I am very concerned about the increases in parking rates by the City of Prince George. Sure - the money is one thing, but the way they did it is worse.
The city said that through the core review process, increases of 12 to 85 per cent are required to bring the Prince George in line with rates from other cities. Go check the websites for Kelowna and Kamloops - this isn't true.
Also, we are not comparable to Kamloops and Kelowna in other ways - number of people, average housing costs, etc.
These cities provide much better parking services. The City of Prince George does not provide any type of long-term or daily parking at different rates for motorbikes and scooters, there are no bike racks, there is no arrangement for part-time people or casuals that require daily parking but not every day. There is no designated hourly motor bike parking (free daily in most cities - including Vancouver) and more.
When parking in Kelowna and Kamloops, I rarely have to step over needles and vomit on my way to work like P.G.
In other cities, city employees (including the political staff) pay for parking just like the citizens they serve. How come this is all free for City of Prince George employees?
Prince George has been working on revitalizing the downtown for years. The key to this is to get higher-quality businesses into the core. Doubling rates and nearing a thousand dollars per year of post-tax income for parking with target employees is a brilliant strategy.
Downtown businesses need to take a look at economics. In a market-based economy, it means the business will end up picking up about half (macroeconomics 101) the tab on behalf of these employees. The city has just added about $250 dollar labour bill, post-tax, for every employee of every business who parks in the downtown.
Municipalities should not be in the business of driving up revenue. Municipalities exist to provide services that have marginal business cases. Pricing for parking should not set by what the next city charges but by the cost of delivery.
It's time for our city council to wake up and realize that increases in taxes and fees are completely unsustainable and they must stop. A trip to China is not required to answer how.
C. Smith
Prince George
