5619 replies to this topic

[Bingo]

Those points could have been combined into one post instead of the two posts that are currently there.

 

Yes but then you will never catch VHF or Mike K in the race to the top in the Overall Top Poster category.

You do have a pair of overalls do you not?

[Rob Randall]

Let's find out how many CoV employees enjoy free parking on the taxpayer dollar, and they can be the first to move their cars to the new parkade at the arena.

You expect them to drive in all the way from Saanich and then walk five blocks to City Hall? Harsh.

[Bingo]

You expect them to drive in all the way from Saanich and then walk five blocks to City Hall? Harsh.

 

It will only be a one block walk when the NEW City Hall Legacy Project is combined with the NEW Crystal pool.

Oh!  You hadn't heard...

[manuel]

I love living within a 20 minute walk to downtown. The funniest part is seeing all of the chronic 'move my car every two hours ' crew - including the Hummer- now parking one block further away since in from vancouver is now one hour.

What do people do in big cities? Expect to park downtown or take public transit. Unless you are rich or like wasting money, the latter.

Parking operators will arbitrage the supply and demand imbalance and raise rates until either people choose another way downtown or new garages get built. At the same time value of properties downtown will increase, further reducing the supply of low value surface lots in comparison to developed sites. As a resident, do I want to see the city prioritize new parking garages to serve commuters, inevitably increasing traffic through the city, or would I prefer the same funds to be spent on something that might be of value to me, like a non antiquated pool or more public transit so the 22 runs every 15 minutes in the morning instead of 20 . The latter two, for sure.

What it comes down to is that I'd rather have a livable and walkable city rather than a homage to big roads and cars.

There, I just combined right wing economic theory with left wing livability arguments.

Edited by manuel, 12 October 2017 - 09:26 PM.

[tjv]

Absolutely.  But if I give you $175 of free parking, it's not like you pay $175 tax on it and it's a wash.  You just pay tax on the fair value.  So maybe like $65 is your hit.  The $110 is paid (or foregone) by City taxpayers.

The exemption is that if the employer requires the employee to use their car for work on a somewhat regular basis (eg off site meetings).  A downtown employer is not going to like hearing "sure boss, it will take me 30 minutes to walk to my car because you won't pay for parking and I have to leave it in Esquimalt"

 

I would also think that for an employer who choose to locate their business downtown, to attract good quality management they have to pay for parking.  $175x12 = $2100/yr in after tax money adds up quickly for an employee

[VicHockeyFan]

I'll guess a lot of City workers that never use their car for work are also given free parking by their employer.

[Mike K.]

The City is in the business of parking. It is the City’s responsibility to ensure that the businesses that pay the taxes that uphold the $200 million+ annual budget have access to attainable and affordable parking, for much of our downtown core’s buildings provide ZERO parking for their commercial and/or residential tenants. That’s the reality of having a large Old Town and being the business core of a region.

If the City under the current administration feels like it is NOT in the business of providing parking, it MUST formally state. This game of cat and mouse that the City is playing is impacting businesses that are unsure about the direction at City Hall and can't make informed long-term decisions like whether or not to renew their leases or seek locations elsewhere.

[Mike K.]

The hypocrisy on this thread is outstanding.

 

He's back!! (I think?)

 

Nagel, is that you?

[VicHockeyFan]

I agree.  If the City is not in the parking business, sell off the parkades and surface lots they run to the very highest bidder.  You can't be in when you want to be in (parking and parking fine revenues) and not be in when you don't want to be (cost of a new parkade).

Edited by VicHockeyFan, 13 October 2017 - 07:31 AM.

[Mike K.]

The City of Victoria is the largest single provider of parking on Vancouver Island by a massive margin (pay-for-play spaces number into the many thousands).

 

Millions of dollars are generated annually by the City of Victoria from parking.

 

Fine revenues certainly pad the City's coffers.

 

A couple dozen people are directly and indirectly employed by the City's parking enterprise, including a dozen "ambassadors."

 

And now, in 2017, after many decades of being in this business, the mayor of Victoria says it is not the City's responsibility to supply parking and that it's really a private market issue to be solved.

 

That's not rational in light of the points above.

[Mike K.]

You know, ironically enough, parking appears to be the business of the City of Victoria. What other service does the City provide that generates cash flow from the general public?

[VicHockeyFan]

You know, ironically enough, parking appears to be the business of the City of Victoria. What other service does the City provide that generates cash flow from the general public?

 

Property tax, and then business licenses and all kinds of development and utility fees.

 

Taxes:  59%

Fees: 18%

Cost recovery:  13%

Parking:  7%

Grants:  2.5%

Reserves:  0.5%

 

Parking revenue:

 

52% street and surface lots

28% parkades

20% parking violations 

 

The City of Victoria operates five parkades, three surface lots and has nearly 2,000 on-street parking spaces downtown that are budgeted to generate approximately $16 million in revenue in 2017. The 2017 budget includes revenue from on street and surface lots at $8.2 million, which is the largest parking revenue source. This is followed by parkade parking at $4.5 million and parking violations at $3.3 million.

 

3% of the annual budget is spent on parking services.

Edited by VicHockeyFan, 13 October 2017 - 08:13 AM.

[shoeflack]

The City of Victoria is the largest provider of parking on Vancouver Island, by a massive margin (pay-for-play spaces number into the many thousands).

 

I don't think this is true. And if it is, it's certainly not by a "massive margin".

 

The City of Victoria has 2,000 on-street spaces, 408 surface lot spaces, and 1,856 parkade spaces...so just shy of 4,300 total paid spaces. I suppose if you consider all the free spaces that number would mushroom significantly.

 

However, the City of Nanaimo has just shy of 2,000 total paid spaces, but with a higher residential population, 5 times the total land area, and far more free spaces at other municipally owned facilities, they have to be close.

 

In terms of paid spaces, UVic has both beat at 4,400 paid spaces. Island Health must have at least a couple thousand as well.

[Mike K.]

You're not counting patrolled spaces outside of the downtown core with strict time limits per block. If you don't move within the allotted time, you get dinged. Those stalls/areas are also one step below metered spaces which we're now seeing materialize (Meares Street and others).

 

That adds several thousand stalls (or maybe a 1,000, or 1,500, I don't really know) to the City's patrolled and controlled parking stock.

[Mike K.]

Property tax, and then business licenses and all kinds of development and utility fees.

 

Taxes:  59%

Fees: 18%

Cost recovery:  13%

Parking:  7%

Grants:  2.5%

Reserves:  0.5%

 

Parking revenue:

 

52% street and surface lots

28% parkades

20% parking violations 

 

The City of Victoria operates five parkades, three surface lots and has nearly 2,000 on-street parking spaces downtown that are budgeted to generate approximately $16 million in revenue in 2017. The 2017 budget includes revenue from on street and surface lots at $8.2 million, which is the largest parking revenue source. This is followed by parkade parking at $4.5 million and parking violations at $3.3 million.

 

Ah, but none of those other fees are applied to the general public like an average business would apply an average product or service.

 

Taxes and municipal fees are applied to a captive (residents and businesses) or highly targeted (developers, etc.) audience.

[Mike K.]

And speaking of free market stuff, Helps literally proclaimed that parking ticketing services would no longer operate as free market operators and would all be brought in-house (Commissionaires were let go, City union workers were brought in). Towing illegally parked vehicles remains private.

If parking is really an issue for the free market to resolve, why are we still, as tax payers, owners of the large volume of parkade spaces and why are City Hall employees ticketing vehicles in lieu of private contractors like Robbins, U Park, etc?

[VicHockeyFan]

Most City employees have benefits in the range of $1500 to $2500 per year.  But if we count up the ones that have over $5,000, it might be safe to assume they are getting a car allowance and/or a free parking stall.  There are 73 of those employees in the CoV.

[aastra]

Considering that Victoria issues 150,000-200,000 parking tickets per year while Nanaimo issues 5,000-7,000 parking tickets per year, I think the perception that the city is in the parking business would hold some water. But maybe not quite so much right now as in prior years.

 

I hate to bring this up but I could have sworn those downtown visioning documents from way back showed at least one city parkade as being a good spot for high density. Remember those (goofy) future density maps? Don't quote me but I want to say it was the Johnson Street parkade.

[Bingo]

A recent source has said that the Johnson Street parkade would be a good spot for high density parking tickets.

[rjag]

11AM meeting this morning at the Atrium. View St parkade - Full, Johnson St parkade - Full. meeting is going to be 90 minutes minimum, drove back up Johnson and stuck in single lane traffic all the way to Cook, no parking, drove down Yates to Blanshard, no parking, Drove up View to Vancouver, found 1 spot behind LD. late for our meeting. Left our house at UVic at 10:30 arrived at meeting at 11:10. Luckily we didnt get a ticket....

 

Advised the person we were meeting that this was similar to our last meeting, they are looking at opening a satellite office to meet clients where parking is available as this is becoming a frequent occurence. They are looking at Royal Oak or upper shelbourne.  

 

And no we could not take the bus or ride our bikes as we were also going to make several other stops while we were out which included several large packages....

Edited by rjag, 13 October 2017 - 02:10 PM.