Raise the Hammer

The more I think about this article the more I feel it reads like the results of a “Case Study” on; How to Successfully Lobby a Councillor.

Here are some of my observations based on the article;
1. Councillor Bratina was contacted by someone representing one, if not more, of the parking lot operators in Downtown Hamilton.
2. It appears the conversation/pitch lead to how the municipal parking lots and curbside meters artificially depress the parking rates in Downtown Hamilton (unfair competition). And a suggestion was made that raising rates would benefit both the city and the private operators with increased revenue (“a win-win”).
3. Then it was wrapped in a pitch to use the increased parking fees to maintain transit rates so the motion becomes much more ‘saleable’ to others.
4. During the conversation, perhaps it was suggested that the city move to monetize its parking lots by selling the strategically located ones for development. How else can the following be interpreted? "prepare a Real Estate rationalization report of the city's Downtown Core parking lots with a view to creating new development opportunities." The idea is that many of the City's downtown parking facilities sit on strategic properties that should be developed rather than maintained as surface parking.
5. The Councillor dutifully started floating his motion to local media outlets, i.e. RTH.

Now, to sell (rationalization = sell, right?) municipal parking lots for development is completely nonsensical. The conspiracy theorist in me would envision the lots being sold to “developers” who would quickly find reasons for not developing and leave them as parking lots. With the municipal “unfair” competition removed from the parking market the daily and monthly lot rates could be increased across the entire core to the sole benefit of the private parking lot owners.

Make no mistake; parking is a “cash cow” to lot owners, as it can be for the City of Hamilton. There are no inputs, very little maintenance, limited overhead, and great ongoing cash returns.

As an example, there are approximately 251 working days in Ontario, meaning a 100 unit parking lot at $5/day grosses $125,500. If there is any vehicle turnover, evening/weekend or event parking that revenue number increases quickly and increases as pure additional profit. At $8/day the gross revenue from daytime working days is over $200K, at $10/day it’s over $250K, with no additional costs to the operation.

If anything, Councillor Bratina should be preparing a motion to reclaim strategic non-developed land and sell it to developers who will build, or else face stiff and enforced penalties (i.e. return of property). If those “developers” don’t exist then the city owns a parking lot cash cow operation where revenues can be used to fund public transit on a perpetual basis. And an operation that can be used to influence the behaviour of car drivers through the setting of parking rates.

We must stop being the fools that Councillor Bratina, in his own words, has set us up to become.