I am fully aware of the properganda that "anonymous" aka Robert Vera is posting. It is a Seattle Councellor who is actually pusining for downtown parking there. Also note, the buisnesses in that district are indeed suffering because of downtown paid parking. Even with his properganda. He also notes that whether or not downtown parking is free or not does not show if it is the premium place to be. Many malls have free parking AND are premium places. Likewise downtown Barrie has paid parking and is NOT the premium place to be.

People who want to shop in an area do look for free parking. If they can get everything elsewhere and it has free parking why then would they shop downtown? They will not. That isn't "minor" that is pretty major for any business trying to survive today's hyper competitive and hard economy.

There is perception then there is reality. The perception of demand looses when paid parking lowers actual demand from stores because consumers do go elsewhere.

Parking is not and in no way "subsidized." parking is already paid for by our property taxes. It is paid for by our gas tax, our licencing fees and the list goes on. What IS subsidized is public transportation for the Barrie area as there are not enough users to make the system profitable.

Parking is so vital that adding paid parking to the water front will in fact drive down tourism. If one has to pay for parking then why to go to centennial beach? Instead a person will simply stay in toronto since the advantage of driving out to Barrie is gone. Or they will then choose better beaches. Like wassaga. Or better yet find alternatives. If one pays for parking what money will they then spend on our festivals and rides? They will not.

And who will pay for the losses in income that we garner now from a free parking water front? We do, the home owner as the loss will be shoveled towards our property taxes.

You can even look at how our paid parking has hurt us already. The city admits it has an excess of parking spots. Why? Paid parking. Where as free parking lots are full. Look towards the summer. The sprinklers have lots of parking because it is paid. Where as centennial is full and gets decent amount of visitors because it is full.

Lastly look at countries like the uk who are looking to eliminate their paid parking system as they even reconize that this is simply bad for buisnesses and the local economy.

Question: In downtowns, does free parking equal more business?

A quick google search revealed this interesting forum discussion: http://www.cyburbia.org/forums/showthread.php?t=46899. Though It seems to include only American contributors I think the points made can be considered universally.

Some highlights I *personally* agree with:

1. Free parking means your downtown is not a premium place to be.

2. If people want to shop your downtown, they will shop your downtown. The cost of parking has been, in my experience anyway, a minor detail.

3. There is a real science to creating the perception of "demand" in downtown areas and parking contributes significantly to that.

4. A "free" parking lot can never truly be free. Just subsidized. And who would be the entity picking up the bill for maintenance?

Food for thought... I'm actually surprised that with 90 votes there haven't been any comments as I feel the issue has a lot of "grey" areas!