To the editor,
It’s good to see the city councillors have finally come to their senses and voted to stop parking in the Grand Parade (“Reality Bites,” by Mike Fleury, March 1).
Judging from all the media attention over the past few years and all the passionate debates at city hall, one would think that proper handling of this issue weighed on the future of humanity. Clearly this issue ignited the fire in the hearts of our city councillors.
But why? What was being asked of our councillors? A few days ago I decided to reproduce the trek from city hall to the parking lot on the former Birks site. The result, based on my average stride, is a distance of roughly 100 metres from the city hall steps to the middle of the parking lot. This long, difficult journey took 91 seconds.
Well, that puts it all in perspective. All that passion and debate for a walk of 100 metres and 91 seconds! I don’t think any reasonable adult can consider a walk of this distance to be a hardship.
Spending years arguing against walking 100 metres is a plain and simple waste of everyone’s time. City councillors are not special citizens and are not being asked to do anything unreasonable. They should be commended for their public service but this parking debate has tarnished the image of the city hall. I’m glad the whining will be over September 1.
By Chris Poulain
This article appears in Mar 8-14, 2007.