Parking woes are compounding in Paris

To the Editor,

I’m starting my letter out with a confession; I got a parking ticket. I was parked on the road, right outside my front door, for 24 hours and 11 minutes. I know I was in the wrong however, the County of Brant is also in the wrong We have a serious issue in Paris that everyone is aware of, including the County of Brant, yet they are refusing to do anything proactive about it, and instead are using reactive solutions

Parking has been a hot topic in Paris since before I moved here 3 years ago yet plans for new subdivisions continually get approved with extremely limited parking. Look at Arlington Parkway for example. The road is wide enough for 4 lanes of traffic, yet the boulevard isn’t wide enough for a single car to park in front of the houses, thus we have an entire street with cars that have nowhere to park. Who approved those plans?

Now let’s play the devil's advocate like some of the folks I’ve been talking to: “Ashley, you shouldn’t have bought a house with only one driveway spot if your family has two cars!” That is a commonsense point or approach to my situation, except I can’t afford a house ANYWHERE that has a two-car driveway, and I am not alone in this experience.

Collectively we are experiencing a housing crisis and now more than ever we are seeing multigenerational households, in-law suites and homeowners looking to subsidise the cost of living by sharing their space But where do all the cars go?

I voiced my concerns to the by law office in Brant County regarding this issue and to discuss my ticket and was shocked by the response I was told to start my car and drive it around the block once to remove the chalk mark and then I could park it in the same space without penalty. Immediately I jumped back onto my laptop to reply to this email from a Brant County supervisor and asked, “How does that make any sense? If I can park in the exact same spot, why issue the ticket at all? And tell me exactly how your response aligns with the provincial and federal targets for reducing emissions in a climate crisis when you’re asking me to arbitrarily start my car, let it run and drive it in a circle?”. I replied to this supervisor's email 17 minutes after she sent it and was sent an out of office reply and not responded to for over a week

I sent an email to our local councillors’ office a month ago and received no response. In my email I suggested we adopt a system closer to what Hamilton has for parking. Each household is able to purchase a yearly parking exemption, for your street only, that allows you to park past the 24-hour by-law It’s a great revenue source for the city and it uses proactive solutions to combat the parking issue It seems both our local councillors and our by law office are only interested in focusing on reactive solutions as well as targeting households with lower incomes and multigenerational families.

I begrudgingly paid my parking ticket, because I was in the wrong, but we all need to hold the County of Brant and our councillors responsible because they are also in the wrong. I strongly encourage everyone to write to your councillors, to the county and to all your local government officials because as Paris grows the parking situation is only going to compound

Ashley Jasinski

What do you think of the County’s ride share service?

By Casandra Turnbull

Are you happy with Brant Transit, the County’s ride share program? Do you feel the growing community has adequate public transportation options available to meet the needs of all residents?

Save those answers and give your feedback to the County of Brant because they are currently undertaking an EngageBrant project to examine their ride share program to look for ways to improve Brant Transit services.

An online survey, designed to gather your feedback, asks a variety of questions from how often you use the service, to what’s the top three reasons you haven’t used the service, what times of day you require the service and why you use it (to go where?)

If you’re not comfortable doing the survey online, you can do it over the phone by calling 1-855-442-7268 or a printed copy within any County of Brant Customer Service office. The survey is open until 4 pm on September 30th

Lesley Jackson, Director of Community Partnerships with the County of Brant and Danielle Tota, Public Transportation Supervisor with the County of Brant will monitor the feedback and staff will produce a report on the key outcomes. A summary of what was heard, along with key steps to improve the service will be presented in the winter of

2024

Now’s the chance to help improve a service that is vital to the community as it continues to grow There’s always a lot of complaints online about lack of transportation services. Don’t miss this opportunity. Check it out online today.

Afro CariBrant Fest lights up Lion’s Park Paris

Lions Park came alive with cultural music, dance and food on Saturday, September 9th as the Afro-Caribbean Festival was in town. It featured lots of traditional dance, drum experiences, steelpan performances and even a fire show at night. This vibrant culture experience was presented by Darmont GivesBack, a philanthropic initiative of Darmont Events, a group of volunteers who share a passion for promoting diversity and community engagement.