What does DTK need?

[danbrotherston]

Is parking at work a taxable benefit in some alternative reality? Should people who don’t drive get a refund from their employer?

Parking at work is a taxable benefit when parking costs money, like in DTK. But in the suburbs, where zoning mandates such massive amounts of parking that it drives the market price to zero, it's not considered a taxable benefit.

But just because the market price of parking is zero, doesn't mean parking is zero cost. It still has to be built, maintained, cleared of snow, etc. Some areas have adopted rules called parking cash out, which mandate that employees who don't use the parking get paid an amount equivalent to what the employer spends on providing free parking for the employees who drive.

It seems quite fair to me. If the employer is going to spend money on providing free parking, they should be mandated to offer an equally valuable credit towards transit/cycling/etc. The easiest form of which is to just give cash.

Indeed. Parking cash out should be mandatory. I wonder if it is within the power of our municipalities to require it. Certainly the province could but that seems like a lost cause right now.

[dtkmelissa]

Is parking at work a taxable benefit in some alternative reality? Should people who don’t drive get a refund from their employer?

Parking at work is a taxable benefit when parking costs money, like in DTK. But in the suburbs, where zoning mandates such massive amounts of parking that it drives the market price to zero, it's not considered a taxable benefit.

But just because the market price of parking is zero, doesn't mean parking is zero cost. It still has to be built, maintained, cleared of snow, etc. Some areas have adopted rules called parking cash out, which mandate that employees who don't use the parking get paid an amount equivalent to what the employer spends on providing free parking for the employees who drive.

It seems quite fair to me. If the employer is going to spend money on providing free parking, they should be mandated to offer an equally valuable credit towards transit/cycling/etc. The easiest form of which is to just give cash.

I agree! Heck, I'd even be happy with transit passes being offered to those who don't use parking (instead of a cash out). My biggest pet peeve with my employer (UW) is that a monthly parking pass is much, much cheaper than a transit pass, even with the discounted Corporate Pass. Now, a transit pass does give you transit access even when away from work, but I feel at a bare minimum parking should be the same cost (or more) than transit. Especially given UW's parking woes (pre-pandemic). They need to make transit far more appealing (and could do so, relatively easily, I think).

[ijmorlan]

I agree! Heck, I'd even be happy with transit passes being offered to those who don't use parking (instead of a cash out). My biggest pet peeve with my employer (UW) is that a monthly parking pass is much, much cheaper than a transit pass, even with the discounted Corporate Pass. Now, a transit pass does give you transit access even when away from work, but I feel at a bare minimum parking should be the same cost (or more) than transit. Especially given UW's parking woes (pre-pandemic). They need to make transit far more appealing (and could do so, relatively easily, I think).

UW’s (also my employer) parking pricing is bonkers. They have a lot at Seagram LRT station which is always free, even on class days when it fills up; they have lots on campus which charge $6 for the day, whether you arrive at 08:30 and stay for the entire day or if you arrive at 20:30 when it’s almost empty and are just there for the evening. But most prominently, they have cheap parking passes available to employees which I believe are approximately the same price as parking in the daily parking lots for 2-3 days a week.

In other words, there is no incentive whatsoever to avoid parking, unless you can get your parking down to just a couple of days a week. Somebody needing to park at 18:00 to attend an event at Fed Hall pays the full-day price to park in a mostly-empty lot for a couple of hours; unless they are one of those pass holders (in other words, a subsidized high user of parking), in which case they pay nothing.

Additionally, there is a complicated system of waitlists and allocation to determine which lots a person can use.

If it were up to me, I would replace the entire system with something like SFPark: rates adjusted based on location and time of the week. High enough to keep a few spaces open almost all the time, lower at low demand places and times, all the way down to $0 at extremely low demand times. Parking under Needles Hall would end up very expensive; X lot and the aforementioned Seagram lot would remain relatively cheap and probably free at many times. There might be exceptions for special events such as convocation but the general rule would be market pricing in some form.

[dtkvictim]

Since I've also been looking for a car, I asked the previous occupant of my unit if she had issues with the parking space. Sure enough, her window had been smashed 3 times.

Well, I've had a car for 2 god damn weeks and I've already had my window smashed. I guess a periodic $400 is the price I pay for the privileged of living with society's most upstanding!

The fellow seems to have just done it out of spite, because I had the gall to lock my doors preventing him from rummaging through... he didn't even open the car after smashing the window, just took off.

And after walking home from the glass shop my friend and I were harassed and threatened by a man out of his mind, likely on meth (second time this week at Weber/Water!). I was 50% sure we were about to have to fight.

Not that I believe the law applies to these people any longer, let me know if you recognize this person (mod can remove the photo if this is against the rules, thanks):

[Acitta]

Since I've also been looking for a car, I asked the previous occupant of my unit if she had issues with the parking space. Sure enough, her window had been smashed 3 times.

Well, I've had a car for 2 god damn weeks and I've already had my window smashed. I guess a periodic $400 is the price I pay for the privileged of living with society's most upstanding!

The fellow seems to have just done it out of spite, because I had the gall to lock my doors preventing him from rummaging through... he didn't even open the car after smashing the window, just took off.

And after walking home from the glass shop my friend and I were harassed and threatened by a man out of his mind, likely on meth (second time this week at Weber/Water!). I was 50% sure we were about to have to fight.

Not that I believe the law applies to these people any longer, let me know if you recognize this person (mod can remove the photo if this is against the rules, thanks):

I guess the DTK alleys are not the safest place to store your car. Would the Benton/Charles parking garage be safer, do you think?

[tomh009]

Well, I've had a car for 2 god damn weeks and I've already had my window smashed. I guess a periodic $400 is the price I pay for the privileged of living with society's most upstanding!

The fellow seems to have just done it out of spite, because I had the gall to lock my doors preventing him from rummaging through... he didn't even open the car after smashing the window, just took off.

I guess the DTK alleys are not the safest place to store your car. Would the Benton/Charles parking garage be safer, do you think?

Well lit, and with security cameras, I think. But with a monthly fee, and not immediately next to most people's homes, so less attractive that way.

[Acitta]

I guess the DTK alleys are not the safest place to store your car. Would the Benton/Charles parking garage be safer, do you think?

Well lit, and with security cameras, I think. But with a monthly fee, and not immediately next to most people's homes, so less attractive that way.

Why do you need a car if you live downtown where you have access to good transit? Alternatively, why not live a bit farther from downtown, where there are fewer sketchy people wandering around? Just curious. Being within walking distance of downtown is attractive to me, specifically because I don't own a car (never have, never will).

[neonjoe]

Isn’t the person just a militant cyclist who’s partaking in the war on cars.
Seriously it is a shame that people don’t respect property. Sorry that the stress of this happened to you.

[dtkvictim]

Why do you need a car if you live downtown where you have access to good transit? Alternatively, why not live a bit farther from downtown, where there are fewer sketchy people wandering around? Just curious. Being within walking distance of downtown is attractive to me, specifically because I don't own a car (never have, never will).

As I stated earlier in this thread, I am done with downtown. The car is a step on the way out (among other uses), as a near requirement if we want enough distance from downtown. In the meantime, it will let my spouse actually get out (and to work), since she won't go outside in downtown. Good access to transit means nothing here, if she isn't even comfortable waiting at stations or walking to/from them. I might've suggested she was overreacting before, but after so many incidents, some of which I outlined in this thread, I don't think she is. Hell, my landlord's maintenance guy helped my clean my car this morning, and he currently has an injured ankle after being attacked by a complete stranger on King St last week. He also said he's been attacked multiple times, including with chains once, while trying to clear people from blocking doorways.

I don't really want to own a car. I actually feel off not walking or biking at least an hour a day, so I still walk for my daily needs while I'm downtown. But I don't feel that I'm left with a real choice to continue that lifestyle.

Well lit, and with security cameras, I think. But with a monthly fee, and not immediately next to most people's homes, so less attractive that way.

Maybe. My parking space is reasonably well lit (and my landlord suggested another floodlight after this), and is directly under two cameras. I have the incident quite clearly on video from both angles. Neither of those seemed to deter him.

[the_conestoga_guy]

I thought this recent article from the CBC might be relevant to this discussion thread:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/london/lo...-1.6770341

In it, the author discusses a new "foot patrol" station in downtown London. Normally, I'm extremely weary of adding more policing to solve a public safety problem. However, if done properly, I think we would be well-served to imitate the 'Koban' stations of Japan:

https://www.nippon.com/en/features/jg00057/

[danbrotherston]

I thought this recent article from the CBC might be relevant to this discussion thread:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/london/lo...-1.6770341

In it, the author discusses a new "foot patrol" station in downtown London. Normally, I'm extremely weary of adding more policing to solve a public safety problem. However, if done properly, I think we would be well-served to imitate the 'Koban' stations of Japan:

https://www.nippon.com/en/features/jg00057/

I have been struggling to find out the perception of and behaviour of policing in different places. I think there are many aspects.

In Kitchener the biggest problem appears to be budgetary. Police forces seem to exist to perpetuate their budgets. That seems to be the primary motivation in any of their PR activities. "It's dangerous, and we make you safer". This even gets to the point of making...at best...misleading statements about both crime statistics and also about specific police involved incidents.

In many places in the US, I think there is a highly problematic police culture, even beyond policing sucking the plurality of the budget (and in some cases the majority), I get the sense that US LEOs have a "them or us" attitude with the general public, and often react...poorly...when they do not get the "respect" they feel they are "entitled" and worse, often see themselves (with good reason) as above the law. To say nothing of their chickenshit behaviour in the face of a single armed man murdering children in a school.

So in some ways WRPS isn't doing nearly so badly as those places.

I have trouble understanding how that culture and behaviour exist in other places I think because the public tends to be highly polarized on the topic of policing. It concerns me just how effective police PR is. Just look at our recent budget meeting, just how many councilors take the word of the police as gospel.

It is also the case that different parts of society perceive policing in different ways. Wealthy white suburbanites expect the police to be on their side against. People living rough in downtown may rightly see police as a harmful influence on their life, that they are powerless against.

While the interview you linked from London was .... not bad... the police weren't even leaning into the "we will punish those bad people downtown" vibe (they outright rejected it) but they were quick to justify their budget...as far as I could see...while the interviewer was good and gave a couple challenging questions, there was no other perspective given and it seemed to be a PR piece for the police.

I think the kind of thing shown in Japan or in London will work better when all of a society's demographics see police as a force for good...and I know that isn't the case in Kitchener...frankly, I found policing to be much more problematic the longer I stayed there.

Whether an initiative like in London will serve to advance that goal? I don't know. I do know that a big issue I have with policing is the lack of budgetary scrutiny...that clearly doesn't change here.

[tomh009]

Foot patrols (or even bicycle patrols) are much better than big black police cruisers with dark glass. More visible, less threatening, able to talk to people and not just arrest them. Basically the same approach as London bobbies or the koban boxes in Japan.

[plam]

Foot patrols (or even bicycle patrols) are much better than big black police cruisers with dark glass. More visible, less threatening, able to talk to people and not just arrest them. Basically the same approach as London bobbies or the koban boxes in Japan.

Yeah, here's a koban in Nakatsugawa. It is right next to the train station.

   

[bravado]

Neighbourhood-scale, proportional public services? Bleh, too expensive. You could buy so many new police tanks with that money!

[LesPio]

I was recently in Europe and some of the items in the downtowns are: 

Benches & Chairs anywhere and everywhere.

Free Public WIFI  ( supplied in the areas of public buildings, city hall, museums. Similar in format to wifi4EU)

Pedestrian Only streets

Dedicated Lanes for Scooters, Bikes, etc

Outdoor usable space for restaurants, cafes, etc on public space/property.

Place a value on citizen safety with things like Interactive Police Kiosks

All types of intercity Schools: Elementary, High School, Colleges and Universities