5619 replies to this topic

[On the Level]

 

A report going to city councillors on Thursday recommends reinstating regular hourly parking fees at on-street meters as well as at the Yates Street and Centennial Square parkades as of Aug. 4.

 

Where we have businesses in those areas, they are now phoning and complaining that there is no turnover at all, which probably means that it’s not their customers parking,

 

The city’s parkades, meanwhile, are operating at about 55 per cent of last year’s volume overall. 

 

Increasing the rates for on-street parking is probably a good idea, but I'm not so sure about the parkades.  We are right in the middle of the summer where people want to spend some time outside downtown.  I have always said we will get a second wave which combined with colder wet weather will make this semi-recovery short lived.  

 

I'd suggest bringing on-street parking rates back to where they normally are but leave the parkades at the lower rate (or make them free if the numbers of folks dip again).

 

https://www.timescol...find-1.24173448

Edited by On the Level, 21 July 2020 - 08:44 AM.

[Ismo07]

Increasing the rates for on-street parking is probably a good idea, but I'm not so sure about the parkades.  We are right in the middle of the summer where people want to spend some time outside downtown.  I have always said we will get a second wave which combined with colder wet weather will make this semi-recovery short lived.  

 

I'd suggest bringing on-street parking rates back to where they normally are but leave the parkades at the lower rate (or make them free if the numbers of folks dip again).

 

https://www.timescol...find-1.24173448

 

Great points.  The recommendation on having Yates and Centennial back to 'normal' and an increase in the max day at Johnson and View is mostly due to use.  Broughton remains and there is some hope that some commuters will make the move to park at Broughton for the day and have a little longer walk.  this leaves spaces in the Yates street parkade for people who want to enjoy downtown for the short-term.  If a 2nd wave does occur I'm pretty certain there will be flexibility with the rates. 

[Victoria Watcher]

Downtown Victoria’s on-street parking time limits, rates back in effect

 

City reinstates restrictions, extends reduced rates for parkades and other metered areas

 

https://www.vicnews....back-in-effect/

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 06 August 2020 - 04:23 AM.

[Victoria Watcher]

here's a sure sign of people not working downtown.

 

robbins has many monthly spots available in many parkades.

 

https://robbinsparki...arking-locator/

 

until covid they were all wait-list.

[rjag]

Had to use View St parkade twice this week, Tuesday and Thursday, both around 9:45-11. Both times I would say less than 50% occupancy, the # sign said 260 spots available. Thats pretty sad and telling of how few longer term (ie more than an hour) people are downtown. Noticed this at the LD parking lot as well, always 1/2 dozen spots open in the middle of the day.

 

Its not just downtown, the LD/Thrifty's at Quadra McKenzie underground is wide open. Maybe Sebberry who frequents that location can comment. This does not bode well for the Fall months post tourist season. 

 

Govt is going to have to lead by example and get people back in the offices otherwise its game over for a lot of these small businesses

[Nparker]

...Govt is going to have to lead by example and get people back in the offices otherwise its game over for a lot of these small businesses

I agree, but I just don't see this happening. I doubt people will be told they must work from their offices, despite the economic impact.

[Mike K.]

Some of my colleagues who have gone back to work full time are now being told that their schedules could incorporate more work from home as social distancing measures are proving difficult to maintain and causing their own sets of issues.

Mrs Mike K is heading back full time in September but other departments are already re-implementing part-time on-site work. So we’ll see how that goes.

[Victoria Watcher]

a downtown federal government worker i know has been told they are all clear to keep working at home full time until at least january 2021.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 15 August 2020 - 08:49 AM.

[Nparker]

I don't expect to see the entire staff (currently 24) at my workplace coming into the office full-time ever again. I imagine a similar scenario will occur across many provincial government offices, especially those that have no direct public interactions. Having large numbers of employees working from home has been relatively easy to manage and in the long run saves money. Where is the impetus to change this?

[Mike K.]

To be fair, we don’t know what the financial impact of this is just yet, and won’t for a while.

Due to potential for off-network attacks, there remain vulnerabilities that could cost millions of dollars to fix, it even one employee with access to a government payment system is hacked while working from home.

And there are infrastructure costs employers may need to pay in order to ensure employees have the right tools for their jobs, while social distancing requirements force office tenants to maintain larger office work spaces rather than taking opportunities to downsize.

[Victoria Watcher]

Nparker i'm not sure how involved you are with the union but might this be up for formalization in contract language?  work location?

[Nparker]

Nparker i'm not sure how involved you are with the union but might this be up for formalization in contract language?  work location?

I am not particularly involved. I believe the current GEU contract comes up for re-negotiation early next year, so I suppose if members feel the current language needs updating in regards to work location, it might get addressed. As someone with less than 2 years left until retirement, I can't say I have much stake in the game anymore.

[sebberry]

Its not just downtown, the LD/Thrifty's at Quadra McKenzie underground is wide open. Maybe Sebberry who frequents that location can comment. 

 

There certainly seems to be fewer cars in the staff parking areas.  We have a few people who come in around 9AM and sometimes during the old days they struggle to find a spot and end up parking in customer parking for a while but lately there's a lot more spaces open.  

[lanforod]

Nparker i'm not sure how involved you are with the union but might this be up for formalization in contract language?  work location?

 

I know its in the works with the UVic unions. Work from home was already slowly being worked on/piloted. Covid threw it right into the spotlight, and it obviously works. They also ratified MoUs around temporary layoffs due to Covid.

 

That said, I think WFH works well when an entire team is at home. Multi-modal meetings suck. All online or all in person is best; mixing them brings out the downsides to both more than the upsides.

[Spy Black]

I've worked downtown for decades, and I've been back full time at my office post-COVID shutdown for a couple of months now ... and despite any COV parking figures that might be trotted out as evidence otherwise, I can assure all who might wonder that downtown is currently devastated in terms of the number of people downtown making purchases of anything at all, from food to goods.

 

Walk into the Bay downtown, and you'll see that their shelves are almost empty. I asked a Bay worker up in housewares what was going on, and she said their business was down so low that they couldn't justify bringing stock levels up to anything remotely close to what they were pre-COVID.

 

It's my belief that we're in a transitional "dream" stage right now, where we're pretending everything is OK (something that's being falsely reinforced by restaurants and bars being open again), but that in reality we're on the cusp of a devastating series of closures and abandonment of downtown businesses, an "abandonment" that will leave downtown Victoria just short of a wasteland for years to come.

[Mike K.]

Certainly a restructuring of the inputs required to maintain the City of Victoria’s $250M annual budget.

Let’s see what happens in the fall. Lots of offices will be bringing people back come September so that’ll be the true test of things to come. But this city can’t keep spending the way it has been if it wants to protect itself from even a medium term of financial hardship.

[Nparker]

... in reality we're on the cusp of a devastating series of closures and abandonment of downtown businesses, an "abandonment" that will leave downtown Victoria just short of a wasteland for years to come.

To be fair, it's not just downtown Victoria that is experiencing this, but probably the downtowns of many cities. It's certainly more pronounced and likely will be more prolonged in Victoria because government workers are not being encouraged to return to their offices and of course the complete lack of international tourist traffic. It also doesn't help that in the CoV we have a local government that is actively discouraging law and order, making people leery to spend any significant time downtown.

So to get this back on topic, I expect finding parking downtown won't be a significant issue for a while.

[Hotel Mike]

I am more sanguine about the future of downtown Victoria. New residents will be moving in, in really big numbers. Some are super expensive units. They will want their downtown to be a vital, interesting, safe place to be. A future council will be sympathetic to the situation and deal with it accordingly. Plus, the whole new patios-everywhere feel in downtown is really getting there. There is much good yet to come.

[Nparker]

How much do rose-coloured glasses cost these days Hotel Mike? 

[grantpalin]

I work for the province, based out of a downtown office. Since mid-March I've been primarily working from home. My branch is doing a trial of having a number of people working at the office one or two days a week to verify that cleaning routines, cleaning supplies etc are sufficient. The workspace has signs everywhere reminding us of distancing, handwashing etc and limiting the number of people in any one space at a time. Word is that the full back to the office for everyone won't be happening any time soon, but I don't know any further details. Meanwhile my job doesn't require me to be physically in the office, so WFH is where it's at. It does mean that I am seldom downtown these days where I used to be there every day.