A former mayoral candidate and downtown businessman predicts there will be a price to pay for eliminating free downtown street parking as of May 1st.
Gary Beyer owns Tesseract Computers in the 1-thousand block of Douglas.
He says he's never had issues finding parking within a block of where he's trying to go on Sundays, and says the problem of employees filling up the spots on the free days has been overstated:
" I've talked to a number of other businesses, and while we have concerns about employees parking it is not the problem that mayor and council make it out to be."
Beyer fears the decision to start charging for parking on Sundays will drive business away:
" Those people who did come out from the outlying communities, that drove in from Sidney, Langford, Metchosin, that do come downtown maybe to have brunch with some friends, or stop in and see family and spend a bit of time downtown ... they're going to stop."
Beyer predicts council's continued attack on people with cars will simply deflect business to the Westshore to shop and spend time where they are appreciated.
He says he feels let down by the Downtown Business Association who should have fought the move, and will be talking to colleagues about the issue in coming days to get a better picture of just how many business owners disapprove of the change.