I was cruising around downtown Squamish Monday afternoon to get to my accountant and sign my taxes. No, not this year’s filing, but rather last year’s because I’m not all that organized. Sue me… unless you’re the government, that is.
I had about 45 minutes before I had to pick up my youngest from school, so I thought I had plenty of time to run in, sign my errant taxes, and get back with 25 or so minutes to catch up on work emails and grab some juice. Taxes are thirsty work, after all.
Hmmm. No parking in front of my accountant. OK. No worries. I’ll just park down the road a bit. I mean, this is Squamish, after all. You can always find parking in a small town.
No parking!
OK. No worries. I’ll just swing around the block. Plenty of time. Plenty of time. Is there some convention going on? Why are there so many pylons everywhere? OK. No worries. Plenty of time. Plenty of time. I’ll try the next block. OK, I’ll just swing around back to my accountant. Maybe somebody moved in the past five minutes I’ve been slowly driving around downtown looking for a – insert your preferred expletive – parking space.
I’ll spare you the next 10 minutes, but there were some pretty inventive uses of both French and English cussing. My ancestors would be proud. However, I did finally manage to procure a spot for the family vehicle, run in, sign my forms and get back home in time to pick up my wee one.
It would have been a much better story had I missed picking him up, and he were devoured by wolves, or found by monks and trained to be a crime-fighting ninja. But, that’s not what happened.
Instead, I got angry, wondering where someone was supposed to park in downtown Squamish? It seems like spaces have been slowly disappearing, yet there are more and more people using the downtown core. On weekends during the summer, we hardly (well, almost hardly) want to go downtown anymore because it is so busy with tourists. That is awesome for our local commerce and community, but as Squamish gets busier, where are they supposed to be leaving their cars while enjoying our fair burg?
I totally think downtown needs to stay more pedestrian and bike-friendly, however not everyone visiting is going to think that way. And, as more people discover the joys of living here and commuting to the big city, we need more capacity to allow even local folks to easily find someplace to park.
I hope our local lawmakers are thinking about this and come up with a solution by next year… y’now, when I’ll be filing this year’s taxes.
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