Comment on Pay Parking

 I thought this comment deserved its own post:

I have lived in Tofino for a few years, and was always proud and eager to tell folks about what a great place it is....was.
The people of Tofino have always been it's biggest boosters just because they love it here. You hardly need a marketing strategy when the whole town is on board. This has been eroding for a few years. Super high cost of living, none existent housing options, high and increasingly higher taxes if you were able at some point in the past to buy a home. I could go on....Now they want to charge folks a parking fee to buy some groceries, or go to the skate park..I couldn't agree more with the previous two posters.

Even when the DOT started to charge for parking at the beach but gave me a pass, I felt like YA! We are all on the same team. Love this place. Willing to work for shit wages but someone respected that and gave me a break. Someone told me they were even thinking of giving out a little sticker, a display pass, for your window if you got the freebie pass. That is a cool idea. I want one of those. Lots would pay to get one of those to be part of the tribe.

What is happening when the folks like me who work here, resent the place and shit talk it. Right now Tofino deserves to be shit talked. I can understand now why folks who have lived her their whole lives are getting out,. town doesn't give a shit, and it is not because we don't have a rec centre. Rec centre? sure but I came here because of the Pacific Ocean, biggest rec centre on the planet. Tell me how I can afford to live here? Tell me that the Town gives a shit about people like me? It is clear we are definitely not on the same team.

Parking Story

  None of our current council ran on the platform of downtown pay parking. The initiative came from unelected staff. It is part of their “war” on the car. I was told by a senior staff member that we don’t have a parking problem; we have a car problem. We’ve seen dozens of parking spots removed from the downtown to be replaced by planters and other stupid stuff. Intersections so narrow that they impede vehicular traffic. 

  Years ago there were quite a few offshore parking spots down by the Whisky Dock. The CAO at the time liked kayaking so he had the parking removed and had a kayak launching facility installed. Lawns and picnic tables were later installed in the former parking spots. This pushed the offshore cars uptown.  

   This would be an opportune time for council to start listening to their constituents instead of blindly following staff recommendations. 

From David Tarrant : 

The hidden 'best before date' for a government is when (the) political side stops bringing in solutions to be challenged by the public service & instead turns to the public service to generate those solutions," he tweeted. "What comes out of bureaucracy is almost always a flavour of 'more process.'

Reagan Was Right !!

 

Pay Parking in Tofino

https://talktofino.ca/downtown-pay-parking 

According to this , some locals will have to pay while offshore residents will get a free pass. Only one free permit per household. Nobody campaigned on this.