South Bruce Peninsular - Paid parking experiment not working fairly - Comments

Dogs and poop, drinking, fires, dirty diapers and more...

sabrinus — Tue, 05 Jul 2005 10:13:38 -0400

Good point on the dogs, Gary. There were a number of the beasts frolicking and pooping up the beach here in North Sauble over the long weekend. I always try to clean up litter I come across in my little patch of heaven, and this Monday, on the beach and in the dunes, I picked up and disposed of the following items:

one doggie poop
2 dirty diapers
broken glass
beer bottles galore
a makeshift fire pit
and many general litter items

Worse than "normal" I think. Perhaps people think that if they pay to park then they have more right to be pigs? I don't know...

"The Earth does not belong to Man.Â Man belongs to the Earth.
Man does not weave the web of life.Â He is merely a strand it it.
Whatever he does to the web,he does to himself."

Chief Seathl

And speaking of lost revenues ...

garym — Mon, 04 Jul 2005 17:05:56 -0400

Something else, since you mention the ad-hoc by-law enforcement: We were down on the beach just after 4 on Friday, and within less than hour's time along the single block between main and the Crowd Inn, we counted no less than six dogs on the beach. According to the signs posted everywhere, that's a potential revenue stream of what, nearly a thousand dollars an hour per block?? Surely that sort of money would put a big dent in the beach cleaner costs :)

Folks, especially you dog folks, if you're reading this, understand, I love dogs, but they just don't belong on a crowded public beach. Why? I ain't afraid o' no ghosts, but look, your sweet Fluffy may be adorable and harmless, but if we let Fluffy roam free, we also have to let the hair-trigger mastiffs and the dog with loose bowels, and, well, that's just an accident waiting to happen. It's no big deal, there's lots of waterfront elsewhere for Fluffy's frolicks. No offense, but, let's leave the public beach lands to the human public.

Mind you, taking Fluffy walkabout elsewhere, I suppose you would lose your precious paid parking space ...

garym: ict evangelist - musician - whatever

Tipping the balance

garym — Mon, 04 Jul 2005 16:52:18 -0400

I did my survey on Saturday afternoon, and while I didn't take any count, it just seemed like the quality of car parked on Lakeshore was shifted up a payscale or two. Probably co-incidence, but where you would have seen the Lexus and Discovery SUVs right along side 80's vintage rusting pickups and family vans, today we just see newer models with clean paint-jobs.

This now makes me wonder if there may be an unintended consequence: Where a coin-conscious family might even burn $5 in gas hunting a 'free' spot on 2nd (I've also heard tell of residents renting lawnspace for a loon or two), others might just think the tax well within the day's demands. This sifting of economic classes then leaves the more well-to-do in higher concentrations along the lakeshore, and while it is then sad to see an exclusivity in this Tragedy of the Commons, it could mean there is more spare pocket coin being focussed in the core business area; it will be interesting to see if businesses report the same or fewer customers (I certainly didn't see any fewer cars) but show a clearly higher conversion ratio of paying customers vs total visitors. Despite Mark Wunderlich's opposition, the elitism of paid parking may be a social shame and tragedy, but could very well be "good for business".

Exclusive access to beach parking, pop machines jumping from $0.35 to $1.50, $2 kiddie ice-creams and buck and a half coffee, a shift from farm family fare to fast fun food at the grocers, rental rates tripling, cottage prices doubling and all within a year or two, I think what we are seeing is the tipping point in the Urbanization of Sauble Beach -- having consumered Haliburton, Wasaga and Grand Bend through business-first thinking, I think we may be next on the list.

"And get out of the new road
if you can't lend a hand
and the times they are a-changing"

garym: ict evangelist - musician - whatever

Paid parking experiment not working fairly

sabrinus — Mon, 04 Jul 2005 15:29:46 -0400

Today, Monday July 4 between 1:30 pm and 2 pm, I took a little survey of the cars angle-parked between the change houe at 6th and Lakeside Village. I estimated 60 percent of the cars parked DID NOT have parking permits on their dashboards. Of the 40 percent that did have permits, several were stale-dated (July 2 and July 3) and some had issue dates strategically bolcked by cigarette packages and the like. So some pay and some dont' and it doesn't matter, it seems.

I spoke to one of the summer students that issue said permits. He stated that every car north of his position did not have permits on their dashboards. He said that Don Crane and some other person were responsible for issuing infraction tickets. He did not know where they were or what they were doing. Many residents have complained of this hodge-podge approach to enforcement. Many have complained about cars parked both sides of all streets running east-west, where no one has to pay a parking fee. A few are parking on the lot beside the old Edgewater (currently for sale at $689,000!) house at King Edward and Lakeshore. I told one fellow that he would get a parking ticket for parking there. He said "well, I didn't get one yesterday".

Another issue is the distance between pay kiosks. I drove my car down Lakeshore and found that the average distance between pay kiosks is 600 meters. So anyone parking in the middle of two kiosk locations must walk 300 or so meters to pay, wait to pay, then walk back to his car, permit in hand. In the meantime, could not a parking permit enforcement person write a ticket on persons' car and leave? This scenario could easily happen many times over the summer...that is, if there are actually any permit enforcement personel actually out there doing their job, which appears not to be the case.