I’m a long-time Waterdown resident and like many others, I’m concerned about the direction Hamilton is headed with their plan to erect parking meters in Waterdown.

I and others I know have written the mayor and city council members asking them to change their minds about the meters because we know that they will likely drive customers away from local stores and possibly drive many of those stores out of business.  

The mayor, in a written response, said that parking meters were to be erected in order to “help” local businesses by preventing residents from taking up the spaces of possible consumers and by generating parking turnover. On the surface that almost sounds plausible, but if the mayor or city councillors had actually bothered to do some research before making such statements, they would have learned, like I did, that there is no problem with residential parking in Waterdown, nor are parking meters wanted by any of the affected businesses.  

Council’s decision was clearly made in the same biased way that all council votes are made. In this case, neither the residents nor the affected business owners want or need parking meters, which our local councillor conveyed to City Council. But since the other members of council don’t actually give a damn about what Flamborough wants and because meters aren’t being erected in front of their doorsteps, the remaining councillors simply vote for whatever will potentially put money in the city’s pocket– money which I’m sure will not be used in any way for
the benefit of Flamborough.

I found it particularly disturbing when the mayor stated that a letter-writing campaign would make no difference.  What would Hamilton do if a large majority of the people in Flamborough sent letters opposing the meters?

It’s not like letter-writing campaigns haven’t made a difference in Hamilton before. Just a year or two ago when the city planned to build a sidewalk on Mountain Brow near Kenilworth and Upper Ottawa, all the residents in the  area got together and wrote to City Hall saying they didn’t want sidewalks in front of their homes. Council members did as the residents wished – the sidewalks were not built. So why is Flamborough treated differently?  

No one in Waterdown wants or needs parking meters; therefore, installing them against the collective wills of business owners is, in itself, doing harm. If the mayor truly wants to “do no harm” then Waterdown should be left to decide for itself whether meters will be installed.

Harald Pfeiffer
Waterdown