Growing Cornwall’s downtown has been an ongoing subject, especially in the atmosphere of the current election. I’ve heard a few ideas bandied about, including changes to parking regulations.
I think if you really want to welcome people into the downtown, then re-writing the rules around parking would be a good start.
As it is now, Cornwall’s downtown area has parking meters and a couple of pay for parking lots. All of these spots are monitored by by-law enforcement officers who ticket any infractions. The cost to park is $1 an hour with the penalty for infractions being $20.
Essentially, this entire system is another tax, one specifically aimed at business areas with a lot of traffic. I’m sure that the whole system is very profitable for the City of Cornwall, but to me it seems set up for diminishing returns.
Right now, there are fewer and fewer businesses in Cornwall’s downtown. The block of Pitt St. between Second and First St. has at least five empty storefronts. Not only do I feel like this parking system is hindering growth in the downtown, I also feel like this whole system is outdated.
There are ways for the city to still benefit from the parking tax. The system can be run in a way more favourable to businesses and customers and still be run at a lower cost than what it is budgeted at now.
No one likes to be penalized, so I think the parking system should be set up to make it as easy as possible to avoid a ticket. I think that these parking spots should still be metered, because no downtown business wants someone parked in front of their front door all day for free.
There should be no more meter maids/by-law enforcement officers running from car to car looking for people to punish. Instead, there should be an electronic scanner at each parking spot to indicate if the spot is occupied or not, and then the occupant of that spot should be able to pay online from their phone. Meanwhile, the scanner should record the person’s license plate in case they don’t pay.
This would mean there would be the immediate expense of buying these scanners for the parking spots, but I think it would save the City in the long run. Not only would there be a savings of the salaries of the by-law officers, but also, I believe this way, more people will pay because it will be easier.
Also, instead of having to guess the amount of time you are going to be parked in a spot, the scanner can just track the time you checked in and the time you checked out and you can pay for the time you actually used.
Quite a few private parking lots in Ottawa have adopted a similar system. You park in a spot, then to pay you log in to a website on your phone, give them you license plate number and the spot you’re parked in and then just pay online via credit card or PayPal.
Right now, I feel that parking meters and their associated tickets are a deterrence for shoppers to go downtown. In a healthy downtown, parking spots are in high demand and need to be metered to regulate that demand, but threats of punishment will just send the message to stay away. Make it easy to pay and easy to avoid punishment and make our downtown more efficient and welcoming to business and traffic alike.
What do you think readers? Do you want to see the end of parking tickets in our downtown areas? Email me a letter to the editor at nicholas.seebruch@tc.tc
