Parking in Waterloo Region

[dunkalunk]

Here's a rendering from the report INS-12-047:

Where the flagpole is, we could use a diner (Mel's or Otherwise).

There is nowhere to eat downtown past 1am that doesn't also serve alcohol.

[mpd618]

Where the flagpole is, we could use a diner (Mel's or Otherwise).

There is nowhere to eat downtown past 1am that doesn't also serve alcohol.

I think there's way too many empty storefronts and surface parking lots to be replacing green public space and trees and a view of this helix with a restaurant. It seems like an awfully specific suggestion, considering that a diner could go absolutely anywhere, including in an existing space.

[Lugnut]

I think there's way too many empty storefronts and surface parking lots to be replacing green public space and trees and a view of this helix with a restaurant. It seems like an awfully specific suggestion, considering that a diner could go absolutely anywhere, including in an existing space.

I could care less if it's a diner.

And it wouldn't hide the helix. Take this ottawa example. https://maps.google.com/maps?q=georg...29.57,,0,-5.03

[dunkalunk]

My main beef is that as a green space, it is a very dead green space and that something ought to be done with it to make it more hospitable.

This really could be as simple as putting in some planters and moving about 3000 people in next door at the Centre Block development. Maybe a food truck parked across the street?

[RangersFan]

Does anyone know what is happening around the Sun Life Parking lot and parking garage? Seems like a bunch of pavement has been ripped up etc and a huge white tent has been erected on site. I imagine it is just a repave but it has been going on for a while so I was hoping for something else.

[RangersFan]

Does anyone know what is happening around the Sun Life Parking lot and parking garage? Seems like a bunch of pavement has been ripped up etc and a huge white tent has been erected on site. I imagine it is just a repave but it has been going on for a while so I was hoping for something else.

July 18, 2012

Still no idea what is going on here, but this is what the site looks like today.

[BuildingScout]

Does anyone know what is happening around the Sun Life Parking lot and parking garage? Seems like a bunch of pavement has been ripped up etc and a huge white tent has been erected on site. I imagine it is just a repave but it has been going on for a while so I was hoping for something else.

Tents are often used in archeological digs. Maybe they ran into an old cemetery?

[RangersFan]

Free parking ending for regional employees
July 04, 2012 | Ryan Flanagan | Waterloo Chronicle | LINK

Seven years after taxpayers began footing the bill for Region of Waterloo employees to receive free parking at work, the cost will shift to the employees themselves.

In 2007, the Canada Revenue Agency determined free parking for Region of Waterloo employees at six locations to be a taxable benefit. Since then, the region has paid about $1.1 million per year to cover the cost of parking at those locations.

Regional councillors voted in favour of phasing in a new system, with regional employees paying half of their parking costs as of July 2013, and the full amount by July 2014.

“This is not an easy issue. Staff, nor council for that matter, are not making a lot of friends through this process, but I do think in principle the free parking subsidized by the taxpayer is an issue that we’ve identified as needing to be modified,” said Coun. Tom Galloway.

About 1,050 employees situated at 11 buildings will be affected by this change. Region employees at 33 other sites will continue to park for free.

[skyhook19]

Still no idea what is going on here, but this is what the site looks like today.

I believe they are doing some upgrades to the building underneath the parking lot. I'm not sure what the tents are for, it's been slowly moving across the parking lot.

[mpd618]

I believe they are doing some upgrades to the building underneath the parking lot.

To the what? (Emphasis mine.)

[skyhook19]

To the what? (Emphasis mine.)

There is a bunch of computers underneath that parking lot. The data centre houses most of the mainframe comptuers for Sun Life. Apparently construction should be done by the begining of September, when it will once again look like a parking lot.

[metropolis]

There goes the hope of having this lot redeveloped for housing and office space!

[mpd618]

There goes the hope of having this lot redeveloped for housing and office space!

Was there ever? Sun Life seems to me to have little notion of the value of city land and places a high value on surface parking. That's the only way I can explain their full block of parking between Union and Mt. Hope (formerly a full block of living city!) and their shuttling of employees from distant lots.

I remain hopeful that the local insurance companies will wake up to the fact that they are hurting the city with their parking, and that they can instead use that space to contribute to the city. But if not, I can hope that the cities could apply pressure to get them to understand this.

[KevinL]

their full block of parking between Union and Mt. Hope

At least that one's on the Kitchener side of the border, so more likely to fall under civic pressure (if history is anything to go by).

[KLM]

There is a bunch of computers underneath that parking lot. The data centre houses most of the mainframe comptuers for Sun Life. Apparently construction should be done by the begining of September, when it will once again look like a parking lot.

It`s nice piece of land ,they could build parking garage ,demand would be there with mixed development - just wishful thinking...

[panamaniac]

Work on the Duke Street parking garage is now well underway (you can see the supports on the ramp if you look closely). I am still not sure what to think about the ramp being painted electric green - it will certainly be different.

[DHLawrence]

http://www.therecord.com/news/local/...g-in-cambridge

Free parking in the three downtown cores of Cambridge is about to become pay parking on weekdays. There will be token free lots on the edge of each town, but any other parking will be subject to pay-and-display. Not quite sure what to make of this one.

[Bristolman]

As much as they try and encourage downtown shopping, they go and make it more expensive to do so!

[BuildingScout]

I don't buy the fact that people go shopping less if you have to pay for parking. If you drove there you already paid quite a bit in gas, so what would another dollar or two in parking do to your decision to go there.

In fact all the main shopping destinations in the world have super expensive parking, and yet people still go there.

[markster]

Not a terribly well written journalistic article; it reads more like an opinion piece, despite being in the Local section.

I would say that comparing the cores of Cambridge to the "main shopping destinations in the world", with respect to insensitivity to parking fees, is a bit of a stretch. People don't think about gas, but they do think about putting coins in a machine.

[EDIT: whoops I totally missed the paragraph that discusses this. Wow, 50 cents an hour? How will anyone survive???] The article lacks details. It says that there will be a token free lot at each downtown. What about street parking? Is that also going to be charged? How about side streets?


Ultimately, the solution to the merchant's woes is not free parking. It is putting people in the downtown cores, where it becomes more convenient to shop downtown than to drive to the mall.