DOWNTOWN PARKING AND YET ANOTHER DNBIA GRANT
Ron Bolin: Dec. 16, 2014
For another excellent presentation from the Mid Island News, see;
http://midislandnews.com/downtown-nanaimo-parking-free-fee
I only wish to add to the discussion the point that what happened last night re downtown parking in Nanaimo is, in effect, yet another grant to the DNBIA. The DNBIA receives from the City/taxpayers of Nanaimo an annual grant of approximately $220,000 to match the funds raised by DNBIA members for their own purposes which can generally be described as advancing the interests of downtown businesses. In this case, by acting on the interests expressed by the DNBIA, Council effectively increased that grant as the funds lost by providing free downtown parking on Saturdays is money which must be made up by the rest of us as this move does nothing to decrease parking costs.
For a good overview of the overall situation with gifts, grants and tax exemptions in Nanaimo, see:
Are we taking in taxes from the poor to provide funding and services to the well-to-do? I have my opinion: What’s yours?
Posts and Comments on Nanaimo Governance 
I totally disagree Ron. This isn’t a handout to the DNBIA, this number simply reflects a reduction in the immediate projected revenue from parking fees. The report they quoted also referred to significant earnings increases from the update of the downtown parking strategy, even after this relaxation. This program has been successful in other communities.
Kim: Who, then, is it a handout to? Certainly the revenue lost must be made up elsewhere, and I think we all know who the “others” who will have to bear those costs are.
That being said, I believe that there are better ways to handle parking downtown which involve free parking for specific periods all the time. I can’t see what is to be gained for downtown merchants or for anyone by the purchase and installation of parking meters and raising parking rates. We simply do not have the kind of demand downtown which requires that space be expensive, It is the lack of demand which is the problem. If people really wanted to be downtown with a car for a longer period on a regular basis, they would not object to parkade fees so strongly, but would accept them as “worth it”, even if still disliked, Our problem is the same one which plagues our conference centre: there are simply no permanent attraction(s) downtown to attract people into the centre -and there is insufficient population downtown to maintain the businesses there in the style to which they would like to become accustomed.
How did it come about that the DNBIA supported the idea of more parking meters and higher parking rates?
if there was much more, downtown parking,available at no cost or even if you provided more parking & paid the the automobile owner $1 per hour ; downtown would still fail.
The convention centre, cruise ship terminal & theatre paid for with our tax dollars have not resurrected the down town.
Could it be that the downtown is not even in the right location?
Perhaps the downtown should encompass Front Street & Commercial Street & not the ‘out of town’ Old City Quarter .
Too many decisions on Nanaimo’s future have been made by speculator realtors & developers & not tried & true businessmen.
Add to this the obvious lack of attraction/s.
Mediocre stores & the Krall/space do not make an attractive rendezvous.
The DNBIA is destined to cost the taxpayer greatly in the future years.
I heard that they moved downtown to Woodgrove Mall. Probably just for the Holiday season. I don’t imagine it can be true in the long run.
This was one of the best counsel directives to staff I have heard in some time. Free public parking on weekends and after 5:00pm weekdays at no expense to the parking budget/taxpayer. Ron the Downtown is the south end of the waterfront walkway and with this move opens up public access to the waterfront which as you are aware is number one on the cities strategic plan. Exactly what the public wants most is access to our marine environment. Is this not why we fought like dogs to keep our public marina in public hands? No I cannot agree with your slant on this issue being something that costs me as a taxpayer. Good for our people to have affordable access to their Downtown and beautiful waterfront.
Why try and generate revenue from parking? The “mall” is successful because it offers 2 hours of free parking among other things. It is the parking meter that killed downtown in the first place. The smart thing to do is kind of obvious, get rid of the parking meter if you want to have a successful downtown.
I think all weather shopping is the allure of malls.
With taxes being a necessary evil perhaps the malls should be paying more taxes for the land they use?
Port Place Mall was recently turned inside out with free angle parking and storefront retail along a sidewalk. The trend in new mall design is to recreate the old downtown street without the meters. Why should the City compete with the Dollar Store for the same coin?