Parking is key for city to thrive: expert
The Journal talks to an expert (who used to be PQ urban affairs minister) who says the city has to offer a lot more free parking to attract suburbanites and keep its commercial streets viable. But a second expert notes that the suburbs have diversified a lot in recent years, and pairing that with online shopping means people don’t so much need the city for shopping or eating out.
Jack 10:52 on 2019-11-11 Permalink
This is where this visionary started his political career “Il commence toutefois son implication politique comme conseiller municipal de la municipalité de Saint-Guillaume-de-Granada de 1983 à 1988.”
I’m sure he had a lot of time to consider the urban experience in a place where people shopped at Couche Tard. The idea that more parking is an answer for downtown is insane.
Ephraim 12:21 on 2019-11-11 Permalink
So, where is the expert’s degree in urban planning from?
Spi 14:02 on 2019-11-11 Permalink
It’s shocking to me that in the 21st century some still think it’s a good idea to have people drive ten’s of kilometers to buy the same trinkets and objects that they could get closer to home.
CE 15:14 on 2019-11-11 Permalink
Do any of these “experts” ask the people living in cities if they want suburbanites driving more cars into the city or if they want to pay for them to leave their cars all over the city when for free?
qatzelok 15:40 on 2019-11-11 Permalink
“Miser sur le transport actif ou collectif n’est pas une stratégie gagnante pour attirer les banlieusards, a fait remarquer M. Trudel.”
Trudel seems to suggest that suburbanites are welded-to-their-trucks, but if this is so (hopefully it isn’t), they probably do far more harm than good when they transit urban neighborhoods.
david100 15:44 on 2019-11-11 Permalink
Even if this bozo is correct and trips from the suburbs into Montreal will decline without the city’s taxpayers paying for the suburbanites to park, and even if this leads to a decline in the viability of some businesses in Montreal, and even if this leads to business closures . . . at the end of this chain, what we have is a cascading decline in the value of commercial space, with concomitant declines in commercial rents. We’d see an unpleasant transition, no question, but lower commercial rents foster greater variety and novelty in goods and services on offer, making the city even better.
Blork 17:17 on 2019-11-11 Permalink
I’m just one voice, but as someone who lives in the suburbs but spends time and money in the city, I don’t care about *free* parking. I don’t mind paying for parking. But there’s got to be parking in commercial areas (paid or otherwise).
Douglas 17:24 on 2019-11-11 Permalink
Free parking doesn’t work in areas where there are too many people.
They will just park all day and leave their car there.
Chris 21:05 on 2019-11-11 Permalink
Douglas: which is the exact reason the parking meter was invented way the hell back in 1935.
After all these decades, how much more evidence do free parking advocates need for its failure?!?
Jack 21:21 on 2019-11-11 Permalink
By the way Trudel’s academic background is in school administration, not urban planning. His expertise was playing political footsie to get that Ministry. He was a federal NDP candidate , lost and became a PQ MNA.