Study fails to park concerns
In newspaper jargon, there’s something called a standing head.
Back in the day, it referred to a headline that was stored and used for a regularly appearing feature.
This came to mind when perusing an article that appeared in The Standard earlier this week with the accompanying headline:
“Downtown denizens unhappy with parking.”
I figure that one’s been in regular use since the 1920s.
The latest angst has been triggered by a consultant’s study on downtown parking.
IBI Group’s preliminary report notably calls for an extension of paid parking hours. Specifically, the aforementioned denizens would have to feed meters until 9 p.m. during the week and from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday.
It’s probably the most radical parking proposal since the city ordered the removal of hitching posts on St. Paul Street.
That said, there is some logic to the idea. According to IBI Group’s research, weekday evening parking demand is comparable to the daytime peak. And weekend onstreet parking demand within the commercial core is higher than the weekday peak period.
Given this, why are day-timers the only ones being compelled to pay?
But at a meeting last week organized by the St. Catharines Downtown Association, some charged that the proposal to broaden paidparking times was simply a cash grab.
I don’t know about that. One of the stated goals of the city’s parking system is for it to be a self-sufficient and sustainable operation, which is a fancy way of saying user-pay.
In theory at least, any extra cash earned from the extended hours is to be funnelled back into the system to cover maintenance, modernization and enforcement costs. There’s also a recommendation to increase overall parking fees every five years at inflationary rates for the same purpose.
The other key thrust of the consultant’s report is the need to increase the availability of premium on-street parking spots at all times. That essentially means encouraging turnover, the proffered solution for which is the extension of paid-parking times.
Currently, motorists can and do squat on these spots for several hours at night and on Saturdays, frustrating those looking for a short-term parking opportunity close to their destination.
As someone who has driven for a few blocks looking for such an opportunity on multiple occasions, I thought this might be a shared concern of downtown businesses.
It is, said downtown association executive director Tisha Polocko, but members believe there are better ways of addressing the problem.
First of all, there seems to be agreement with the consultant that the maximum on-street parking limit should be decreased from three to two hours. That should help boost the frequency of turnover.
As for enforcing the two-hour limit during the evening or Saturdays, the association suggests the city could replicate what it does in other areas of St. Catharines where there are no meters but there are time limitations for parking. In those instances, enforcement staff mark parked vehicles in some fashion and if the cars haven’t moved when checked a couple of hours later, a ticket is issued.
Turnover would thus be encouraged, without costing rules-abiding motorists a loonie or two.
But perhaps the most important question here is how motorists who frequent the downtown would judge the extended paidparking initiative and its consequences.
Would they appreciate the increased availability of parking spots close to their destination or recoil at the thought of having to feed a meter at night or on Saturdays?
In other words, would the general populace be more likely to say, “Hey, it’s easy finding a spot to park on St. Paul at night now, let’s head down there tonight!” or, “Man, do you believe those money-grubbing thieves at city hall are charging for parking at night now — that’s it, I’m never going downtown again!”
The impression one gets is that downtown businesses aren’t confident enough, yet, in the very real strides that have been made in revitalizing the core to risk turning off visitors with extended paidparking hours.
Whether city council shares their trepidation remains to be seen.