The Silence Of The City Silos: BENN

The only thing consistent about city policy is its inconsistency.  Nowhere is this more apparent than in matters associated with parking.

Staff are recommending to council that the hours requiring paid parking in designated areas be extended into the evening and weekends. Not just the ByWard Market. Elgin Street. Preston Street. Glebe. Essentially the areas in or near the centre of city that offer evening attractions, such as restaurants.

The essence of the concerns expressed by staff is that free parking leads to extended parking, which means less turnover in the areas of the city that currently do not offer sufficient parking. How do we know that there is insufficient parking? Ask the local business owners. Ask their customers. Ask city staff. They will all tell you that there is insufficient parking. As an aside, staff state that by making local parking more difficult, demand for new parking facilities will rise, which will add to the supply of parking.

Why is there insufficient parking in these parts of the city? You just have to walk over to the silo that handles matters zoning. The denizens of that silo will tell you that offering parking means that people will use their personal use vehicles, which means that they aren’t using public transit. Staff who populate that silo will tell you that personal use vehicles are “so yesterday”. Not climate friendly. Selfish. That unless the city takes a stand on this vital matter of public policy, people will continue to use their personal use vehicles to get around the city. Not just to get to work. To shop for groceries. To get to medical appointments. To ferry their children to and from distant recreational facilities. Those sorts of frivolous activities. Planning staff have, over the last decade, made every effort to limit on-site parking for new buildings. This policy creates more off-site, on street parking. One can only imagine the resistance by staff to the concept of approving more parking in the trendy neighbourhoods inside the Greenbelt.

Head over to another silo. The one that handles public transit. The group that is so constrained by funding shortfalls that they had no other alternative than to introduce a “new way to bus”, which involves fewer routes with less frequency.

Then there is the silo inhabited by the not-oft-seen-nor-heard-from night-life commissioner. He with the budget of more than $100,000 to fund his mandate to find ways to improve the offerings of the city after the sun sets. Was his input even sought? Having seen these recommendations, has he provided his thoughts to the powers that be?

Put the pieces together and one sees a scattered approach to a common element. So many competing but contradictory departments. So little intercommunication between these silos. The result is an incoherent, incohesive set of contradictory solutions. None of which comes close to solving any of the problems.

What is the senior level of city management doing about this? Aside from ignoring the obvious? Where is council in fulfilling its role of oversight of staff decisions? Aside from choosing not to aggravate staff with pointed questions such as those posed above?

Therein the problem lies. What is obvious to the most casual of observers is oblivious to the decision-makers.

Ron Benn, a finance executive, has been a member of the Centrepointe Community Association for the better part of three decades.

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