It always pains me to publish letters to the editor slagging downtown, especially from those who have been dinged with parking tickets.
Nobody likes getting parking tickets, but sometimes that’s the price you pay when caught by city or private bylaw enforcement officers. A letter to the editor last week was a peculiar case, and he couldn’t get the break he deserved. The result, though, is a vow to never set foot (park) in our downtown again.
As a result of the letter, I learned that if you are a private property owner you can issue City of Guelph parking tickets. To do so, though, you have to be trained and tested on the legalities before the city issues you a licence.
Also, some private property owners contract city hall to have city staff patrol their properties hunting for parking violators.
For the record, I love downtown and I have occasionally been dinged with parking tickets. I don’t blame downtown, though. I blame myself for trying to occasionally sneak a fast one past ever-vigilant enforcement officers. It has been a long time since I have been nicked, but should it happen it will likely be my fault, not the fault of the guy issuing the ticket.
Perhaps the parking gods are with me, but I rarely have a hard time finding a parking spot, nor am I ticketed with any frequency. Sometimes parking may not be close to where I may be going. However, downtown Guelph is hardly New York City. Besides, I tell myself, the walk will do me good.
Last week, for example, I headed straight to the Wilson Street parking lot. My daughter and I then scoured the downtown doing our Christmas shopping. We hit a lot of lovely shops, made a dent on our shopping list and made it back to the car within our allotted two hours of free parking. No problem-o.
For the sake of merchants, I wish everyone going downtown enjoys the same experience we had.
There’s lots of neat stuff down there and pretty soon the skating rink in front of city hall will be up and running. Hopefully that also will be a draw for people to come to the core.
Again, I anticipate people having second thoughts about going down because of parking. To which I counter: it doesn’t stop residents of Toronto from descending on their crazily car-congested downtown for a skate in front of their city hall.
I guess all I am saying is do not be deterred by the Parking Bogeyman, because it is more fiction than fact – in my experiences anyway.