Red Deer Reality Rant #1

Hello and welcome to Red Deer Reality Rant, where I discuss and/or rant, about important stuff in Red Deer, AB. This is NOT, however, affiliated or as qualified as RDNewsNow.com which purports itself to be Everything Red Deer which is true enough, in a sense. I am here to rant about what is really bothering Red Deerians. If you haven’t stopped reading yet, hey! and thanks! You don’t actually have to be from Red Deer, or Alberta, or even this planet to read this blog, as I intend to make it entertaining for one and all. So, without further ado, I present my first rant:

Downtown Red Deer. Love it or hate it, it is an integral part of this city. That being said, there may be some Red Deerians who have never ventured here, due to it’s reputation. I have been frightened myself, my wallet emptied, my pride hurt, all just because I decided to park downtown and check out the venerable Ross Street. I had already given my change away to a deserving individual, so I thought that with my good karma that I could park for a few minutes without consequence, only to find a parking ticket tucked under my windshield wiper upon my return.

These occurrences lead me to the conclusion that the streets of downtown Red Deer are very well patrolled and maintained by the city’s security forces. (You know who you are) and although I appreciate that they are just doing their job, I believe that the city is making a pretty penny from parking meters and tickets to employ so many. I agree that lots of security is needed, but really, there’s more important things to do than give out parking tickets. The conundrum facing Red Deer is: how to attract visitors to the downtown and utilize the city’s policies such as the Downtown Revitalization Project. The solution to this problem seems simple and obvious to me: make parking free on the streets of downtown!

This would bring much needed shoppers and restaurant goers downtown, and they may stay downtown a bit longer if there’s no fear of a parking ticket or bothersome digging for change. Who carries cash nowadays anyway? The fact that 90% of the parking downtown is paid seems like a direct correlation to the city’s reluctance to let go of the seemingly large profits to be made from meters and tickets. And if large profits are not being made from tickets and meters, then what is stopping the city from having free downtown parking?

All I can say in the end is that downtown Red Deer has some cool shops, restaurants and businesses who would benefit from their customers being able to park as freely as they do at a Wal-Mart.

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