Can't find parking downtown?

My big beef with Andrew Kurjata.

This month, we’ve tackled NIMBYs. We tackled Mayor and Council.

We tackled BIG NEWS MEDIA.
(I hope you can hear the sarcasm).

…

This week? The scoundrel and fellow PG newsletter writer

Andrew Kurjata

.

Finally, someone brave enough to call this guy out…

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I’m kidding, of course.

You all probably know I’m a big Andrew Kurjata guy and I’d credit him largely with being the reason I take the time to write anything or even really think meaningfully about this place.

BUT a few weeks ago, he committed one of my unwritten deadly Prince George sins:

Thou shalt not use available parking to judge the vitality of downtown.

Exhibit A: An excerpt from Andrew’s newsletter from April 9 2024.

There’s nothing to do downtown and all the parking spots are full

On Friday, I once again had a bit of a laugh as I saw the lack of parking in the blocks immediately surrounding the Crossroads/Black Clover area because the popular refrain is that no one goes downtown. I had a similar laugh as I went into Ritual coffeeshop on a recent Sunday morning and saw it full. The notion that “no one goes downtown” is held, I have to assume, by people who have not tried to go downtown recently because every time I show up I see lots of evidence to the contrary.

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Andrew is not alone in this common refrain - it’s a common one in my friend group - and while I’m certainly singling him out here, I will not abide by anyone using available parking on a Friday night as a judgement of downtown’s “health”.

Let’s get into some numbers.

The intersection of 5th Ave. and George St. is the above cited “busy” area that Andrew observed - between Crossroads, The Keg, The Twisted Cork, The Black Clover, and many other options there’s a reason that area fills up on Friday evening. The RED lines are the commonly observed street parking that people will frustratedly circle (I say this as someone who has often circled those spots).

I did some real boots-on-the-ground big boy journalism and I counted - there’s approximately 96 street parking spots (editors note: I did get distracted by getting some Daydream Donuts and then an accidental 10 minute conversation with the super nice owners of Karahi King so pardon a small margin of error) in the red lines of the above picture.

Given the nature of the dining in these areas, I’d make a non-scientific bet that most of those vehicles arrived to their destination with either 1 or 2 passengers (given that these restaurants are not REALLY child friendly).

In order to make any determinations, we’ll have to expand that assumption…

A few other non-scientific assumptions.

For sake of needing to begin somewhere, let’s assume 33% of those cars arrived with 1-person (maybe meeting some friends for dinner or drinks), 33% arrived with 2 people (a couple, maybe), and 33% actually carpooled or are a family and arrived with 4 people. Those cars represent GENEROUSLY about 224 people.

I would bet my prized Mr. PG scarf that the number is FAR less. You can sit and observe the amount of single-occupancy vehicles pulling in and out of any downtown stall far outweighs ANY 4-person occupancies but alas, let’s try to make this fight fair.

The operating capacity of JUST Crossroads is 310 people (I know, isn’t that crazy?). The Black Clover is 161 (not counting their patio). The Keg didn’t answer my calls but I’d hazard a guess it’s somewhere near The Clover’s.

We’re also ignoring a HUGE NUMBER of other things people may be downtown for (guests at the Ramada, Karahi King, the Cannabis stores, the new gym in the old Makerie that closes at 9pm, other eateries, UNBC WIDC, etc).

So I’ll pause here to emphasize AGAIN that this is unscientific on both sides - there are other parking options (a nearby parkade that is famously always empty), yes, and there are other reasons people are downtown - it’s a messy one to try to make firm conclusions on but I think you can see my point.

There is WAY more capacity at these businesses than available parking stalls.

It isn’t even close.

Some conclusions for Andrew Kurjata.

I know Andrew meant well and Andrew, if you’re reading this, I apologize again for making you a sacrificial lamb here but if you walk away from this newsletter with just a few bullet points to consider:

• Vehicles (and parking occupancy) are a poor metric for the vitality of downtown, in general, but especially on the busiest night of the week.

• In my ideal world, we would measure our downtown’s “success” and “good vibes” based ENTIRELY on the amount of people we see walking between things to do (restaurants, entertainment, shopping, etc) and not the amount of cars we see looking for parking.

• I 100% agree that spreading a “no one goes downtown” attitude is poor, problematic, and often incorrect BUT the more positive counter narrative “downtown is doin’ pretty good actually” has some hazardous orange flag consequences as well.

• A conclusion here is not that we need more street parking but rather we need A) better parking solutions (that are not on the street) and more importantly, B) better systems for folks to get downtown and move around downtown (transit, protected bike infrastructure, etc).

Okay. That’s all I have for you this week.

Andrew - I hope we can still be friends and I hope you will reconsider your correlations in future newsletters.

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This week’s recommendation is a bit of a different one than a local donut joint or something like that - hopefully that’s okay!

My recommendation this week is the beautiful slices of Canadiana that Jack Bishop is known for painting:

You can see more of it on his website here:
https://jackbishop.ca/commercial-environment

Seeing Jack’s work, to me, is both so beautiful and so “ah, that is IT!” in his layers of strip malls, box stores, and gas stations. I hope you have the same uncomfortable appreciation for his paintings as I do.

Until next week!

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