As the owner of local restaurant and music venue The Carleton (1685 Argyle Street, 422-6335), Mike Campbell has had plenty to say about the parking regulations on the streets downtown, in regular newsletters to his customers and the Stop the Winter Parking Ban Facebook group. In a recent dispatch, he had some good news to pass on:
“I am very happy to report that: the ‘No Stopping’ signs on the east side of Argyle St. have been replaced with ‘2 Hour Parking’ signs which will remain until the meters on the street can be reinstalled. AND all the tickets written for parking in that No Stopping area since the end of October have been reversed!
“AND—be still, my hammering heart—the city will no longer be handing out tickets to cars parked in the ‘Motorcycle Only’ area on the west side of Argyle St. during the winter months even if the signs remain.”
Campbell credits Dawn Sloane for getting the city to do something in this instance and calls the change “a small but significant victory for the powers of goodness over the forces of badness.”
Incidentally, the parking ban will be reinstated from 1am this Wednesday, December 15 and runs until March 31, 2011. It restricts on-street parking from 1am to 7am.
This article appears in Dec 9-15, 2010.
Now to get rid of the totally idiotic parking ban. It is so backwater, brain dead, economically damaging, and encouraging of drinking and driving. There is nothing good about it. If someone leaves their car in the way during a snow storm and the road cannot be properly cleared, tow it. Otherwise, stop paying staff overtime to attack and harm citizens for no good reason. If you have to, make an exception for EMO routes, but otherwise, go police a useful law.
I think we should assign people to follow the god of traffic around everywhere he goes, filming him, and have him charged for every single little technical motor vehicle violation. Every rolling stop right turn and stop sign, every turn without a proper signal, every parking job a bit too far from the curb. Remind him what it feels like to pay out fines for no good reason.
That would be nice.
I’d like to see some stats as to whether the parking ban is economically damaging or leads to an increase in drinking and driving, but my suspicion is that your allegations are false.
walk – walk and walk – charlie,
As someone who frequents the downtown area, this is a great accomplishment. I have nothing good to say about HRM Parking Enforcement. Their employees seemingly make their own judgment calls each and every day as opposed to following clearly laid out policies. You don’t get a ticket for a week for parking in a free parking area, then you get 2 tickets in a single day. I apologize for the rant but ‘they’ have been giving me grief for the past 8 years and it had to come out somewhere.
Good luck fighting the winter parking ban. I agree it promotes driving under the influence and should be stopped. I remember years back (was it 1998?) when the parking ban was only in effect if it was calling for bad weather. If you park on the street during a storm you deserve to be towed. If it’s fine weather than writing tickets is just crooked.