Upon entering the east parkade for the Storm game last night I was persented with a little blue slip of papper telling me that as of April 1, 2011 I’ll be paying $5.00 to park in city lots. WRONG, I will never be parking in a city lot again. I’d rather pay the gentleman that owns the car wash outside the Sleeman Centre than give anymore money to this city. I feel that he will do more with my money, even if it just goes into his bank account. If this increase was put on any other service in the city all hell would break loose. But then again I guess your thinking is that if people can afford to go to Storm games or shows at the Riverrun Center they can afford to pay more for parking, WRONG, 150% increase is criminal, and to do it because you can is even worse.
At a town hall meeting after the game a question was put to Rick Hoyel, one of the owners of the club about this subject. It would seems that everyone that was consulted about this increase, the B.I.A., the Chamber of Commerce. merchants as well as the Storm advised against it, but the answers fell on deaf ears.
I have been a Storm season ticket hold ever since they moved the the Sleeman Centre, then the Guelph Sports and Entertainment Centre, and on many Friday nights and would go down early and visit one of the many restaurants in the downtown core before the game, and sometimes after the game grab a snack on the way home. No more, you have effectively taken money out of the hands of our downtown merchants and restauranteurs. So much for trying to revitalize the downtown, but again I feel it is more about grabbing money than thinking about our city.
Remember the fallof 2014 isn’t all that far away.GC