Resident Asks Council Not To Spend $200,000 On Parking App

“I’m not disappointed. I’m really glad they had a good discussion about it. Everybody chimed in and everybody provided a good opinion,” Patty Yuzek told MJ Independent after addressing Moose Jaw city council.

Yuzek had addressed council with her opinions on how to fix the downtown coin operated parking meter problem.

The parking meters have been targeted - especially over the past 18 months - by vandals and thieves to the point where most are no longer functioning.

Patty Yuzek addresses council - MJ Independent photo

Yuzek addressed Council to look at the alternatives to paying $200,000 for a smartphone parking app that would eliminate the need for coin operated parking meters.

She asked Council to either return to coin operated parking meters or offer two hour free parking with tire chalking instead of the proposed smartphone app using a credit card.

Additionally she asked Council to put off making any decision on Tuesday but put it off to a later date to allow for more citizen input.

Council discussed her options and in the end rejected all of them.

“I wanted to propose the option of free two hour parking downtown and cleaning up the parking meter situation which makes our city look very unprofessional,” she said.

An example of a broken parking meter it’s something Yuzek would like to see cleaned up - MJ Independent file photo

Yuzek speaks from experience as a downtown resident - she’s seen it all.

“I had a parking meter stolen from in front of my house.”

Asked if she was surprised as to the extent of the problem Yuzek replied “not really.”

She mentioned a friend who would walk her dog early in the morning and then place a bag of coin operated meter parts at the front door of city hall.

Although she didn’t get the results she wanted Yuzek is happy to have her opportunity to speak.

“I think they heard me there was certainly a great discussion. Did I get what I wanted? You know what I just want things cleaned up. I just want things to look different downtown. There’s no need to see parts of a parking meter on the streets or downtown anywhere.”

Yuzek said she preferred the two hour free parking limit as it allowed people to come downtown do what they need to do in a convenient manner.

“It will just bring people downtown. I’ve had a lot of people say they don’t want to go downtown if they have to pay for parking especially if they have to use an app.”

“It brings more people downtown to make the downtown more viable,” she said.

She said she understood the reasoning behind parking time limits. She mentioned the large number of downtown employees now choking the non-metered parking stalls.

“There are a lot of people who come downtown and park all day. Then there are people who want to go shopping and there’s no place to park,” Yuzek said, adding the situation needed to be fixed.

Asked about concerns expressed by Councillor Patrick Boyle the city would lose $500,000 and have to increase taxes because of it she said free parking would help the downtown more.

In the end Council voted to allow Administration to submit a Request For Proposal for up to $200,000 to purchase and setup a new smartphone parking app.

The app is expected to be instituted by August.

See - Council Greenlights $200,000 Parking App