I see that Vernon has plummeted to 172nd as “Best Canadian City To Live In” (compared with Salmon Arm, rating 61st).
Now the grapevine says that Vernon plans to reduce meter parking to one hour, in order to raise revenues. What are they thinking?
Parking availability is constantly being reduced in the downtown core. Vernon attempts to sell itself on cultural tourism, but with this new move it will be impossible to enjoy a couple of hours enjoying what’s on offer. Driving consumers away from the centre is bad enough, but let’s not kid ourselves that visiting malls for free parking is what tourists want.
We often need more than an hour. Such as for: restaurants, movie matinees, the city’s murals tour, as well as medical and dental appointments, court appearances, and meetings.
Changing the meters will carry a cost, and presumably more bylaw officers will be needed to check more often.
Surely people don’t pay for more than they need? If people only want one hour of parking that’s what they’ll buy, so reducing meter time is unlikely to show much increased revenue.
Jim Elderton
Vernon
