LETTER: Not so fast, Andre. We need those parking spots downtown!

SooToday received the following letter from Selva Rasaiah. It's in response to one submitted last week by Andre Riopel.

Here's what Selva thinks:

I have a few comments regarding your recent letter to the editor about downtown parking.

The issue of parking in the downtown is usually followed by comments that there is “nowhere to park." This is true to some degree when you consider the ease of parking and convenience of spots relatively close to the business you want to visit. The statistical reference from Parking Reform Network is an exaggerated figure since it doesn’t consider the larger community picture and that some parking spaces do not effectively service every area.

The Station Mall for example, is a parking lot that inflates their figure, and those parking spaces will not be used by people using businesses along Queen Street which many consider the downtown. During special events and Greyhound games, the Station Mall parking lot, and many others around the GFL Memorial Gardens provide sufficient parking beyond the capacity at the GFL Memorial Gardens. The same idea applies when there are other events downtown such as Poutine Fest, and for future events at the Downtown Plaza that may require more parking closer to the venue.

In our attempt to “green” the city, we excessively promote cycling and walking when we have an aging community where personal mobility or ease of access to the entry of downtown businesses is a problem. There are many people in this community where cycling and walking longer distances will prohibit them from visiting downtown businesses. There is also the issue of what you can carry whether walking or cycling compared to what you can put in your car.

The first recommendation to eliminate the minimum parking requirements based on building type and giving choice to landowners or developers is not within the interest of long-term city planning. This will only fragment parking even more and create isolated areas where there is a greater or lesser need for parking spaces. Either scenario would be out of control of the city to manage or resolve since those issues resulted from the decision of the property owner or developer(s).

The second recommendation to monitor parking in “real-time” using a parking app can be cost prohibitive to implement and difficult to ensure the accuracy and functionality of the app. Depending on the specific parking app, a person can attempt to abuse the app by “reserving” an empty parking space by paying earlier before they arrive or the app may not identify if the space is empty if they left earlier than the time they paid for. A user of the parking app may not see the "real-time" availability in these cases. 

The third recommendation to sell or lease downtown parking to the Downtown Association is not within the interest of the city or downtown merchants. The maintenance of downtown parking lots including cost of snow removal may present financial challenges to the Downtown Association. The recently repaired entrance to the Cambrian Mall is a good example how private parking lots can present an issue when not properly repaired and simply patched for years. Parking fees generate tax revenue for the city and the city is better able to deal with increasing maintenance issues and challenges that may occur in downtown parking lots.

The issue of parking downtown is a “glass half full." The new initiatives (Downtown Plaza, Soo Market) and the future event schedules planned for the downtown have not been fully implemented to justify the need to eliminate parking spaces. It seems counter-productive to expect more business downtown with less parking space serving the area. To increase usage of downtown parking and to increase business in the downtown, one alternative solution may be to offer incentives to those with a “downtown parking pass” discounts at participating merchants or access to dedicated spaces. It is a similar concept like the dedicated parking spaces for people with online orders at fast food restaurants and special contractor parking at home renovation centres.

Selva Rasaiah