Editor, The News:
Re: Ridge hospice families deserve break on parking (Letters, Sept. 26).
I offer much sympathy and precious little solution.
But fact is, hospitals and hospices are in need of money with the gaining of benefit to us all – the need for pay parking is there.
Should change take place, one might wonder where the shortfall would be made up – perhaps in patient care.
In an ideal world, such things would be free.
I am aware directly across Laity Street there are residential streets that visitors to the hospice can park their vehicles on, but there again problems arise.
Between hospice staff and visitors, combined with hospital staff and visitors, it gets to a point the residents of that street cannot even park in front of the homes they live in.
A solution talked of was resident-only permit parking. However, I’ve noticed parking is not limited to two hours in duration – that seems a fair compromise.
Perhaps even a solution the author may wish to consider.
Drive across 117th Avenue and those residential streets are wide open to unlimited parking for all; nine times out of 10 it’s not an issue. Flip side of that coin is the fact I myself have been witness to two car accidents in the past three weeks – you can’t see a thing down the street when pulling out of your driveway with vision severely limited by parked cars on narrow streets.
As a resident, I have zero issue with people parking in front of my house, but at the same time, it has its perils and inconveniences to the residents whose house you’re parking in front of definitely.
Personally, I wish more people would avail themselves to transit, noting it stops right in front of both the hospice and hospital, with parking a moot point.
Failing all other solutions and compromises already made, perhaps Impark, the company that tends the parking lot and the author, can get together and arrange a solution.
Robert Adams
Maple Ridge