Council not managing parkades efficiently

Times Colonist
March 18, 2013

Re: “Victoria backs away from automating parkades,” March 8.

I had to laugh out loud as I read this piece about council’s reluctance to effectively manage city parkades, bringing them in line with our efficient street system (based on ticket machines). Looks as if the conversion to ticket-spitters would have a positive effect on citizen convenience, security and sustainability.

So why anyone would want to make us continue to sit in a half-block lineup to enter a parkade, only to endure a three-storey lineup of idling cars waiting to pay one-by-one and exit, when we could flow in and out on our own time, is beyond me. Rather than have staff sitting in the gatekeeper’s office slowly processing payments single-file, why not have the same person who patrols for security enforce the traffic bylaw? Everyone else can go home.

But perhaps this is a clue: The same report notes that Council is “limiting” property tax increases to 3.25 per cent per annum. Limiting? That is higher than the rate of inflation, and certainly higher than any increases in land values that municipal taxes are based on.

If council were serious managers, they would stop spinning and make rational decisions that will have a lasting effect. Council does not work for CUPE, it works for the citizens of Victoria.

David R. Wilkinson

Victoria