Parking pile-on

Each day, I put two pylons in our parking space at the back of our shop, and one by our back door. If I don’t, cars swoop into our spot and block our loading area. Parking is intense around Dufferin and Eglinton. So why does the City want to remove 130 public parking spaces from this corner?  

The City wants to build a 41-storey tower, and a 6-storey standalone building on top of the Green P parking lot behind the Shoppers Drug Mart and Dollarama. They say it’s for affordable housing. A good cause. But on closer inspection, only 30 percent of the units will be affordable. The rest will be market rent apartments.

The City is following local developers who are also planning to build skyscrapers around here. The difference is, the City will most likely follow through with their plan, unlike local developers who have been sitting on their empty properties for years.

We’ll get new residences, but we’ll be at war over parking spaces.

When you’re driving, you don’t want a hassle. You want to park with minimal effort and conflict. If 130 parking spaces disappear from here, there’s no doubt people will squeeze wherever they can, like at the back of my shop.

But worse for local businesses is drivers may start going to areas where they can find parking easier.  “Why don’t they just take public transit?”  First, because we have no LRT. It never came. Second, because buses here come intermittently and full. If you drive, you won’t spend two hours on buses when you can just shop elsewhere.

The City has a problem. I guess this is why they’re calling public meetings this fall to see how we can make this work. I’ll get you more information on that as soon as it becomes available.

In the meantime, I’ll keep putting out my pylons.