First you rent out a big piece of the available parking spaces on Baker Street to various eating establishments, which I’m sure is a sunny day bonus for those businesses. However, in doing so, you have relinquished all of those valuable parking stalls! I wonder what all of those downtown merchants think of this move?
They all pay a hefty rental price for valuable real estate on Baker Street only to find their customers at their wit’s end and unable to frequent their businesses!
And if that’s not enough to annoy every sector of your population, you then decide to double the rate for parking all over town. And many meters are only good for one hour of parking.
Tourists and residents alike can’t even have a relaxing lunch in your city because they have to run six blocks (if they were lucky enough to find a parking stall at all) to re-plug their meters before their hour runs out and Fred beats you to the punch.
May I point out that the cities of Vernon, Kelowna and Penticton still have metered parking at 25 cents per half hour. Wow! A nominal fee that clearly spells out to the people of the Okanagan “Come and spend your money here — we want your business.”
I already know what our tourists and residents of Nelson think of all of these issues because they have told me numerous times — does Nelson really want our business? Maybe someone should have thought this through.
Norm Mackie
Ainsworth Hot Springs