An Open Letter to City Council: Why Your New Parking Regulations Are Silly

Alroy Fonseca
(Cult)ure Magazine, February 2008

Dear Ottawa City Council,

In a ridiculously short-sighted decision late last year, you voted to raise parking meter rates, introduce charges on evenings and weekends, and establish paid-parking on more streets in the city. You claimed to do this because these new regulations will supposedly more than double the city's parking revenue from $5.6 million to approximately $13 million by 2009.

This means that if someone wants to spend a Sunday strolling from shop to shop in Westboro, he or she will have to pay $3.00 an hour for parking, in addition to having the annoyance of having to return to the meter every so often to add more money. The latter issue would be especially vexing if one were trying to have a nice dinner at a restaurant one evening and had to leave periodically to refill the meter.

As many downtown business owners have argued in the last few weeks, these financial and practical inconveniences would encourage residents to drive to the big box stores in the outskirts of the city to do their shopping, and consequently hurt shops and restaurants in the core. According to one report in the Ottawa Citizen, some business owners are expecting their sales to drop by ten per cent if the new parking regime is not revoked. Moreover, even churches have come out against the parking plan. Doug Kendall, minister at the Knox Presbyterian Church on Elgin Street, said that "[t]he volunteers that come in, they're the ones that are going to need to park [in order to] prepare [hot] meals" that are offered to the homeless.

Instead of encouraging the continued growth of a lively downtown community, you are doing precisely the opposite – making it more difficult for small shops, which give character to the city's various neighbourhoods, to attract customers and stay in business.

I suppose this is what we should expect as a result of the 2001 amalgamation, when Ottawa was expanded to include Nepean, Kanata, and Cumberland, amongst other surrounding municipalities. Now, with city council including representatives from these suburban "communities" – or, should I say, cultural wastelands (no offence intended) – we get decisions like these. Those of you who represent residents that drive to their local "power centre" to buy groceries at Wal-Mart, seem to have little appreciation for what makes a city a place worth living in.

I mean, what's the difference between spending a Saturday morning walking in the Glebe – perhaps stopping for tea at the Wild Oat before picking up a few loose ends at the local grocery store – and wandering around in a massive parking lot, having to choose between one big box store and another? Clearly, unless one has absolutely no appreciation for aesthetics – perhaps a bizarre devotee of Nicolae Ceausescu's systematization program – the former option is the far more desirable and humane one.

There are some, though, who may argue that we should discourage the use of cars for the sake of the environment, and that increasing the parking fare is therefore a good thing. I tend to approve of efforts to reduce car traffic and this argument sounds somewhat compelling at first. Ultimately, however, it's flawed because it assumes that everyone will resort to walking or taking the bus to get around within the city centre. In reality, should your decision stick, residents are more likely to get in their cars and drive to those dreaded big box power centres, which tend to be situated farther from the core. This would mean a longer drive, thereby producing more emissions.

Of course, my dear councillors, traveling around via transit should be encouraged, but primarily through the development of a more efficient public system. Sadly, since introducing the "pilot" Bayview-Greenboro O-Train line in 2001, you have been unable to evolve this project into a more extensive light-rail network. Who knows how long it'll be before we see a new line? I definitely won't be holding my breath.

And certainly, another important way to reduce the use of cars is to discourage inefficient suburban planning from continuing in areas like Orleans and Kanata. These low-density layouts make it very difficult to walk to even the local movie rental store, and make it relatively more expensive for our cash-strapped city to provide services, such as effective public transportation.

As you are surely aware, since the new parking regulations were voted in favour of, the negative reaction from business associations and downtown residents has been intense. Your colleague, Diane Deans, councillor for the outskirt ward of Gloucester South-Gate, voted for the parking regulation changes last December, but has now stated that she will reconsider her decision, in recognition that "[d]owntown is the heart and soul of the city." One can only hope that more of you who voted for this silly plan will also reconsider your positions in light of the active opposition offered by city residents.

And now, to my fellow residents, let me close this open letter by reminding you that the city's Transportation Committee will hold a special meeting on February 6th, 2008 to further examine this matter and hear from those who want to voice their views. Let's ensure that the city's circle of representatives listens to our concerns, and let's continue applying pressure until this new parking scheme is revoked.