Ste. Anne parking meters could work

So Ste. Anne de Bellevue will be experimenting with the idea of installing parking meters on Ste.Anne Street and the public parking lots that exist there – and we feel this is an idea whose time has come.

The idea of the pilot project, which will see meters installed on Ste. Anne and in the public parking lots that dot the waterfront strip, is to increase turnover on the prime spots that face the restaurants, bars and cafes that provide the main engine for Ste. Anne de Bellevue’s economy. The meters, it is thought, will motivate employees of the hospitality businesses to park elsewhere during their eight- or ten-hour shift and leave the spots to paying customers coming in for a meal, coffee or a drink.

Parking in Ste. Anne de Bellevue has always been a tricky proposition – no more so than on warm Thursday evenings in the summer, but now, more than ever, the businesses that make Ste. Anne’s go have to be taken care of, while at the same time generating some badly-needed revenue for the city, whose budget is being strained by heavy agglomeration tax increases.

Have you tried to park in Ste. Anne de Bellevue lately, especially during the day? A lunch appointment several weeks back had to be delayed because there was nowhere to park within shouting distance of the restaurant, which curiously had no one else in it. A quick scan of the street’s other establishments confirmed the suspicion. No one was in any of the places, yet all the spots nearby were crammed with cars. If you can’t find a place to park for a business meeting, it’s unlikely you’re going to want to come back on your own leisure time. If you’re going to monopolize one of the prime spots all day long while your customers drive away and take their money elsewhere, then you should have to pay for it.

Don’t want to pay to park? Great! There are dozens, if not hundreds of free parking spots just a minute or two away from the waterfront strip. Use one of those and get some exercise on your way down.

Ste. Anne de Bellevue will run the pilot project starting in February and run it for six months through August, thereby gauging the meters’ effectiveness in the winter (dead), spring (picking up) and summer (insanely busy) seasons in Ste. Anne de Bellevue.

Businesses ought to applaud this move, because the better Ste. Anne’s does, the better every business in town does, and the better the businesses do, the better off every resident of Ste. Anne — and employee of a business — does.