THUNDER BAY — A change in hours of paid parking and free holiday parking at meters are like an early Christmas present for many Thunder Bay business owners.
The hours of enforcement for paid parking were reduced from 7 a.m to 9 p.m. down to 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Saturday. Free holiday parking will run Dec. 16 to Jan. 1.
The change in the parking bylaw, which was approved by city council on Monday, is being welcomed across the business community.
Jennifer Hourd, owner of Bella Curves and Pleasure Zone on May Street, said the change in metered parking has had an impact on her business.
"Now I can stay open past the time when people are off work," Hourd said. "I feel like maybe the city might be starting to listen to us business people and are trying to actually help us instead of hurt us."
Hourd said by Wednesday morning, she had already noticed a difference.
"I opened at 11 o'clock and I've already had three customers in this morning," she said. "The big box stores, the mall and everywhere where there was free (lot) parking were just getting flooded (with shoppers)." She added that small businesses rely on the residents of Thunder Bay to come in and shop.
Vanessa Wojtalik, owner of Wojo's Mojo on Algoma Street, says having the hours change allows people to "park on a whim" without having to worry about change in their pockets.
"They're getting off of work and trying to run into the shops, especially this time of year for Christmas shopping," Wojtalik said.
"It's beneficial, and they don't have to worry about getting ticketed."
With metered parking formerly enforced from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., Wojtalik said people either avoided parking outside her store altogether or if they were in the store, they had to leave to go put more money in the meter.
"We would give them change, just so that they spend more time in our store without having to put their own money into the meters," she said. "We didn't want them to feel rushed and to leave before they were finished looking through the store and it was kind of thanking them for coming in and spending time in here."
Wojtalik says the mail strike is adding additional challenges to small businesses.
"A lot of people aren't mailing out parcels for Christmas this year," she said. "People would normally come in and buy a few items to mail out to their loved ones, and now they're shopping online because (organizations like) Amazon delivers it for them and that's drastically affecting retail."
Wojtalik added that making people's shopping experience easy to access with less interference and challenges encourages them to stop and shop.
Across the city in the Westfort business district, Gusto Cafe owner John Mannella said he has paid many parking tickets for his customers.
"My customers complain about wanting a $3 coffee, and it cost them, another $2 to come in for a minute," he said.
"I've paid for numerous parking tickets for my customers because we're a new business, and I'm asking people to come in. It hasn't been a positive experience."
Mannella added, "I'm happy about the change, but if it was up to me, I would remove all these meters."
The Chronicle-Journal / Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
