And we're back

Unlike some of our elected officials, our city council members are back to work today. I'm currently sitting in the first meeting of 2010 with 13 out of our 15 councillors (Robert Pastua and Dave Mitchell are absent).

I never thought I would hear these words coming out of my mouth - but I'm kind of glad to back. There's nowhere else a city hall reporter wants to be than in the thick of the action. Plus, the drama and interplay of city meetings can be more addictive than a soap opera. I'm happy to be getting my fix.

On deck today is an update on the Pan Am Games, which will be covered by my colleague John Kernaghan. I'll be paying attention to a discussion about parking rates and meter locations.

I hope to write about this for tomorrow's paper - but in the meantime, what do you think about upping parking prices and putting more meters around the city? Would you pay $1 per hour to park?

Comments

[craig duvall]

I think this nothing but highway robbery.We pay taxes for too much now for vehicle use and lose lanes on our roads for bike paths.If this is the case why not tax for bicycle paths as well,since people who pay for the roads and meters and lose the rights to more laneways.I think city hall officials should concentrate on theproblems from before and correct them before they add any other conflicts.C'mon city officials,work on the problems 1 at a time and correct them before you add more chaos to this dump city

[Michelle Hruschka]

Someone posted this comment on Raise The Hammer

It pretty well sums up things for me at least. I thought it was a good post, right on the money.

http://raisethehammer.org/blog/1612#comment-36933

[Brian Henley]

The problem with parking on Locke street, for example, is the lack of by-law enforcement. If the existing parking regulations were enforced, then sufficient revenues would surely be collected completely off-setting any potential coin revenues. Personally I don't mind paying a little for a quick visit to a store whether in the downtown core or elsewhere - it's not the coins which bother me but the cars which take up spots without paying and which are not ticketed. The whole department responsible for enforcing city parking regulations is extremely poorly managed in my view.

[craig duvall]

re: Brian Henley's remarks. If you want to see mismanagement when comes to by law enforcement, check out Haldimand County. If and when they enforce it they don't even know their own system. I had complained numerous times about no enforcement, and when they finally answered my complaints, they paid an officer overtime to enforce on a Sunday, when the signs are not meant to be enforced on a Sunday.Go figure.

[Rick]

How about charging a mall parking fee ? This would bring in so much revenue for the city we would could get rid of parking meters once and for all.

Might not be do-able but the city should be looking at other revenue streams besides parking meters.....

[Emma]

Rick - that is a fantastic idea. The only glitch is that malls are private property, so the city has no authority to charge for those parking spots. I also think that would be a very, very unpopular decision to make in an election year!

And Brian - I agree. However, you may be happy to learn that about a dozen new bylaw officers were sworn in at committee of the whole this morning. Maybe...just maybe...that will make a difference.

[Mary Louise]

$1/hour is low. No one in their right mind should object to paying such a pittance. The Ancaster BIA understands that meters are required to encourage the customer turnover that businesses need. Why doesn't the Locke St. BIA get this? My guess is that they simply want to maintain the status quo for its own sake, without looking to see if there is any evidence to support the assumptions they are making about the effect of meters on their businesses. Maybe they could give their colleagues in Ancaster a call.

Emma, I'm glad you enjoy the 'drama' of municipal politics. Many of your readers however, are simply interested in the substance of the issues. You would do us a great service if you could spend a little time exploring some of the myths about free parking.

This is a good place to start:

http://raisethehammer.org/article/072

[craig duvall]

Seems the councillors don't care what hamilton people say, they voted for the hike and extra meters.All i can say,REMEMBER CITIZENS OF HAMILTON,THE NEXT ELECTION IS JUST AROUND THE CORNER.Make sure all the votes count for the new candidates for all wards and get these exisiting councillors replaced.Its all up to us.

[Brian Henley]

re the Drama vs. Substance issue. Sadly there is little substance and more drama, psychodrama, among the councillors than reasoned debate on important civic matters. Personal and ward agendas, ongoing rivalries, vote trading, 'me first' focus - those are the drivers behind this council. So bring on the drama because that is where most of the decision-making happens. Do you think that all councillors actually read, much less digest and make informed decisions on the reports they are given? If even the executive summaries are read by the majority of councillors I'd be surprised.

[Mary Louise]

Yes, Brian, I realize that there is alot of 'drama' at council meetings. That doesn't mean however, that there isn't substance to the issues being discussed that often gets missed in the reporting on personalities, pencil-throwing, etc., because let's face it, that stuff is fun as Emma notes above, so that's what we hear about.

Wouldn't it be great though, if our local media took their responsibility to inform their readers a little more seriously, and instead of just reporting on how McHattie's feeling are hurt, they dug a little deeper and looked into how damaging the push for free parking has been to the economies of North American cities.

Since the publication of economist Donald Shoupe's book 'The High Cost of Free Parking' in 2005, many cities have started to realize this, and now it seems Hamilton finally has too. Kudos to council and the Ancaster BIA for this decision.

If all we hear about from our media are McHattie's feelings, the public and backwards business associations like the Locke St. BIA, will continue to believe the received wisdom that free parking is beneficial for businesses.

At the moment, we have to rely on our local alternative media if we want to understand these sorts of issues better. I'm still a believer in the power of the daily newspaper. I'd like to see our local daily catch up to the alternative media and do more in depth reporting on the issues that affect our city. Instead we have to listen to David Estok talk about how we shouldn't have meters on Locke because he got a ticket on Ottawa St. the other day. Sheesh. If I want to hear that kind of logic, I'll wander down to my local Timmy's. I expect more from my local paper.

[Tom Robertson]

Emma.. do you think any of the new by-law officers will be out enforcing the poop and scoop or leash law by-laws or just be out to increase city revenue through parking fines?

[Tom Robertson]

Emma the city could put a tax surcharge on the acreage the malls use for parking

[Rick]

Interesting read:

http://www.intransitionmag.org/Winter_2009/Free_Parking.html