Editor, The News:
Re: Lighten up over street parking (Letters, May 9).
Let me be the first in thanking M. Hanzik for letting us know that you don’t have a problem with parking in front of my house. That is very kind of you.
Also, it is very observant of you to notice that we have large driveways.
But what you have failed to notice is that the hospital and hospice are 24-hour facilities and the workers park on our streets 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
What you have also failed to mention is that on sunny days, family members and patients enjoy walking down our streets and have difficulty getting around due to the single-lane traffic created by staff parking.
I would like to landscape my front yard for those going by to enjoy, but 24-hour parking in front of my house doesn’t allow it.
I would like to add, no resident will have a problem if a visitor to the hospital or hospice parks on our street. That is not the issue.
Please don’t use the exercise line ‘at most a five-minute walk.’ Smoking a cigarette isn’t exercise.
Call it what it is, you don’t want to pay for parking. This is a workplace problem, not a municipal one.
Its my understanding is that employees can pay $35 a month for parking, so suck it up.
We would not be the only municipality with permit parking around certain facilities.
If you live in Pitt Meadows and you want to save money and exercise, maybe take the bus or ride a bike.
Mike Murray
Maple Ridge
Deal with Fraser Health
Editor, The News:
Re: Lighten up over street parking (Letters, May 9).
First of all, let me say thank you for stepping forward and admitting to parking on our residential streets because you do not want to pay the excessive fees being charged by Impark.
But let me ask, are you the one who parks on a neighbour’s grass?
Are you one who parks up on the sidewalk?
Are you one of the many who park on either side of the street, thus narrowing the passage significantly to make the residents wonder how a fire truck would be able to respond to a fire?
Or how one of our many retired residents must get up in the middle of the night to get their motor home out of their driveway so that they may be able to head out the next morning?
Are you one who ignores the no parking within three metres of a driveway?
Do you know that most of these residents are at work between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m.?
Are you one who does shift work and, thus, parks on the street on weekends too?
Yes, most of us residents have large driveways. We paid for that. We also paid and continue to pay to live in a residential area. Are you one of my future caregivers who I must wait for while you pull a U-turn at the end of your shift before I can make it to my own driveway, then gives me the dirty look as if I don’t belong on the street?
We have no problems with people coming to visit their loved ones. Most of them are gone within a few hours, and, yes, I agree that the cost of parking is outrageous. But that is something the hospital employees need to take up with Fraser Health, not the area residents.
K. Caissie
Maple Ridge