I have to second the opinion of my colleague Mike Howell at the Vancouver Courier, who concluded his summary of this week’s election shenanigans with the question: Is it time for reporters to take a vacation until this campaign settles down to something reasonable?
Vision’s Gregor Robertson held his first campaign news conference, accusing NPA mayoral guy Kirk LaPointe of not being red-bloodedly 1000 per cent in favour of lobbying for a Broadway subway from the first second he started his campaign. (Strangely, this was the accusation that NPA critics were casting at Robertson a few years ago, when he seemed to be more tepid than previous mayor Sam Sullivan.)
LaPointe, on the other hand, ended up in arguments with various reporters about whether his NPA colleague, George Affleck, had promised back in January to take out the Point Grey bike lane that Vision’s engineering department was in the middle of building. (For the record, the quote that Emily Jackson got at the time from Affleck was: “The NPA has a plan to open this road, yes.”)
I can’t imagine most of the public gives a s**t about this. As a reporter, I’m often baffled, too, as parties try to grab gotcha quotes from the past that aren’t always relevant to what a party or candidate is advocating now. Is there any doubt the NPA will support a Broadway subway? I don’t think so. They’ve always been supporters of these kinds of projects. Has LaPointe modified the NPA’s position on the Point Grey bike lane? Sure. And that’s what you’d expect from a new leader.
What is interesting, from an analytical point of view, is looking at what kinds of messages each party is trying to send to its potential voters — and who it thinks its potential voters are. Vision clearly sees the party’s audience as transit riders (and they are a distinct group) and the majority of people who generally think bike lanes are a good idea.
The NPA, even though a part of its base is rabidly anti-bike-lane, knows that not everyone the party wants to appeal to feels that way, so LaPointe is trying to find a position that appeases one group but doesn’t scare off the other. Especially since, even among bike-lane approvers, there is a strong subset who think that the Point Grey bikeway was poorly handled.
In the meantime, not to ignore the interesting other parties in this race, COPE’s mayoral candidate Meena Wong, apparently the only one, launched her campaign this week, promising to really solve homelessness, build public housing, end renovictions, and much, more more. Awaiting more details on exactly how she will do all that but, in the meantime, here’s her speech.
48 responses so far ↓
1 boohoo // Sep 6, 2014 at 6:42 pm
“I can’t imagine most of the public gives a s**t about this.”
Ding ding ding.
2 Jenables // Sep 6, 2014 at 7:05 pm
Yes, nothing to see here but support for a subway right? Because suddenly the Broadway corridor is the only thing that matters. Nevermind that it has become this busy due to an exodus to the suburbs from Vancouver’s ridiculous housing costs. Totally… Not… relevant.
Would be nice to see one of the candidates address the very noticeable decrease to the parks/maintenance budget. Also, looks like they want to pave vanier park? Totally off topic but it just occurred to me that I’d support that sort of thing maybe if they tiled it with pretty tiles. Maybe it’s too dangerous? Concrete is an ugly, inappropriate replacement for grass, even if it does get mucky in winter.
3 boohoo // Sep 6, 2014 at 7:38 pm
Can you link to where they say they are going to pave vanier park?
4 F.H.Leghorn // Sep 6, 2014 at 8:01 pm
Meena is making a big mistake running for COPE. For one thing she’s not the party’s leader (think Che Lite) and for another she’s no Larry Campbell and even if she was, look what happened to him and COPE. At best she’ll split the anti-Vision vote.
Suggested campaign theme: let the homeless sleep on the subway at night when the commuters have gone home. Kill (so to speak) two birds with one $3Billion stone.
5 tf // Sep 6, 2014 at 8:09 pm
I’d support anyone that says the Broadway subway isn’t a fait accompli.
Or that removing the viaducts isn’t a fait accompli.
Or that “affordable housing” is actually defined as housing that is affordable to those who make minimum wage.
Or someone who would go back and define “social housing” as housing for those who are on fixed or low-income.
Vision has been a total bust.
But what can we expect from a party that started out being called “Friends of Larry Campbell” — ?
We should have seen this coming!
6 Jenables // Sep 6, 2014 at 9:29 pm
I took a talkvancouver survey about it which i linked to from twitter, booohoo. Let me google for you
https://www.talkvancouver.com/S.aspx?frommeta=1&s=125&r=HsOfUpU_VE2uw.C6fg_bBA&so=true&a=306&fromdetect=2
See how that works, sorryabout the long url
7 Jeff Leigh // Sep 7, 2014 at 12:09 am
Here is a more direct link to the Bard on the Beach Festival site about their proposed improvements to Vanier Park. They are soliciting feedback (which is the poll Jen linked to) but the background on what and why may be helpful.
http://tinyurl.com/n5e7ks9
Note that ‘they’ is the Bard on the Beach society, and the portion of Vanier Park under discussion is between the boat launch parking lot and the archives.
8 Jenables // Sep 7, 2014 at 12:45 am
Thanks Jeff
9 Jenables // Sep 7, 2014 at 1:01 am
#5 hear hear! Would be great to hear CIVIC issues where the responsibility cannot be conveniently transferred to a different level of govt. If you are going to make promises, why not promise something you have the authority to change.
The irony of the Broadway corridor/transit insufficient capacity is that Vision went really out of their way to make driving unattractive, but did they really believe everyone would just hop on a bike from poco to vgh? City hall has made huge changes to employee parking (costs about $6/day if i am not mistaken and i don’t think there is a monthly discount) but was translink prepared for this? speaking of which, a friend of mine who is a UBC student rightfully laments the lack of a UBC only express bus. It could pick up at commercial, cambie, granville. Would relieve so much pressure from the B line. And why not reinstate the other B line down granville while they are at it. Especially considering what they are doing to Marpole. What would be the problem with that, even in the interim. Solutions, temporary ones, don’t have to cost a billion dollars. I guarantee you this is not a problem for anyone who has anyone who has a say in the matter and thus they do not care. They sure as hell aren’t working for us, the people.
10 Jenables // Sep 7, 2014 at 1:14 am
Attack dogs: when i say vision has gone out of their way to make driving unattractive, i’m talking about the very noticeable increase in ticketing and certainly towing, city-wide. It is a shame they feel so righteous using the taxpayer’s money to screw them, and moreso in the punishment they mete out to people patronizing businesses. Commercial property tax is ridiculously expensive, especially for smaller businesses. Oh well who needs variety, character and heritage. Developers can just build those if promised more density, right? Five different yoga wear stores ought to be enough variety for ANYONE. Barf.
11 Brilliant // Sep 7, 2014 at 9:04 am
Don’t sleep in the subway Foghorn, don’t stand in the pouring rain.
12 Chris Keam // Sep 7, 2014 at 9:10 am
Jenable:
Transit allocation is a Translink responsibility. Why are you mixing up their job with that of Vancouver City Council. I doubt you would find them arguing against immediate transit increases whether it was bus or train. And now it seems you have a problem with enforcement of existing rules? So, I guess we should all cut drivers some slack when they occupy space they haven’t paid for?
13 Jeff Leigh // Sep 7, 2014 at 9:16 am
A noticeable increase in ticketing is just as likely, if not more likely, to correlate with an increase in rule-breaking. Increase the fines and maybe more motorists will follow the rules.
14 Walker Evans // Sep 7, 2014 at 10:01 am
A broadway rapid transit is pointless unless it goes all the way to UBC. And unless they raise parking rates significantly at UBC students will continue to drive their cars.
As for bike lanes they should be on side streets, not major arteries like Hornby and Dunsmuir. Gregor has succeeded in making cyclists feel superior and entitled. They now righteously ride on the streets, bike lanes and sidewalks with impunity. Half of them don’t think the rules of the road apply to them and are quick to swear at or threaten car drivers when their negligence or flouting the law almost gets them killed. Gregor has created a monster. Time to rid ourselves of Vision.
15 Silly Season // Sep 7, 2014 at 10:36 am
With the perceived way that TransLink is currently running the system …
I also wonder if all this big money transit talk is really an election winner at this time…and we are quite aware of how much power Vancouver has to demand anything from provincial or fed politicians. Unless its in their interests, and the timing is right, not so much.
Additionally, it has long been my suspician (now backed up by the Pembina Institute’s newest survey) that while we have had the MOST new transit added here, that ridership across the whole of the system—is the LOWEST of all the major cities here in Canada).
How can this be?!, you shriek. Well, consider that there really are not enough access ‘feeder lines’ to those subways from across the Metro Van region. So the people who benefit most from subways are those who basically live on top of them. Which is weird because I distincly recall the the Mayor saying no more significant development along Broadway. Excuse me—say what?! (See: developers). Please, spare us the disingenuous stuff.
I suppose this kind of project supports density on the subway lines (intentional sarcasm), but it doesn’t do jack squat for many more people in the boroughs who then use cars to get into town. If I was South of the Fraser, I would be, ummm, concerned. I wonder how long the solidarity will last amongst the regional Mayors on this one?
So, next up: let’s look at costs of the proposed Broadway Coordor. $3 billion. Just for that line to extend from Commercial to UBC. And, again, where is the support money to get people to the line. Oh, we are talking far more dough that $3 billion, friends, if this is to be done done `properly`.
A third point and I will revisit the astonishing claim by the Pembina Insitute here: that we have the fewest riders per capita and per new infrastructure in the major Canadian cities. This point is one of system capacity.
What is capacity on a transit system? Simply put, it is given as the product of the frequency and the maximum number of persons per vehicle (bus, subway car, ec). It’s how much the total system can hold during all run hours.
So, post peak times system…lighter use of subways. More room on buses—even the 99B and those express buses coming to UBC from Joyce Street Station. Someone really needs to look at where capacity allottment could be shifted around on the system, now.
Really, the proposed $3 billion is essentially being promoted in order to transport a finite number of people over 2 peak periods, within a fixed geographical location— at one particular station!
I think we should be looking at WHY we want more transit, and specifically at Broadway and Commercial. I’m sorry, but that is already bottlenecked at peak times. Adding more there means more bottleneck at that one station.
The real reason to add more transit there is to do precicesly what the Mayor recently said he was not going to do: build more development. Impossible, if you are trying to justify that buildout.
So, why not come out and say that? Well, if you think the neighbours are in a tizzy now…I remember being at a transit meeting at a former church in Pt Grey where a planner said with a sigh as he surveyed the surrounding modest little houses of the area: `such a pity`.
So, I have some modest proposals for a more EFFICIENT system, one that may not require the $$$ or the wholeaale takedown of more neighbourhoods:
Consider costs.
Consider how you’re going to help the system pay a little more for itself by having proper feeder routes onto current system to boost capacity and justify costs.
Prove to us that you are really maximizing the capacity we have now: Consider incentivizing peak travel timers to hop off at other stations (like Joyce Street) where the express buses head down 41st to UBC. That, supposedly, is one of the things that Compass Card should be about.
Consider a mixed system type for Broadway until you can justify $3billion for that one stretch, that encompasses LRT and/or rapid bus down the Broadway Corridor.
Or man up and say that, yep, we ARE gonna densify all along the cooridor (commercial and housing) in order to justify it and to ensure the system is used post peak times. (I shall be wearing my own purple flak jacket and helmet when you cop to that, in order to have a chance at surviving not only atomic s**t storm that this will unleash, but to also avoid the inevitable `residual damage`from the bureaucratic kind of bungling we have come to expect, if the history of construction along other arterials is any indication. Won`t happen again, you ay… Hey, I`ve got a bridge out in Langley that I`d like to sell ya!).
Ask UBC what part of these costs they are involved in
In closing: yeah, i know we have put tons of $$$ into roads (Gateway, South perimeter, etc). But if we want to make a real difference in transit—and enabling more people to easily access the overall regional system in order to justify the costs (which will be far more than $ 3 billion, my dears), we better start thinking about the whole of the sytem, not just our own parochial needs.
I know it’s an election year, and that’s more than one could hope for. But, I’m also tired of hearing these projects come up without supporting info that answers even the basic concerns I have posed.
In closing, I have yet to meet a politician (active or retired) at any level who hasn’t met a big infrastructure project he or she just doesn’t LURV!
I find this attitude curious in a time when we are being told to practice, ‘less is more’ and ‘figure out a way to do better with what you’ve got’.
16 Bill // Sep 7, 2014 at 11:28 am
@Jeff Leigh #13
“A noticeable increase in ticketing is just as likely, if not more likely, to correlate with an increase in rule-breaking.”
Not necessarily. Although the following excerpt from a recent Economist referred to corporations in the United States, there is undoubtedly some applicability here as well:
“When America was founded, there were only three specified federal crimes—treason, counterfeiting and piracy. Now there are too many to count. In the most recent estimate, in the early 1990s, a law professor reckoned there were perhaps 300,000 regulatory statutes carrying criminal penalties—a number that can only have grown since then. For financial firms especially, there are now so many laws, and they are so complex (witness the thousands of pages of new rules resulting from the Dodd-Frank reforms), that enforcing them is becoming discretionary.”
We are also overwhelmed with laws and regulations and it is a rare day when we are not violating one and it would be impossible to enforce them all so by simple necessity there must be selective enforcement. Who decides that it is ok for people to smoke pot openly on April 20, tie up traffic with Critical Mass, ride a bicycle without a helmet (or break a myriad of traffic rules) or occupy a City Park?
17 teririch // Sep 7, 2014 at 11:38 am
Here is how the Broadway line will play out:
Robertson and Vision will campaign their hearts out on it.
If they mange to get it this term, it will be announced at some point that it is the Province’s responsibility to provide the funding and their hands are tied.
…. Just like we saw with the endless promises to ending homelessness and then street homelessness.
As Charlie Smith penned in the Straight -Robertson and Vision are tricking the public.
It is a well crafted deception. Repeat it often enough and you start to believe it.
18 teririch // Sep 7, 2014 at 11:42 am
….” The NPA, even though a part of its base is rabidly anti-bike-lane”
Sorry, but I disagree with this. This is what Vision and their supporters wants people to believe.
The only issue the NPA has with bike lanes is the process to which they are being introduced.
The lack of open and honest discussion – the done deal feeling that comes whenever one hears ‘bike lane.
Sometimes sneaky backfires on you. And Vision is very sneaky about certain things.
19 rph // Sep 7, 2014 at 1:32 pm
….”we had better start thinking about the whole of the system, not just our own parochial needs…”
Bingo Silly Season @14.
I think the need of the many in metro Vancouver outweigh the needs of those commuting down Broadway line. Desirable, but not at the top of the priority list. Especially if it allegedly does not come with further densification on that corridor.
20 Jenables // Sep 7, 2014 at 2:09 pm
#12 why don’t you tell that to vision, ck.
21 Jenables // Sep 7, 2014 at 2:26 pm
Jeff,
My boyfriend drives a moving truck during the day. After getting towed off our street several times (fair enough) he would park on commercial… Several other comparatively sized trucks also parked there, it is zoned differently. Gets towed again, is told to park in industrial zone. Not a problem, there is industrial area two blocks away on our street. Gets towed AGAIN. Is told that “no vehicle can park on the street for more than three hours” a little-known bylaw they can pull out if they feel like towing you.
I’m sure there is a way to figure out if they have ramped up their bylaw enforcement, although that information might not be forthcoming.
And please,ck, before you chime in – my belief that i should be able to patronize a business for two minutes if i don’t have change is just as valid as your belief that people shouldn’t pay their helmet tickets because they disagree with the law. And i am aware one is provincial and one is municipal, so for the love of god hold the mansplaining please.
22 Jenables // Sep 7, 2014 at 2:35 pm
Further to #12, when people are ticketed heavily in commercial areas for things like going five minutes past their meter time it rightfully feels like they are being punished for patronizing that business. Would you like it if your clients felt punished for seeing you? Would it be good for your business? Now consider the amount of property tax these businesses pay, whether they are triple net or it is factored into their rent cost. Do you know how much they pay, and what they receive for that?
23 Jeff Leigh // Sep 7, 2014 at 3:34 pm
I would have thought that more ticketing would be brought on by locals complaining about vehicles plugging up their parking. Shorter meter times are generally intended to promote turnover, in support of businesses, it isn’t punishment.
I like the bumper sticker that reads “All this free parking is charity for cars” Also applies to trucks, as it turns out.
24 rph // Sep 7, 2014 at 4:27 pm
I have a family member who is a self employed handyman, and he has a small old cube van. It is also his only car, as for many reasons he lives at the poverty line. He has also been without a place to live for a few days, so yah, the van has been known to accommodate him that way.
He does not want to get rid of the vehicle, as it carries all the equipment he needs to keep his dignity and provide some sort of self-employment, which works best for him.
He also cannot afford to get ticketed and towed, and yet he does. And literally, that means missed meals, or worse for him, no money for gas so he can work.
Sometimes free parking really is charity. Multiple sides to every issue.
25 Chris Keam // Sep 7, 2014 at 4:57 pm
“my belief that i should be able to patronize a business for two minutes if i don’t have change”
First of all, I parked on Main St last week for a couple of hours using the pay by phone option, although I had only expected to be there an hour. If you have a smartphone and a credit card there is no reason you should ever get a parking ticket. They text you reminders for gosh sakes and you can extend your parking without having to even leave the store you are at.
“your belief that people shouldn’t pay their helmet tickets because they disagree with the law. ”
You are Ms Jenables projecting. I’m not sure I’ve ever expressed such a belief.
Finally, don’t turn the fact I point out the illogic of your position into an accusation of some kind of low-level misogyny. That’s totally uncalled for.
26 Chris Keam // Sep 7, 2014 at 5:00 pm
rph:
Lots of people urban camping around China Creek North Park and the side streets near Great Northern Way betw. Clark and Commercial and I don’t recall ever seeing anyone ticketed. Might want to mention it to your family member as a locale to check out when necessary.
27 Chris Keam // Sep 7, 2014 at 5:07 pm
“a little-known bylaw they can pull out if they feel like towing you.”
I knew about it and I don’t drive very much. If I was getting repeated tickets I might just use the Google and search ‘vancouver parking regulations, which, two clicks later, would bring you to this page:
http://vancouver.ca/streets-transportation/unsigned-streets-and-lanes.aspx
And this warning, in rather large text:
Parking in front a home you don’t own: the “three-hour bylaw”
But then how would one blame City Council and their war on cars if this scenario is simply a matter of failing to do one’s due diligence?
28 Jenables // Sep 7, 2014 at 7:02 pm
So you have to be a homeowner with a garage or petition city hall to change the parking regulations in order to not get towed. Oh yeah, sounds totally reasonable.
How can you be telling me i am not doing my due diligence while advocating others to do the precise thing that my boyfriend did? Oh, he has also got a ticket while picking up another worker (he pulled over to the opposite side to let a car through – he is in a moving truck, and he was ticketed while waiting a couple of minutes) and of course that was not delivered by hand, just turned up in the mail. Why did you not address anything i said about businesses and how hostile this practice is for them?
29 Jenables // Sep 7, 2014 at 7:04 pm
Also you seemed to have missed the point about it being an industrial zone that he was already told he could park in. Are you advocating some kind of bylaw officer state, Chris?
30 Jenables // Sep 7, 2014 at 7:12 pm
I should really be keeping this to one comment, my apologies, but there are people who do not have or do not use credit cards, and i am one of those people. Now i am sure you will suggest i get a pre loaded one and use it for parking but you are still missing the point.
Given your general attitude regarding tickets and bylaws i can presume how you feel about all those unpaid helmet tickets then. We’re all human after all and I am sure someone as enlightened and well-versed in the law as yourself would not have different rules for different groups of people.
31 F.H.Leghorn // Sep 7, 2014 at 8:56 pm
Yet again CK has skillfully steered the conversation away from any discussion of the Mayor and his relative strengths and shortcomings and off into an argument over parking regs.
What wlse are they going to do? Six years with nothing to show but a couple of bike lanes and a pile of development permits. Difficult, if not impossible to run on a record like that. No photo-ops with smiling family, no progress on the homelessness file missing women or harm reduction or housing affordability, just a bunch of advisory panels whose recommendations went straight into the blue box.
Quick Chris, change the subject. Play the cyclist-as-victim card or the open borders ploy, anything but a closer look at Gregor and his glaring lack of accomplishments.
32 Paul Tolnai // Sep 7, 2014 at 9:53 pm
Reading Mr. Howell’s comments, I couldn’t help thinking “so this is what happens to a party that has lost the plot.”
Anything to get the typically fawning reporters in front of Gregor’s smiling face. “Don’t pay attention to our lack of any policy that we’re actually able to implement, just look at the suave mayor, remember how much you all loved him.”
Trouble is, it’s not working this time. The breakdown of the COPE-Vision sharing agreement spelled death for Vision.
Make no mistake, COPE will experience a revitalization and will be a serious contender this time.
The centre right vote will coalesce around NPA and we’ll have a two way race between COPE and the NPA. Vision’s time is done. I doubt they’ll exist by the time we go to election 2018.
33 boohoo // Sep 7, 2014 at 10:58 pm
So in a discussion about political parties when you say ‘they’ you aren’t referring to a political party and by ‘pave vanier park’ you aren’t implying actually paving the park.
Gotcha.
34 Jeff Leigh // Sep 7, 2014 at 11:55 pm
@Paul #32
Maybe. But the reported numbers for the COPE nomination meeting (less than 200 attendees, vs 500 last election) doesn’t bode well.
Your analysis not only completely discounts the Vision machine, but also the Greens.
35 Jenables // Sep 8, 2014 at 12:26 am
Boohoo, were you taking to me?
36 Jenables // Sep 8, 2014 at 12:27 am
Talking, I meant talking. Heheh.
37 Chris Keam // Sep 8, 2014 at 8:35 am
Mr Leghorn:
Please read the thread. I responded to other’s posts about parking regulations.
If you have a topic you would like to see discussed then make your point. Misplaced and erroneous attacks on my comments make it appear as though you have nothing substantive to contribute.
38 teririch // Sep 8, 2014 at 12:33 pm
@jenables:
You only need to look at the increase in the number of metres on our streets over the years as well as the time extension – 10:00 pm for pay parking.
But hey, what did it bring in $48/$49 millionAand how much of that money went to bike lanes.
They penalize one in order to lift up the other.
39 teririch // Sep 8, 2014 at 12:39 pm
@F.H. Leghorn:
The Courier late last week ran an article on the Mayor’s again ‘re-announcement’ of the need for a Broadway line. (I think Mike Howell)
Seems reporters were a bit confused as to why they were asked to attend a presser at VCC-Clark Station only to be retold about his ‘commitment’ to the Broadway line.
One reporter asked – So there is nothing new?
You would think that after the light bulb went on about needing Provincial and Federal funding to ‘end homelessness’, that they wouldn’t campaign on another project that needs that same support.
But, I guess there is a sucker born every minute.
And down the road again it will be “Well, it is the Province’s fault for not giving us the money” shirk off.
40 Jeff Leigh // Sep 8, 2014 at 1:24 pm
@teri #38
When I read your comment about the oppression of motorists I was reminded of Monty Python and the Holy Grail. “Help, Help, I’m being repressed!”
41 teririch // Sep 9, 2014 at 1:43 pm
Jeff Leigh#38
‘Opression’?
Your wording, not mine.
42 chow // Sep 9, 2014 at 1:47 pm
teririchardson, have they been widening the streets all around Vancouver and I didn’t know about it? You did refer to “the increase in the number of metres on our streets” and my street looks about the same width and I was wondering if I am missing out on something.
43 Jeff Leigh // Sep 9, 2014 at 4:08 pm
@Teri
Perhaps you are working on a cell phone and can’t see yours or other’s posts. I didn’t use quotation marks. I referred to your comments about a theme.
“But hey, what did it bring in $48/$49 million. And how much of that money went to bike lanes.
They penalize one in order to lift up the other.”
Oppression (with two p’s). Unjust treatment or control. Repression, when used as it was in the quote by Monty Python, is a synonym. And all I said was that your posts remind me of a Monty Python sketch. Claro?
As an aside, I think you meant more meters. As in parking. Not more metres, as in width. True?
44 Chris Keam // Sep 9, 2014 at 4:35 pm
“Opression” is the little known psychological condition whereby you realize Oprah rose from relative poverty and now commands a vast empire of resources… and all you’ve got is a ridiculous mortgage and a minivan that smells like soggy soccer cleats, stale goldfish crackers, and spilt milk. It’s also known as Affluenza Vancouveritis.
45 Bill // Sep 11, 2014 at 11:09 am
Let’s see now. The Mayor is going to reduce climate change through our Green City initiatives even though that really would take international agreements let alone support of senior governments if that was even possible. He is going to end homelessness even though that requires at least the Province to be onside. And he is going to build a subway to UBC even though that requires Provincial and Federal funding to do so. All at the same time he is actively opposing policies advocated by the Provincial and Federal Governments that are necessary to provide the economic basis of funding our public programs.
At this point, I don’t know enough about LaPointe to say he is the right guy but he certainly deserves serious consideration as the bar is set pretty low by the incumbent.
46 teririch // Sep 11, 2014 at 11:56 am
@chow /waltsys #42
From The Vancouver Sun – April 2012:
…..’The new South Granville meters were part of the largest installation of parking meters in Vancouver’s history. In 2011, the city installed 820 meters, more than three times the average of 240 metres installed annually since 1996.
The increase helped raise the city’s revenues from on-street parking to a new high of $42.5 million last year, a 32-per-cent increase from the $32.2 million collected in 2009. This, in a city with the highest peak on-street parking rates in North America, with rates climbing as high as $6 an hour in the highest-demand locations downtown.’
47 Jenables // Sep 12, 2014 at 1:39 am
Accusations of racism, unfair tickets fly in fight between Vancouver drivers, parking enforcement
By Steve Mertl | Daily Brew – Wed, 1 May, 2013
“… The majority of complaints, though, dealt with what drivers perceived as unfair tickets. In one case, the Province reported, a woman said she’d stopped beside a parking meter to breast-feed her baby, paying for the meter by cellphone. Time ran out before she finished, so she paid again by phone but in the three-minute interval a ticket was issued.
“Citizen feels it is totally unreasonable to receive a $70 ticket in this situation,” according to the summary of her complaint.
The Province said the city of Vancouver issued 301,478 parking tickets last year. Revenue from meters and parking fines totalled $64.3 million.”
Um, so yes i think it is safe to say I’m not imagining it. 301,478 is practically one for every other person living in vancouver. In 2009 I believe revenue was half that. I wonder how much they spent on new officers, cars, equipment and uniforms to better screw the people and businesses who pay their salaries. Meanwhile, Penny is expensing every drop of gas as she heads to whistler every weekend…
48 teririch // Sep 12, 2014 at 1:28 pm
@Jenables #47
Or flying to Victoria for you know…$700.