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March 29, 2024

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Letter: Parking plan is misguided

By Dennis Bourdeau, VANCOUVER
Published: August 12, 2017, 6:00am

The Aug. 7 editorial brought a big smile to my face as I read “In Our View — Parking Ideas Sensible. Proposed increased fees, higher fines would benefit Vancouver commerce.

As I read it, for the life of me, I can not see how higher fees are helping the downtown merchants.

The editorial states “In attempting to find the sweet spot for parking fines and fees, the overriding goal must be to assist local businesses and generate commerce.”

How is charging more for parking going to help the merchants? Are they getting a share of these fees? No, they are not. The fees are going to pay for more meter enforcement, to the tune of almost $90,000 a year. Now that is real forward-thinking, just makes you want to scratch your head and say “Are you kidding me?” They’re going to charge me more to park downtown when I can park at any mall for free? Now, that makes a lot of sense!

They could start thinking like our neighbors across the river, and collect tolls upon entering the city, then charge people to park and get twice the revenue. That will help the downtown businesses twice as much.

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