Quote:
Originally Posted by getbak
Okay, then we agree. User fees for all.
The problem I have is that we all know that people aren't good with nuance and people like Farkas take full advantage of that. So, when he says "they want to charge you to park on the street in front of your house", he knows that will rile up people who will take it at face-value and won't actually look into the details and realize it's a small administrative fee for the small number of homes that are located in residential parking zones and will have no impact on the vast majority of Calgarians who live in the suburbs.
That CTV story on this is hilarious. It has a quote from Farkas that is five sentences long and he uses some variation of the phrase "pay to park in front of your own home" three times.
The funny thing is, until this made the news last year, I just assumed there was already a fee to get a parking permit. So, I was actually surprised when I first heard it, and like most people, my first reaction was, "What, they're going to charge for residential street parking?" Then, I read the details and thought, oh, I thought they already charged for that.
|
I'm finding this entire parking discussion entertaining but the origin was that I said it's going to be a tough decade for Calgarians. Province is cutting back and our city is struggling for revenue and so they are going to increase taxes and/or start charging for things that used to be free, like parking in front of your home.
Whether they should or shouldn't is a discussion worth having, but at the heart of it is that things are either going to get more expensive or the services are going to be reduced or both, none of which are good for the citizens of the city. Politicians will bear the brunt of this.