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Parking Problems
Posted 7/19/2012 4:14:00 AM

The question has arisen at City Hall over how much to charge you to park downtown in the evening, first at city-owned parkades, later on meters.  The Public Library website says back in July of 1948, parking meters were first installed in downtown Edmonton.  The idea was to keep employees from taking all the good spots customers should have.  John called to point out parking meters were also meant to keep customers moving along; they were there to augment the business of the downtown merchant.  John says the meters were free in the evening because most businesses were closed. But, like the temporary wartime personal income tax back in 1917, things changed.  Now, the city is looking at meters they can jig electronically to charge you more for prime spots at prime times.  Like the temporary tax to help the war effort turned into money to finance government boondoggles and 16 dollar glasses of orange juice, parking meters are all about more money for the city than they are for helping downtown business.  As the city tries to revitalize downtown, maybe they should let the merchants tell them how much to charge, unless they prefer to keep driving customers to the free parking at the malls.  Let me know what you think.

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Posted By: Bob Layton  

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  1. Glen S.R. Woytuck posted on 07/19/2012 04:25 AM
    There is free parking at most LRT stations....
    1. fred posted on 07/23/2012 09:18 AM
      @Glen S.R. Woytuck At the stations I attend the comment should read
      There is no parking "available" at LRT stations
    show more replies
  2. Catherine posted on 07/19/2012 07:55 AM
    I dislike going downtown to any specialist due to difficulties in locating a parking spot as well as the cost. If the City doesn't charge a higher rate as a deterrent then people that work downtown might park there. On the other hand, it discourages the public from shopping downtown due to costs and unavailability. Perhaps businesses/organizations can rebate a client half of his/her parking expense and then yearly submit their costs to the City for 1/2 of their total costs? That way both the public and the businesses and th City share in the benefits. Not sure whether it is feasible or whether the City would even contemplate this suggestion.
  3. TracyO posted on 07/19/2012 08:01 AM
    How parking affects business, let alone citizen convenience, has been long lost on city management and council. They are too busy addicted to trying to squeeze more revenue out of citizens while at the same time forcing their idiotic social engineering agenda of hating vehicles. And to the comment "there's free parking at most LRT stations", I say: how long do you think that will last? The city would take the coins off the eyes a dead man if they thought it another "revenue stream".
    1. Paul posted on 07/19/2012 09:34 AM
      @TracyO It isn't sustainable for a city to grow while relying on private vehicles to move people around. Take a trip out to Los Angeles or Vancouver and you'll see good examples of cities that made that mistake. What you end up with is unending gridlock and hours-long commutes - not to mention parking costs that make Edmonton seem pretty reasonable by comparison. I assure you there's nothing "idiotic" about the city's social engineering agenda.
  4. Joy posted on 07/19/2012 08:07 AM
    Driving is a privelege. Parking is a privelege reserved for the well-to-do.
  5. Lil posted on 07/19/2012 08:45 AM This comment was edited by a moderator at 10:56 AM on 07/19/2012
    Dear Mr. Layton,

    It is so much worse than you portray. First your illustrious mayor destroyed Edmonton's most unique and valuable asset, the City Center Airport.
    Secondly he has raised taxes to the point of destroying many small businesses.
    Third, he left the 23rd Ave overpass until the costs quintupled or more.
    Fourth, he squandered a hundred million on "uglifying" a lovely building by putting "growths" on it that resemble the parasite disease called Elephantiasis (Art Gallery.)
    Fifth, he is forging ahead with the monstrous money sucker and property destructive LRT which no one rides except a few hockey fans.
    Sixth, he has raised parking so high that many businesses downtown have no more customers and are leaving in droves. So many empty hulls where once vibrant merchants resided. Another few years of his destructive tax and spend ways (nailing taxpayers for the "arena" for instance) which will be double the "estimates" and benefit no one except petty politicians and a billionaire ......

    Bob replies: The mayor did all of this by himself? Wait until the rest of council finds out...
  6. Pat Hall posted on 07/19/2012 08:55 AM
    I try every way possible to avoid going downtown. I would even switch doctors to avoid it. It can be almost impossible to find a place to park, and if you do find a parking place, the cost is exorbitant.
  7. Paul posted on 07/19/2012 09:36 AM
    Parking is free at malls because the cost of maintaining the parking lots is shared by the tenants of the shopping center. I don't see why the downtown businesses can't use the same concept to offer free parking in the evenings and weekends to encourage people to shop there.
  8. The Infidel - Mr.John posted on 07/19/2012 09:41 AM
    " like the temporary wartime personal income tax back in 1917, things changed."
    "Like the temporary tax to help the war effort turned into money to finance government boondoggles."
    Geez Bob,...next thing you know people will be accusing you of being a "conspiracy theorist" or a "conspiracy theory supremacist!"
    If people really studied the creation of the "illegal" income tax act,...they would be a lot more ticked off then about some stupid parking stall charge.
    The small minds that are operating to make this an issue really and truly show us the dire situation we are in with the mental wizzes we have operating our civic, provincial, and federal gov'ments.
    They are anti-business and believe that the money will just miraculously appear out of nowhere to pay for these costs.....
  9. Senator George posted on 07/19/2012 09:57 AM
    "As the city tries to revitalize downtown",.....now THERE is a double negative!
    When I saw the big silver dingle ball thingy "sculpture",...I realized that this council has now truly lost their marbles. I wish they would stop coming up with insane ways of spending OUR city's money on piles of junk like this that WE then have to come up with ingenious ways of explaining it to visitors as to what it is,...when they are brave enough to ask.
    And then there is the fearless mayor's rant about spending "pennies" on his pet projects that he needs to complete for "his" legacy projects.
    "Hey Steve,...a hundred and 35 million dollars PLUS is NOT PENNIES,...and you don't HAVE IT,...so therefore,...DON'T SPEND IT!!!"
    Speaking of Boondoggles!!!
    1. Bob $ posted on 07/21/2012 08:34 AM
      @Senator George Right on Senator.....
      I'm still trying to figure out what the hell the design of the art museum is supposed to represent!!! Maybe they could offer a course on it in the schools,..and make sure they have the same hallucinogenic professor teach it who obviously taught the designer of this building.
  10. David W. Lincoln posted on 07/19/2012 11:33 AM
    Bob, some things make too much sense to be enacted. City Hall listening to merchants? What next? City Hall listening to people who don't appreciate money being thrown at problems?
  11. RobB_6391 posted on 07/19/2012 11:39 AM
    Subject: Is this a home run for the Katz Group?

    Letter to the Editor,

    The proposed Edmonton Arena has been a hot topic in the news for quite
    some time now, and no matter what the pundits are preaching, it is still
    speculation, whether or not there will be an economic windfall from an
    arena being built in downtown Edmonton?
    Kudos goes out to the great negotiator, Daryl Katz, who will be laughing
    all the way to the bank, with the home run hit he currently has; due to
    the fumble of Edmonton Council in negotiation tactics.
    Has this game and use of our tax dollars been mismanaged from the very
    beginning?
    Credit also needs to be given to Linda Sloan, Kerry Diotte, and Tony
    Caterina, for realizing that this funding arrangement is flawed, with
    respect to use of our tax dollars, and currently one sided towards a
    shrewd businessman and wealthy entrepreneur!
    Daryl Katz is only doing business, and very well, as many have noticed.
    If the negotiations on the side of Edmonton council improve to a more
    balanced playing field, than maybe Alberta taxpayers will also be able
    to strike a home run hit, in this current one sided game.
    For example, where in current negotiations, who will be responsible for
    cost overruns?
    Will it be us taxpayers as well?
    As for possible naming rights; there once was an iconic arena in
    Toronto's garden district, called Maple Leaf Gardens,(now a Loblaws
    store) and if the city manages to get naming rights to the new arena,
    here is a suggestion for a possible iconic name, commemorating
    Edmonton's current Mayor: 'Mandel's Winter Gardens'!
    Before the final inning, and closing ceremonies take place, everyone on
    council needs to take another look at this funding arrangement and
    become better negotiators for us taxpayers; because right now it, seems
    the team that most of council is on, is pinch hitting for the Katz
    Group.
    1. Bob $$ posted on 07/20/2012 11:03 AM
      @RobB_6391 Actually,...going from the designs I have seen,...they should call this new building "The Pork Chop Palace".
    2. Bob $ posted on 07/21/2012 08:39 AM
      @RobB_6391 Easy now Rob B,...if you speak too loudly in a disgruntled manner,...Mr. Katz may wish to withdraw his offer to pay some money on the project over the next,..what is it?...20 years.
      Man, I wish I could have got the city to invest in my business when I operated it in Edmonton,...Noooo,....they just sent their by-law guy down to shut me down,...with NO notice, which left me scrambling to get them off my back.
      This city and this council is ANTI-Business and there are many businesses in Edmonton that would happily testify to THAT!
  12. Graham posted on 07/19/2012 08:10 PM
    I picked up a pack of Maple Leaf Original Hot Dogs... well I compared them to today's hot dogs and these hot dogs that Maple Leaf originally produced were at least 4 - 5 times as large as the current dogs ... I remember the story about the genius who removed one olive from each airline meal that saved millions and won him the accolades worthy of a Nobel Prize recipient ... the powers that be just nibble away slowly year after year seemingly unnoticed ... just a little more they say ... well ... I'm one olived to death and sick and tired of these political pan handlers looking for another way to queeze another quarter out of us ... and I want a real hot dog not those puny little things that cost too much ...
    1. The Infidel - Mr.John posted on 07/21/2012 08:44 AM
      @Graham Well,...that is because Graham,..that you are presuming that they are still putting some form of "meat" in their hot-dogs!
      I don't know about you, but when I've tasted a plain, supposedly cooked hot dog, out of the package,...it has a waxy, super salty chemical taste,...not something you would really want to eat. That's not the way I remember it!
      And the saving on the "olive" issue,....you may have come up with the explanation as to why Greece is in such "a pickle"....lack of sales to the airlines!!!
  13. Hank posted on 07/19/2012 11:57 PM
    Paying for downtown parking is another example of how the City just doesn't get it. This will do anything BUT revitalize downtown.

    It happens all over North America, but the most striking example for me was Albany, the capital of New York STATE. It had a thriving vibrant downtown - what you'd expect from a state capital. Then it went to pot. The turning point? The day city officials started charging for parking.

    This doesn't benefit downtown merchants. Parking revenues benefit the City, which makes it tantamount to a TAX. And the one truism about any tax is: people will always move away from a hostile tax climate to a less-hostile tax climate.

    That being the case, suburban malls will enjoy a healthy patronage for some time to come.
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