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It's probably better to be proactive than reactive. Nevertheless, after HRM Council approved recently spending $10,000,000 of our money on a parking garage for downtown, I emailed HRM Councillors to expres my disapointment. Three Councillors replied. In this sust-mar compilation: 1 - email from Marvin Silver to sust-mar on the same issue 2 - reply to me from Councillor Claude Isaacs 3 - reply to me from Councillor Ron Cooper 4 - reply to me from Councillor Bob Harvey 5 - my original email to HRM Councillors -*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*- Date: Thu, 8 Feb 2001 10:21:39 -0400 (AST) From: Marvin Silver <silverm@is.dal.ca> Subject: Re: QEH to become parkade? To All: I am appalled at some of the goings on at HRM council: We should be putting our efforts into improving PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION, not into building parking garages, either downtown or close to downtown. Parking lots should be located beyond Sackville, beyond Spryfield, beyond or at Eastern Passage, Bayers Lake, etc, with good, sufficient, rapid, comfortable convenient and CHEAP (or even FREE) public transportation (bus, rail or ferry) taking people downtown. Each bus that is filled gets up to 50 cars off the road, saves wear and tear on the roadways,decreases air polution and avoids the need for expensive and disruptive arterial infrastructure upgrading. Marvin Silver Bedford -*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*- Date: Fri, 19 Jan 2001 10:51:37 -0400 From: Claude Isaacs <isaacsc@region.halifax.ns.ca> Subject: Re: transportation I am not sure that the HRM is going to spend the money or if they are hoping to get some kind of private investment for it, but your point is a good one. However you must know that it is usually the tough decisions that come before council - like that o f balancing public transit and the discouragement of vehicles in the core area with a perceived need for off street parking in the downtown area which the business community wants. You are probably aware of studies carried out by city of halifax staff years ago indicating a surplus of off street parking in the CBD. Some of that off street parking has disappeared but some has been replaced as well. It would be interesting to see a n updated study. My own feeling is that people in general don't like parking garages and if there is an alternative they will take it, and going into a garage is a last resort. I was in Regina 2 years ago and much of the old downtown area near the casino has been reused for off street parking garages, which were virtually empty when I was there. Someone there had made a costly mistake in estimating the need for long term off s treet parking, most days they didn't even have someone in the booth to take your money. We have to balance the need for parking with the necessity for public transit. It involves a big change in the way most of us think about public transit versus private car, but I think its going to happen. -*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*- Date: Sun, 21 Jan 2001 23:55:47 -0400 From: Ron Cooper <cooperr@region.halifax.ns.ca> Subject: Re: transportation Hello Paul. Thank you for your correspondence concerning the parking garage and more importantly the need for a viable transportation system. The garage will only replace the Tex Park and compensate for loss of spaces caused by development. The key is increased residential downtown which is beginning to happen. However the concept backed by some staff and many councillors is that the downtown a rea is the economic generator and the municipality should be pushing for more of the same. The lack of a transportation plan is one of the most pressing problems as far as I am concerned. Spending more money on the same access routes is not the solution. The object should be to avoid increased vehicle counts coming into the peninsula. Planning needs to be done. Ron Cooper -*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*- Date: Fri, 19 Jan 2001 16:59:53 -0400 From: Bob Harvey <harveyb@region.halifax.ns.ca> Subject: Re: transportation This facility will not really increase the number of parking spaces downtown, but, rather will replace spaces lost by development such as Bishop's Landing etc. and the end of Texpark will come in a couple of years. This is one aspect only of a transporta tion plan to move people in and out of the downtown core. Supporting other modes of moving people is also part of the plan. -*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*- >>> Paul A Falvo <pfalvo@chebucto.ns.ca> 01/19/01 06:40am >>> Dear Mayor Kelly, and Councillors: I know there are two sides to every story. Accordingly, I'm writing to ask you why council is spending $10,000,000 on a new parking garage. Reports show that many parking spots downtown are unused. Sounds to me like this money would have been better spent on transportation for people, eg injected into Metro Transit, or on commuter rail ... or bicycle paths. Subsidizing private motor vehicles seems like a step in the wrong direction. I look forward to hearing from you. ~Paul Falvo -*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*- The preceding message was posted on the Sustainable Maritimes mailing list (sust-mar). http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/lists/sust-mar -*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*- Volunteer moderator: Paul Falvo mailto:sust-mar-owner@chebucto.ns.ca To submit a message to sust-mar, please send it to: mailto:sust-mar@chebucto.ns.ca PLEASE SEND MESSAGES TO SUST-MAR IN PLAIN TEXT ONLY MESSAGES CONTAINING HTML (MIME) CANNOT BE POSTED
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