Allow me to add to the chorus of parking complaint letters arriving in The Columbian’s mailbox. If Vancouver city officials really want to revitalize the city’s old downtown, they must somehow entice people from as far away as possible to come into downtown and spend their precious money there. Whatever works. And I can tell you from having witnessed it in two small cities near my former home that what works is massive amounts of parking — free parking — including city-built, multistory, free parking garages and removal of parking meters in the immediate downtown area. I invite Vancouver officials to do your research and check out Naperville and LaGrange, Ill.
What they definitely should not do is approve any multifamily housing in or near downtown with less than at least one parking spot per unit. That’s idiocy.
Of course, it also would help to provide beautification grants to building owners, to replace sidewalks and to improve street lighting. But that’s a letter for another day.
