Parking fines rise, downtown declines

Re: “City raising parking fines in bid to curb ‘bad behaviour’ ” (Montreal Gazette, March 23)

Does anyone else see the increases in parking fines as detrimental to businesses and the downtown economy?

Parking downtown is next to impossible. Understanding the parking signs requires an advanced university degree. Avoiding a parking ticket is, too often, a stroke of luck.

As it stands, parking downtown can cost 20 per cent of your dining evening. So I no longer go downtown to eat. I am only one customer, but how many others do the same?

This latest move by the city, I suspect, will lead to the further decline of the downtown core.

Richard Mertl, Hampstead