tickets were only $5, so if you messed up once in a while it was still cheaper than the Parkade, particularly when days off, holidays, and rainy days were factored in.
The even cheaper plan was to choose a two hour zone, and either move the car a few inches or rub off the chalk marks at break and noon. Would average only one $25 ticket every three or four months, usually when I got caught in a meeting.
The real solution is to stop scaring off the customers, and require all businesses to ensure that their staff, the ones who park right in front of their business and wonder why there are no customers, use the Parkades, possibly by offering them free parking as part of their employment perks. The business owners, and, I am sure, the meter maids, know full well who these people are! The Government Workers might be offered some kind of incentive to use the Parkades - either subsidized rates (unfortunately now a taxable benefit), or maybe a monthly draw for the use of a prepaid Parkade space for the next month - just submit your parking receipts as entry forms. Also, the meter maids could/should crack down on them for feeding the meters - just stand around in plain clothes at break time and observe!
Also, get rid of the MANY loading zones i.e.- the place where the business owner parks his SUV - they are taking up valuable parking space, and are seldom used. The trucks who load don’t even use them - they’re too short, and they prefer to park on the street. The business owners can park at the Yacht Club!
As for me, they moved my office to the edge of town (cheaper rent), and I now park for FREE!
24 Feb 2010 at 06:20 pm | #
The geniuses have now increased the rates in the parkades. The supposed object of the exercise of increasing the meter rates was to push longer term parkers to the parkades. Of course it is totally sensible to increase the incentive by jacking up the parkade rates.
Let’s hope that someone with a better than room temperature IQ runs for office down there and cleans house.