To park or not to park on Bank Street in the Glebe: That is the question

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On a day when the major Queensway re-construction created a logjam of east-west traffic in Ottawa, Marko Miljusevic was passionately arguing for less traffic congestion on one of the city’s principal north-south routes.

Miljusevic and a handful of fellow members of the community organization StrongTownsOttawa.ca set up shop at the intersection of Bank Street and Second Avenue on Saturday, suggesting that eliminating parking on the street was the best option.

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The group argues that Ottawa hasn’t properly consulted residents on how to re-design traffic flow on the busy stretch of Bank between the Queensway and TD Place.

A City of Ottawa survey is asking residents for input, but Miljusevic says the choices presented came without any initial public feedback.

“All four of their options, which they decided on before any public surveys or consultations or anything, seek to keep some sort of parking on the street,” said Miljusevic, a software developer by day.

“One of the options is (specialized) bus lanes, but only during peak hours, and not even during (major) Lansdowne Park events, which seems like the most important time.”

Miljusevic argues that parking on that portion of Bank Street constitutes “only seven per cent” of the total of approximately 2,000 available paid spots in the stretch from the Queensway to Lansdowne Park, including the underground parkade at TD Place, but is ultimately responsible for the slow crawl of traffic through that area.

“The street is narrow,” he said, raising his voice to be heard above the noise from a bus passing behind him. “You don’t have space to fit everything in there. If you walk on Bank Street, you see how narrow the sidewalks are. Everyone is struggling to get around each other.”

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Possible options, he says, are to put full-time bus and/or bike lanes where the parking currently exists or to widen the sidewalks.

Miljusevic said such a move would increase bike and pedestrian traffic to the Glebe and cited studies from Montreal and New York saying that business actually improved on major roads when parking was eliminated.

While many businesses along the stretch offered diplomatic “no comments” Saturday — the wide divide between cycling enthusiasts and the car crowd often prompts heated debates — Compact Music owner Ian Boyd was firmly in favour of maintaining the status quo.

“Definitely, no,” Boyd said, when asked about eliminating parking. “If there’s no parking, you’re encouraging more business to go the malls. They’ll go to Wal-Mart, where there’s free parking.”

As for the StrongTownsOttawa.ca argument that additional walk-in or bike-in traffic would result if parking was eliminated, Boyd said, “Bullcrap.”

“It might help some coffee shops, but you can’t have 60 coffee shops in the Glebe. There’s not a problem with congestion,” Boyd said. “People come from all points of the city to a specialty shop. They’re not biking here and lugging their stuff home on their bikes.”

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Heather Scott, owner of the Penelope Jones & Company gift shop at the intersection of Bank and Third Avenue, says car traffic is pivotal to her small business.

“In the last week, I’ve had people from Kanata, people from Montreal, people from Toronto, whose children were at Carleton (University), who came in cars,” Scott said. “I don’t think they’re stopping here if they can’t park here. So, for me, that would be a huge issue.”

She also argues that overflow parking on neighbouring streets would be an issue for Glebe residents and counters the suggestion that more pedestrian and cycling traffic would enhance the area’s community feel.

“We’re not a small town, we’re the capital city of Canada,” Scott said. “They can check that argument right now. Would I like it to look like a Hallmark movie? Yeah, but that’s not who we are. We’re a destination city and the people in this community are terrific.”

Jennie Aliman, who lives on Third Avenue, was intrigued by what StrongTownsOttawa.ca had to say and said she wished the city had more creative solutions to change the look and feel of Bank Street.

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“I want to shop here,” Aliman said. “I’ve lived here for more than 30 years. I like to support the local stores. I like to walk, I used to cycle. I remember, back in the day, you could hardly walk on this street it was so crowded and there were a lot (more) specialty shops and it was a unique experience.”

Aliman recognizes how difficult it is for small businesses to survive, but she would like the area to be more welcoming for those who don’t drive.

“If it was a more pleasant place to walk, it might bring more business,” she said. “More trees, wider sidewalks.”

kwarren@postmedia.com

X: Citizenkwarren

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