THUNDER BAY — City of Thunder Bay parking issues continue to be contentious among business operators and the general public.
Aldo Ruberto, interim chairman of the South Core Business Improvement Area and former city councillor, has a solution — sell the two parkades.
Ruberto said if the city sells the two structures and property, it would generate almost $90,000 in revenue from each parkade and offset the need for new and raised parking fees.
"Several groups wanted to buy the parkades and keep them for their employees, as well as to rent it out to other organizations, and still have parking available for the public," Ruberto said.
"They can use it for their own use, we're going to get taxation, and we don't have to worry about spending money on upkeep, maintenance and repair."
He noted that the south core parkade was basically used by both Victoriaville and city employees, but is now empty because the mall is vacant and most city employees are working from home.
"The public doesn't park in the parkades. They very rarely do," he said. "Most people say they're afraid and don't want to go in there."
Ruberto pointed out that the parkades are frequented by homeless people sleeping in there, others doing drugs, having sex, and defecating.
"It's a scary situation when people urinate, or do whatever they want in the public stairways. We've had several people call us about these incidents," Ruberto said.
"Many go unreported because people just don't care anymore. They just simply don't go in there."
Ruberto noted that he is not saying get rid of the parkades, rather he wants them sold to the private sector.
"Council should ask what's best for the city as a whole and they have to look at every single option," he said.
"They should do more research, more consultation and especially talk to the people in the businesses.
According to the Parking Authority's 2024-2033 financial plan, operating costs are projected to increase by inflation of 3.0 per cent from 2024 onwards.
This reflects a total capital infrastructure investment for the Parking Authority that is expected to be $14.5 million from 2024 to 2033 and includes projected costs to maintain the parkades.
The waterfront parkade's daily collections represented 20.7 per cent, 7.8 per cent and 17.7 per cent of its capacity in 2019, 2020 and 2022 respectively, and the Victoriaville parkade operated at 5.2 per cent and 1.8 per cent of its capacity in 2019 and 2022, respectively.
Bianca Garofalo, owner of Bight Restaurant and Bar, El Tres Restaurant, attended a Waterfront Business Improvement Area meeting with the Parking Authority to talk about the impact of paid parking and other parking issues in the business district.
"They agreed that the highest cost of the operating budget is the maintenance of the underutilized parkades," Garofalo said.
"No one feels comfortable using them and there's nothing they can do to push people more into the parkades, especially in the evening."
Garofalo says adding security will just add to the operating costs and compared the situation to the decline of Victoriaville.
"We basically kicked a can down the road for four or five decades on Victoriaville, subsidizing it and knowing that it just didn't do well," she said.
"Is that what we plan to do with these parkades, subsidize them indefinitely by raising the cost of parking to the rest of the community?"
The Chronicle Journal / Local Journalism Initiative
