Why Do You Have to Pay to Use Your Own Parking Pad in Toronto?

The way humans hunt for parking and the way animals hunt for food are not as different as you might think. 
Tom Vanderbilt

Parking spaces are worth more than gold in Toronto and parking pads are now an endangered species. The city apparently doesn’t want to allow any new parking pads; I couldn’t even begin to understand their logic… Torontonians who have no parking have to shell out approximately $200/year for a parking permit. This allows them to park on their street, near their homes (hopefully). If the parking permit allotment for their street is already at capacity they will get a permit for parking on a nearby street, and still pay the same amount of money (even though they’re being inconvenienced).

The biggest money grab of all is the coveted parking pad. Homeowners pay upwards of $20,000 to build a parking pad. A friend of mine has one such parking pad. It’s quite large and can accommodate two cars quite comfortably. For this pleasure she has to pay the city of Toronto $400 annually. Yes, she has to pay the city of Toronto for the use of her own parking pad that is on her property and was privately paid for with no contribution or subsidy from the city. She recently was paid a visit by a city employee who inspects parking pads (and is probably being incredibly overpaid for this idiotic job that requires no skill). He informed her that she was not permitted to park more than one car on HER PARKING PAD. In fact he was coming back to inspect and if there were two cars parked, he was going to have one towed away.

This is draconian! A homeowner builds a parking pad on their own property (with proper permissions and permits) at their own considerable expense  and then effectively has to lease it annually from the city of Toronto who arbitrarily has the unmitigated gall to tell them how they can or cannot use it! This boggles the mind. Unfortunately, you really can’t fight city hall and when it comes to parking, we’re all being royally screwed!

He parks in the far corner of the lot, explaining that it is more logical to do this and then walk for fifteen seconds than it is to spend fifteen minutes looking for a closer space. 
Neal Stephenson

Make someone smile today.

Geri

Do Service Charges Piss You Off?

About once a year I get a ticket for an expired parking meter and last week I got nabbed. Parking makes the city of Toronto a fortune so I swear we have these parking enforcement creatures lurking on every corner. In any case, I don't dispute that my meter expired so it's my fault. Time to pay the piper, so I read the back of the ticket to see how and where to pay. For some unknown reason you can't just walk into a bank and pay your ticket. They have to make it as inconvenient as possible and add idiotic service charges. 

These are the options:

1. Payment by Touchtone Telephone and an administrative charge may apply (of course it will!)
2. Payment by Mail (do not send cash)
3. Payment in Person and a service charge may apply (of course it will). There are only 4 civic centres in the city where you can make payment
4. Payment Online and an administrative charge may apply (of course it will!)

I don't get it. First of all, let's cut the crap. The administrative charges (AKA service charges) do apply, so what's with the "may" apply crap. Let's have a look at these options and see how stupid this is. The only option where there is no service charge is by mail. When you pay by mail (and you can't send cash), you will more than likely send a cheque. This means that someone has to open the envelope, find the ticket the payment applies to, deposit the cheque in the bank and wait for it to clear. This VERY cumbersome process has no service charge attached to it. But if you pay by phone with a credit card, online with a credit card or in person with a credit card or cash you have to pay a service charge, which by the way is $1.50. I paid online by credit card and they charged me $1.50 which means that I was charged a service charge for "self-service" and they got immediate payment with no touchpoints. Can someone explain this stupidity to me??? And what can we do about it? Nothing; you can't fight city hall.

You know, someone actually complimented me on my driving today. They left a little note on the windscreen. It said "Parking Fine".

Tommy Cooper 

Make someone smile today.

Geri