Re: Parking Infraction

I am grudgingly paying a parking fine under protest. I will only pay the stipulated amount, not the bylaw enforcer’s discretionary amount written in.

The reasons I pay under protest are as follows:

1. The coliseum is a city facility. As such, it should as required by any establishment downtown, provide adequate parking.

2. For the entire BCHL hockey season fans have parked in less than legal spots as the City Hall parking is not being used in the hockey event evenings and Patricia Boulevard is not busy at night. Rightly so, the fans enjoyed parking in these locations without repercussion.

3. The BCHL hockey fans bring revenue and a positive crowd to our downtown area, which sadly needs this support.

4. However, on the last regulation game of the year, bylaw enforcement decided to blitz the area with tickets. One would think the city would like to encourage this sort of involvement in our downtown area and afford some latitude in parking. One recognizes fire lanes are no exception.

This inconsistency by bylaw enforcement, leave one wondering what our city management's thinking is? Is this another backwards application of CORE where overtime is justified by number of tickets given?

In closing I question the goodwill generated to the loyal BCHL fans who attend not only hockey events, but other events in Prince George, when at one time it was acceptable to park in a location and later it’s not.

Brian V. Brown

Prince George