WIIITBY FREE PRESS, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 30, 1985, PAGE 3 Some merchants abused free parking.... Mayor has no sympathy for core parking violators Don't go crying to Mayor Bob Attersley if you get a parking ticket in the downtown core - he's got no sympathy for you. Attersley made that and other comments last week in response to a series of complaints made to the Free Press by several members of the downtown business community. "I got no sympathy for them," the mayor said in an interview last Thursday afternoon. Attersley was also supportive of the town's "meter maid". He brushed off complaints by the merchants that they have seen him wait for the red flag, denoting that the car owner's parking time has expired, to come up and then immediately proceed to write a ticket. "The meters are there for the parking and the hours are listed right on it. If he stands there and watches it run out, that's fine," the mayor said. "If you break the bylaw, you pay." Attersley, who is him- self a downtown mer- chant, also scoffed at the merchants' suggestion that the parking bylaw enfor- cement officer, as he is more properly known, use discretion when giving out tickets. "You can't have discretion," he said, ad- ding that he wants to know what kind of discretion they're talking about. He also said that as long as he is mayor, no town em- ployee will be allowed to use discretion. "I wouldn't give an employee in this town discretion," Attersley said. He notes that the bylaw is in place, that each meter shows the time allowed before another coin is required, so if the red flag ap- pears, the car owner runs the risk of getting a ticket. Attersley said that during the two weeks there was free parking chants who abused the free parking system," hesaid. Whitby Town Council, he continued, approved the construction of a new parking lot on Perry St. in its 1985 budget and also allowed for the hiring of another, part-time, "meter maid", which should go a long way to resolving the merchants' com- plaints that the parking regulations aren't uniformly enforced. As a downtown businessman, Attersley also lashed out at the merchants saying that parking shouldn't be used as an excuse for poor business. "Don't use parking as an excuse if your business is bad," he said, "If you've got a good product at a good price then you won't have problems with parking." If business isn't as good as it should be, then the merchants should look to them- selves, not the town. "I won't ask what's wrong with the people, I'd ask what's wrong with me," Attersley said. The free parking promotion during the Christmas season was "for the benefit of every shop owner to increase their business, and yet many of the members of the business community abused it," he added. However, the mayor also said that "council is committed" to resolving the parking problems in the down- town core and every ef- fort will be made to work with then on this issue. D.I.A.B. chairman says best solution is two-hour meters There are two major problems with parking downtown, according to the chairman of the Whitby Downtown Im- provement Area Board. Ed Buffett said in an interview last week that the lack of two-hour, on- street parking and abuse of the facilities by some merchants and their employees have created problems in the downtown area. Buffett noted that "a lot of people are quite upset" about the problem and urges the town to consider replacing the one-hour meters on Brock and Dundas Sts. with two- hour machines when the old ones need to be replaced. "There are also cer- tain merchants who abuse the on-street parking," he said, "And the real estate agents contribute to the parking but there is no law that says a real estate agent can't park his car on main street." Buffett notes that he often sees cars parked on Brock and Dundas Sts. bearing real estate company signs and to his way of thinking, these people should park off-street as do other merchants. But he also admits there is lit- tle the downtown board can do about this. The chairman agrees with his fellow mer- chants that there isn't a sufficient amount of parking in the down- town core but did note that Whitby Town Coun- cil has taken some steps to help solve this problem with the development of the new lot on Perry St. "Council has been very prudent in the way its spent its money," he said adding, "I don't think that those three off-street parking facilities are suf- ficient." Buffett also said that its unreasonable to ex- pect a lady with two or three children in tow to park her car off-street and have her walk two or three blocks to shop downtown. "The major irritant is that the meters only provide for one-hour on street parking," he said, "It's the biggest bone of contention." Buffett also points out that a survey com- missioned by the down- town board last summer showed that parking was the major reason why many people don't shop in the core regularly. Of consumers surveyed, 27.3 per cent said their biggest problem in coming downtown to shop was finding a place to shop. When people were asked what was the first improvement that should be made in the core, the answer was parking. "And we've got a merchant survey which again says that the biggest problem is parking," Buffett said. Like other downtown business people, Buf- fett has also urged that a little discretion be used when handing out parking tickets. "Some discretion should be utilized," he said adding, "No matter what you do for a living, you have to exercise some judgement as to what you do." The chairman also said that the downtown board has been con- sidering a program where the board would pay the 25-cents needed to prevent the downtown customer from getting a ticket during the first hour of violation. However, the plan poses a great many dif- ficulties and so the board may not proceed with it. According to Buffett, the best, most im- mediate solution to the merchants problems would be the introduc- tion of two-hour parking meters on Brock St. and Dundas St. But whether that will ever be done is unknown. downtown, two in- teresting facts were brought out. First is that the parking lot on Green St. south of the fire hall wasn't fully utilitized and secondly, there were a number of mer- chants who abused the service. "Council is well aware of those mer- Things are not as bad as they are painted and Charlie is now at Dickson Printing & Office Supplies smiling a the many pleasant assitants. 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