So the increase of 230 K would be realized if everyone renter stays in their spot and will pay the increase. I know several people who rent space in downtown and I know their answer to this price hike! The city will lose revenue not increase revenue!

Incrementally this present City Council is putting the final nails into the Downtown’s coffin. Why would anyone want to set up shop in the downtown? I’m sure there are firms that are looking for a better place to conduct business…I guess the City needs to push them out too… :(

I park in one of those parkades and it’s a huge jump. The City needs to implement paid parking for on street parking immediately, otherwise a lot of those people will stop using the parkades/parking lots will head to the street where it’s FREE……

Trust me I know. I have a few co-workers that were already doing it under the old rates. Just wait until the new rates kick in……I predict a large group will cancel their spots and take their chances on the street.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that $1,100 per year to park in a stall will get people thinking of other options. Good luck finding a parking spot to do anything downtown if they continue to allow 2 hour free parking.

I think the 2nd Ave lot just jumped from $50 plus tax to $90 plus tax, it’s crazy!

Hmm. On street pay parking might be looking good to these retailers now. Not to say meters would alleviate the parking lot increases.

I agree mwk there will be a tonne of abusers on street now.

Good luck parking downtown.

“Gong”

“show”

“At that July 8th meeting, Councillor Murry Krause raised the issue that companies, and non profit organizations will be challenged to find dollars in their budgets to provide parking for their volunteers and employees.”

This guy makes it sound as though free parking is a right.

If you want to drive you should be prepared to pay the price.

Summit – Ya my wife’s parking on 2nd will a little over double in price…..From $570 a year to over $1200….for covered parking but no plug. She had been parking in an open lot but in the winter in the dark walking to her car on more then one occasion she was harassed and followed by some of the scum that hang out downtown. So I guess we just grin and bear it. My sister who parks downtown Kelowna in a security controlled parking garage pays $65/month. In Kamloops employees from our company there pay $55/month in covered parking.

Just follow the mass exodus of companies moving from downtown……..ours just did a couple months ago when our lease came up and were being told by the city our 30 employees parking costs would double. Moved up in the commercial area up by Quinn and Opie……lots of nice onsite parking, bigger building and no harassment from downtown scum.

two things – first, I kow three people who work downtown who have already cancelled their spots (move fast, you need 30 days notice so today or tomorrow)

second – if parking is now $1100 per year, would the free parking for city employees be a taxable benefit?

Hey Axman where are you seeing free parking in the above list of parkades and parking lots? Maybe I missed that? Our public transit is so shitty in this town the majority are forced to drive…people have to drop off kids at daycare etc, or maybe they don’t want to transfer to 3 buses and have their one way commute take 2hrs.

How the hell is increasing pay parking by that much going to boost business in the downtown core? It just shows the people steering the ship are alseep at the wheel.

I agree people should pay for parking……most of us already are. If you want to check that try getting a parking spot in the parkades down near 2nd….you can’t they’re full! So many have to walk 6 or 8 blocks to their open stall that costs as much as covered parking in Kelowna or Kamloops to get to their cars in the winter darkness and getting harassed by drunk and strung out idiots…… is this making you want to own a business or work for one downtown??

I understand we get more snow so costs are bound to be higher for maintenance ……..but parking was still making revenue it wasn’t costing the city money soooo just another short sighted cash grab.

I agree, with interceptor, the free parking should be a taxable benefit.

I think such a sudden hike on the rates is a bit of irresponsibility of the city.

thumbs down to the city on this bonehead move.

If the rest of business in Prince George have to pay for parking why do the employees at the city not have to pay or parking? Seems to me if we have to pay and they implemented it then they should have to pay as well. What makes them special and exempt from paying?

Based on 20 work days a month even at $110 that’s $5.50 per day. Try getting that in Vancouver…. just sayin…

Why does our council always look at what other cities are doing? Can’t they think independently? Its like fashion fads, a lot of people follow them religiously, to what benefit?
Why can’t this city think for themselves? We are not Kamloops or Nanaimo or Kelowna or Victoria. We have our own set of problems and each city has to find their own solutions.
Dumb,
dumb,
dumb.

I find it laughable that anybody would think this would lead to increased transit use. Once you’ve bought your bus pass the only real savings is a bit of gas and maintenance for what is likely a short car commute. When you consider your commute will not likely quadruple in time at minimum there is no real savings, unless you don’t value your time. Spoken by a person who has never had to rely on transit for sure. To get downtown on the bus is over an hour for me. But that’s not the worst bit – you have no control on arrival and departure time. When I drop my daughter off at preschool we get there 20 minutes early and have to wait 30 minutes for a bus afterward. So that’s two hours each way plus 50 minutes. Yeah, I’m sure everyone wants to add that on to their working day.

Seems to me that if people don’t like the rates, they can find alternate arrangements. Free and/or subsudized parking is not a right of people who happen to work downtown.

Owning and operating a vehicle comes with a cost, from gas to insurance to maintenance to storage (parking). None of these costs are going down, better get used to it.

“Posted by: JBio on October 30 2013 7:51 AM
Hey Axman where are you seeing free parking in the above list of parkades and parking lots? Maybe I missed that?”

If you’re not paying for it, it’s free.

Most people choose to live where they do and if that’s 20 minutes away from their place of work they have no right to expect the rest of us to subsidize their parking.

Vocer, I know Downtown PG is easily mistaken for Vancouver, you know with all the hustle and bustle of business and all…..Vancouver has had a tough time revitalizing its down town core….such a dump……with those huge sky scrapers housing head offices of multi billion dollar companies, all those city buses and that sky train…..pretty much a ghost town ;)

No, perhaps people don’t have a right to free or subsidized parking, but they are definitely entitled to be able to walk to and from their vehicles without having to feel afraid of being approached by shady individuals while getting in to their vehicles.
Cities like Nanaimo and Kelowna do not experience the winters like we do here, parking undercover is almost a necessity in PG during the winter, as is having access to a plug in.
Obviously the parking is going to be more in a city like Vancouver, look at all the things there are to do and see in downtown Vancouver. Also, people working downtown Vancouver are not dealing with snow and sun zero temperatures at the end of their work day.
Downtown PG has become a scary and shady place, perhaps this is the issue Council needs to address. The residents of PG could come up with many cost saving measures I am sure, and not one of them would be come from passing on added costs to the middle and working class. Best of all, the citizen’ score review could have been offered free of charge.

So we all agree that parking has a cost. Where some of us work we have an employer who has a parking lot on their property with room for “free parking” – but there is still a cost, its just picked up by the employer. So free parking for employees should be a taxable benefit. If my employer gives me gas to get to and from home to work its a taxable benefit. This is the same thing.

And off street parking costs how much Vanderhoof, Quesnel, Ft ST John. There are other northern cities who have snow to clear and cold temperatures.

Wonder what the city takes in from the Cougars on CN center rental give the structure of the agreement and the dismal attendance. Is the city even breaking even. Maybe look at what the Kamloops Blazers pay for rent and adjust the Cougars contract to reflect a similar agreement.
Seems council cherry picks and stuffs it to the taxpayer at every available opportunity.

i don’t think anyone is asking non-parkers to subsidize the parking of people working downtown. the fact is that parking the way it was before was not a money loser. it’s not even that people are opposed to a raise in rates, sure that’s probably fair. it’s the size of the increases that’s the issue. axman, i’m sure if something (ANYTHING) that you required for work or to drive your vehicle doubled in price overnight, you’d probably be a little chafed too. i’m sure you wouldn’t simply shrug your shoulders, bend over the barrel, and accept it, like you expect everyone else to do.

like a couple other posters, the problem is going to get worse, not better. in my office, there are at least 4-5 out of 8 employees that are likely cancelling their spots in the 2nd ave parkade. the city just expects that everyone that has a spot now will simply accept the rate increase, thus they come to their 230,000 profit. i agree that when the city puts pay parking in their employee lot by city hall, i’ll stop my complaining…or complain less.

Is my Mic on…..tap tap tap. But If you are paying for it, it isn’t free (unless you throw around $600 like nothing, for most of us that doesn’t feel free…an instant doubling of that definitely won’t feel free). How are you subsidizing parking for people that pay? The parking in the city is still making money at the current rates……..therefore no subsidizing. This is about generating more revenue, which will cover the costs of other expenses.

If you live 20 mins away you’re probably like me paying city taxes even though you don’t have sewer or city water…or even a paved street…snowplowing a week after it snows………so you are either paying into the pot for your parking or subsidizing your sewer and water….why should I have to do that?

End of the day…..the city is like any other failing business……raise prices so much and push away their costumers…….or keep the prices lower and have much more costumers. Simple… making 20 bucks off of 100 ppl is better then 50 bucks off of 10.

“Just follow the mass exodus of companies moving from downtown”

I am waiting for the first application to rezone the Box Store Heaven development in CH to allow large office buildings …. it would be interesting to see what Council would do with that.

$5.50 per day. Try getting that in Vancouver…. just sayin…

try getting that in Tokyo …. just sayin …. LOL

BTW, this is PG …. there are local factors to consider …. such a KPMG report who then leave town laughing to watch the in-fighting they caused … :-)

Interceptor wrote: “So we all agree that parking has a cost. Where some of us work we have an employer who has a parking lot on their property with room for “free parking” – but there is still a cost, its just picked up by the employer’

How quickly everyone forgets, or maybe some do not realize, that those who are in the part of downtown where owners do not have to provide parking, they pay a parking levy ….. don’t know what that is. Maybe someone can write a more comprehensive article about this that tells the whole story so that we can compare apples to apples.

gus: “BTW, this is PG …. there are local factors to consider …. “

…said the guy who often uses Bellingham to make a point. Just sayin’. ;-)

I do agree that comparing us to large centers like Vancouver or Calgary isn’t appropriate. At the end of the day, providing parking comes at a cost, and while people hate price increases, we have to start thinking in terms of sustainability. We cannot afford to keep on the same path we are currently on.

The current Mayor and council will probably end up bearing the brunt of everyone’s frustration (not just on the parking issue), although we can certainly look at past Mayors and councils for passing the buck. At some point the buck cannot be passed any further, and decisions have to be made that aren’t seen as ‘popular’, but ultimately are the right things to do.

This is at least the second time Mayor Green has mentioned PG Public transit as an option.
So in what month this winter will the entire counsel use the existing public transit?

If it is so great, show us! Put your money where your mouth is.
Mayor Green, I challenge you to use the public transit this November for more than one (1) day. I dare you.

I know you won’t, because you are like most other politicians, all talk, no walk.

JohnnyBelt. Decisions have to be made based on **facts**, not some hair brained ideas dreamed up by some Councilors, and some accountants from the Core Review .

1. All taxpayers in Prince George paid a portion of their taxes that enabled the City to build the parkades, and establish off street parking.

2. Those people who work and shop in the various malls, also paid taxes for downtown parking even though they do not use it. This also applies to taxpayers who do not drive. Should these people be entitled to a rebate???

3. The City should only be allowed to assess parking charges that allow them to recoup costs for administration and maintenance. There is no need for the City to make revenue on parking.

4. If the Mayor, and some people think that the terrible transit in Prince George should be used by some people, then they should lead by example. Otherwise quit making assine statements.

5. We need to reduce taxes, reduce user fees, reduce operating costs in this City. That is the job of the Mayor and Council. We have had enough of this BS, that all they can do is, increase wages, staff, taxes, and user fees.

6. If they cannot get a handle on costs, then it would behoove some of them not to run in the next election, because not reducing costs is an admission of not being capable of running this City.

5. When will we be discussing the costs of the **Untouchables**

1. Police
2. Fireman
3. City Staff, Administration
4. Capital Spending
5. IPG
6. Library, and Arts Centre
7. Tourist Bureau.

These are where the big money is spent, and obviously that’s where the savings lie.

Comparison is convenience – it depends on what your argument is.
Our comparable cities are usually Nanaimo, Kamloops, Coquitlam, Kelowna for most things, but let’s look at…fluoride. Do these cities dump it into the water system? NO
In this case, Mayor and Council compare PG to Ft St John – one of the 3 cities left in the province practicing this. We might as well throw Terrace into the mix – they’re the other municipality

Loki – yes! I completely agree with you, I want to see our elected officials use the public transit system that they keep telling us to use. I can’t, there is no service to the BCR site where I work. I would love to be able to park my vehicle and use transit to and from work, but it’s just not possible.

Palopu: “3. The City should only be allowed to assess parking charges that allow them to recoup costs for administration and maintenance. There is no need for the City to make revenue on parking.”

I agree with this, and that’s my understanding of what is proposed.

Palopu: “5. We need to reduce taxes, reduce user fees, reduce operating costs in this City. That is the job of the Mayor and Council. “

Agreed. Are you prepared for less services as well?

“5. When will we be discussing the costs of the **Untouchables**

1. Police
2. Fireman
3. City Staff, Administration
4. Capital Spending
5. IPG
6. Library, and Arts Centre
7. Tourist Bureau.”

Agreed as well. Parking is just one part of the big picture. I still don’t think it should ever be ‘free’, because the cost has to come from somewhere.

The people whose parking fees are increased, in some cases doubled, were never parking for “free.”

So the people who don’t have a plug in get more screwed over with the increase.. Thanks for worrying about the environment by not plugging in you cars, here’s a bigger increase for your help..lol

Posted by: PrinceGeorge on October 30 2013 10:25 AM
The people whose parking fees are increased, in some cases doubled, were never parking for “free.”

——————

The people whose employers are paying for their parking are parking for “free”.

Pretty much everything that needs to be said, has been said, on this ridiculous matter.

My comment is a simple statement; there needs to be a huge turn-over in Mayor and Councillor incumbents next election!

Wowza, that is quite a shock. Having said that, I’ve made the swith to walking and transit to get to work downtown. For the cost of a $90 parking pass, you could buy a monthly bus pass and have $35 leftover for the occasional cab fare. Plus you would severe reduce you monthly fuel bill, repair bill, and hassle of navigating snowy pg streets. There are a lot of excuses for not taking transit, but I would say, don’t knock till you try it! You can by a 10 ticket pass for $17 to try it out for a couple of weeks. You would be amazed how much more you will enjoy this city on foot.

there is a trickle down effect here – people are moving out of the more expensive parkades and getting monthly spots in the open lots (not designated parking places – only area). There are now waiting lists for the open lots. The general public can also buy temporary parking/day passes in these lots. I have been parking for 4 years in one of the open parking lots (increase from $39 to $55) but I will be super pissed off if I now come to work and am not able to park in my designated “lot” as it is full! I do not juggle the on street parking of keeping one step ahead of the markers, soon to be license recognition, but am concerned that I will not be able to park in the lot where I have paid to park! Wonder how the City will deal with those complaints?

I have relied on transit for years and I certainly cannot say I enjoy it one little bit. Of course I also have two small children and that complicates matters somewhat. Thing is, so do a lot of people working downtown. Not sure how you are supposed to take the kids to daycare AND get to work without a car. That would be a whole world of not fun in this town. Anyone who does that is doing it because they really have no other option. Add to that the missed couple of hours a day with your kids and having to start dinner much later? I’m sure some people can manage a shorter commute, but many of our neighbourhoods require a transfer and an hour to get downtown.

Not saying people shouldn’t pay for parking. I just don’t see this as a boon for transit.

I just love the way the core review has determined that were are inline for parking with Kelowna, Naniamo and Kamloops for pricing……I guess they forgot, we don’t have the population they do and Prince George really does have fall and winters. Dumb A##es

5. When will we be discussing the costs of the **Untouchables**

1. Police
2. Fireman
3. City Staff, Administration
4. Capital Spending
5. IPG
6. Library, and Arts Centre
7. Tourist Bureau.”

======================================
All these buildings and people associated with them are outside the “downtown parking exemption area”.

The owners of property within that area do not have to provide parking for their establishments.

That area is north of 7th avenue up to a line approximately between first and second. Then bounded by Queensway to the east and Victoria to the west, but also includes an area up tot almost Winnipeg along the south part of third.

City Hall, firehalls, Civic Centre buildings, RCMP, IPG, Tourist Bureau, Public Works Yard, etc, are ALL outside that area. They, along with commercial buildings such as the Coast Inn, Gold’s Gym, White Spot, Tim Horton, Kandola Plaza, Parkwood, etc. etc. are outside that area and have to provide their own parking lots. All of those have free parking to customers on their lots and presumably to employees and owners of those businesses.

I have posted this information before, although not as explicitly. However, people really do not care for such information or understand it.

Too many have blinders on and have developed a mindset not based on fact.

Operations such as CNC and UNBC have parking that meets or exceeds the tabular requirements of city zoning but choose to have pay parking on their lots because the peak demands can exceed the spaces provided, or they have a policy to collect a fee for parking.

Thus, the City handles its employees the same way as others outside the “downtown parking exemption area” does; no charge for parking by staff and clients.

People: “My comment is a simple statement; there needs to be a huge turn-over in Mayor and Councillor incumbents next election!”

Many people feel the same way. Just don’t expect anything to change under a new regime. Maybe we can bring Rogers or Kinsley back. Ignorance is bliss.

axman: ” The people whose employers are paying for their parking are parking for “free”.”

Well, if you put it that way…as long as somebody pays it is not really free!

Actually there can be many changes under a new regime, just like this new regime has turned everything inside out compared to the one before, as witnessed by the higher degree of frustration shown by everyone I know and by the comments here and in the papers.

However, there is always a chance that a new regime will make respectful positive changes for the better!

Gus. I was talking about the costs associated with the **untouchables** ie; wages, benefits, etc; /That’s where the big money is, and a simple 5% reduction in costs in these areas would provide huge savings.

Palopu: 1% on a 48 million dollar payroll is 480,000 – if the city employees all took a 1% decrease they could save the city half a million dollars.

Funny how the law restricts raising residential tenancy rent per calendar year by inflation plus 2% yet they can double the rent for parking spaces in one year without batting an eyelash

When I visit Vancouver I always park at the new Shaw tower across from the Vancouver convention center in downtown Vancouver.

Heated, underground, secure parking with three or four security guards for my truck and its only $5.50 a night. I even slept in the canopy a few times and it was as good as a hotel for the night for only $5.50 with all the amenities of a world class city within blocks.

To see that we would charge that for what passes for a parkade here in PG is so PG.

PG: “Actually there can be many changes under a new regime, just like this new regime has turned everything inside out compared to the one before, as witnessed by the higher degree of frustration shown by everyone I know and by the comments here and in the papers. “

There are a lot of spoiled entitled people in this town.

Ha, ha, to all you single ladies out there… if Eagleone offers you an all expenses paid weekend in Vancouver, don’t expect to be swept off your feet.

I’m just kidding, sleeping in your truck canopy is so, so, Northern BC, love it! Be even better if you had a van.

This is awesome! Im going to set up a bike stand with locks for 30$ a month!!