Editor:
My boss, Dale, opened a book store in Lake Louise a few years ago. He frequently gets customers who want to purchase a book that is out of stock at his Lake Louise store, but he knows is available in his Banff store.
Dale will suggest to the prospective customer that he/she make a stop in his Banff store on their way home to Calgary because we can have the book set aside for him/her. There have been occasions when that prospective customer has responded: “No, we avoid Banff because we are sick of dealing with the parking shortage and the traffic congestion.”
Dale told me that, during the Bike Fest, signs had been posted at the entrances to town warning potential visitors of traffic congestion in our town due to the Bike Fest. This was both good and bad.
Good because it gave returning visitors the opportunity to bypass town, thereby not spoiling their day by forcing them to endure the parking shortage and traffic congestion that is worsened during all of the bike races that blight our town.
Bad, because they did not visit.
We are told that bike races bring business to town. But, given that some potential visitors avoid Banff during these events and some (perhaps many) of the participants and spectators stay in Canmore, is there really a measureable increase in the overall amount of business during a bike race weekend as compared to a weekend during which there are no ‘special’ events?
A local businesswoman stopped in my shop on Sunday with her businessman husband. She and I both agreed that we did not support pay parking and that we hated all of the bike races that blight our town. We agreed that the only events that should be allowed to monopolize Banff streets are the Santa Claus Parade, the Canada Day Parade and the Melissa’s Road Race (there are probably a very few others).
She said that we need to “take back our town.”
Well, Bill Roberge might have just kickstarted that process.
I was collecting signatures on Allanah’s “No Pay Parking” petition the other day when I watched Bill pull up on Buffalo Street in front of the Post Office. He parked, turned on his four-way flashers and sat there for about 20 minutes.
He might as well have had a papier-mache middle finger attached to the roof of his truck because he and his parked truck were essentially one giant middle finger, protesting the “No Parking” zone in front of the Post Office, the most heavily-used parking area in town.
I know that a lot of Banffoons (that’s Gordon Burles’ name for what I used to call Banffites) feel that our elected council frequently makes decisions (Mark Bowes listed many of them in his letter published last week) that are contrary to the stated wishes of their constituents.
Instead, council is making decisions based on the “vision” of Robert Earl, the town manager, and Randall McKay, the manager of planning and development. Nothing stays the same over time but their “vision” is rapidly turning our town into a congested nightmare that few of us like.
Bill has already shown Banffoons how we can fight city hall – it too often is us against them, and us is losing – civil disobedience. Is it time to “take back our town?”
Jon Whelan,
Banff
