Council Backs Off Tough Love in Downtown

The following article appeared in the May 2 edition of the Guelph Tribune:
City council has decided to embrace a “co-operative” approach to late-night downtown problems, rather than trying to pass extra policing and cleanup costs onto bars and restaurants that stay open after midnight.
This means extra costs estimated at about $174,000 annually - $125,000 for [...]

Council battling over nightlife issues

The following article appeared in the April 30 edition of the Guelph Mercury:
Downtown bar owners won’t be paying increased fees to the city anytime soon, although a city council motion that narrowly failed this week wanted to explore doing just that.
Instead, council approved a staff recommendation to continue working with downtown stakeholders, including the Downtown [...]

Bar-stool tax not the answer: mayor

The following article appeared in the April 18 edition of the Gueph Mercury:
There’s nothing the city can do to compensate downtown merchants when their property is damaged by rowdy patrons of downtown bars.
A bar-stool tax wouldn’t help, Mayor Karen Farbridge said yesterday, since the city’s hands are tied when it comes to using public money [...]

Downtown free parking initiative

Congratulations on the outstanding success of your free parking pilot in the downtown core.
The recent Oracle survey results are crystal clear: your constituents are in support of free on street parking in the downtown, and perhaps more importantly, free parking has resulted in a marked positive change in consumer behaviour in support of the city [...]

About Council’s downtown parking decisions

I would like to express my dismay at your decisions re downtown parking. I cannot believe you are planning to have 1000 parking spaces in downtown Guelph. Organize little electric buses to bring people downtown. Other cities are closing their downtown to cars (in enlightened countries, not in the U.S.) and you are planning to [...]

Downtown parking garages & Emma St. footbridge

I am compelled to contact you as my Ward Representatives, to communicate to you my concern on how quickly the Wilson Street Parking garage is being
implemented. I don’t understand the reasoning, and I’m going on the
assumption that you supported the decision.
I am concerned about the number of large capital projects the city is taking
on, and [...]

Downtown Guelph’s March Update

Wilson Street Parking Garage
On March 25, 2008 City Council endorsed moving forward with a site assessment and a conceptual design for a new parkade on the current Wilson Street parking lot. This multi-storey structure will include main-floor retail opportunities and will be integrated with the surrounding streetscape. This new parking facility will support local businesses [...]