To the Editor,
Re: Free parking ends on Commercial Street, Nov. 24.
What a terrible decision to put in parking meters again downtown, and to complement this folly in the Old City. The Downtown Business Improvement Association must believe this will encourage great numbers of people to come downtown to fill the struggling stores with shoppers.
Revolutionary as it may be, an alternative could be to make all parking free – just like in malls.
Even further into the visionary unknown would be to experiment with pedestrianizing Commercial Street, setting up a street market and other attractions. This has been very successful worldwide since the middle of the last century. A short drive to Duncan on a Saturday may provoke an embryonic clue as to how this can be achieved.
I would love to see a revitalized downtown because what we have right now is an embarrassment and left in the hands of this association, I despair for business owners, tourists and locals.
A. ParkerNanaimo
