Improving Downtowns. Is parking culprit in Moncton?
When I lived and worked in Moncton five or six years back I was only a few blocks from my office in the Blue Cross building and didn’t have a car. Parking wasn’t a problem for me, but reading the comments associated with a story on the CBC entitled ‘Group seeks ways to revive downtown Moncton’ it appears that a lack of parking, or a perceived lack of parking is particularly irksome for some would-be downtown frequenters.
Paid parking in the central city is pretty common. Still, it seems many resent having to pay to park, and would prefer to shop where such costs are non-existent.
People commenting on this story also complain that they have to walk from their cars to their destinations. I find this criticism strange, in that Big Box parking generally requires more walking than downtown parking when I visit the retail hub of Moncton-Dieppe.
Parking alone is not the culprit. Population shifts and popularity of one stop shopping and big box retail are more likely contributors to the decline of maritime downtowns.
This is a fun debate to watch the comment section of. Lots of opinions on what could be improved.
Hopefully PlanSJ is able to get this sort of interaction on specific and broader issues as our municipal plan takes shape.
2 comments:
I've been to downtown Moncton enough times to know that parking is a pain. You have these large surface lots that are out of the way which require you to walk quite far to get to your destination. Compare that to Fredericton and Saint John where you have parking garages that are either attached to the larger buildings or are very close.
I don't think it's the cost of the parking, but the convenience. A lot of people don't want to pay for parking that isn't convenient enough for them.
Just a clarificationto the well-misunderstood thought that big box parking is "free." Big parking lots are really expensive to build, let alone maintain, repair and plow, not to mention the lawsuits that come from slips and falls in the winter and scratch and dent repairs. This enourmous cost is buried in the price of the goods. Generally, this is borne by those that can afford to buy the products without question. Unfortunately, grocery stores and clothing stores are big culprits of "big parking lot mentality".
This dilemma contributesto poverty by making food and clothing more expensive for those that have the least money to pay for it. To add insult to injury, having large parking lots forces most developments further and further away from walkable areas of cities and then we force the poor to pay for transportation to get back and forth. The poor are financing our parking and car-centric mentality. The cost of "free" parking is, in fact, very expensive!
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