Inside Vancouver
Parking Wars
By Adele Weder published Mar 1, 2009
South Mainers learn to hog their street spots just like everyone else
The neighbourhood known as South Main—that enclave of hipster moms, rock-solid retirees, and struggling musicians—is renowned for its spirit of easy camaraderie. Not as Marxist as Commercial Drive, it’s still a neighbourhood that could inspire a collective-minded bumper sticker like “From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs.” Or hers. What’s more, for us bourgeois bohemians who happen to own a car or two, here’s another handy bonus: free and plentiful street parking.
Or so we thought until one crisp morning when the neighbour across the street paid an impromptu visit: Welcome to the neighbourhood. Two children? Wonderful. By the way, just so you know, please do not park in front of our house. Ever. You could get ticketed or even towed—there’s a lady down the street who’s known for doing that…
Ticketed? Towed? For parking on our own sign-free street? In South Main no less? How and why did such micro-NIMBYism creep in? We’re the salt of the earth, we SoMans, not the crème de la crème. On a street unsullied by No Stopping or Permit Only signs, parking is an inviolate civic right, like picnicking in Stanley Park. Or is it?
The short answer is: not quite. Every Vancouver residential street, even those without any kind of Permit Only or other regulatory sign, is governed by an unadvertised regulation. Bylaw No. 2849 Section 17.6(f): “No person shall park a vehicle…on a street abutting premises used for residential or commercial purposes for more than 3 hours between 8:00 a.m and 6:00 p.m.” Why not? “This by-law is meant to restrict commuters from regularly parking all day on residential streets,” the city’s website states. “It is enforced on a complaint basis only, and usually only when a vehicle is found to be repeatedly in violation. The by-law is not meant to restrict legitimate visitors or area residents from parking on their own street.”
Aha! The bylaw is designed to shoo away those daytripping White Rockers and Ladnerites who might otherwise park on Vancouver’s increasingly scarce street space, then grab a bus to their downtown jobs. It’s not meant for the people who actually live on this block—the ones who rake each other’s leaves and collect each other’s papers.
