What do you mean, no parking?

June 21, 2018 · 0 Comments

by Scott Taylor

It’s not the $45 that upsets me, though I’d much rather the money remain in my pocket than go to the Town’s coffers, rather it’s the fact I had a parking ticket slapped on my windshield for leaving my car overnight on a street that had no signs saying it was illegal to do so.

I’ve lived in many cities over the course of my life, yet I can’t remember one that didn’t have signage clearly visible on any street to indicate no parking. So I emailed the good people at bylaw for an explanation.

Jordyn Lavecchia, the co-ordinator, regulatory services, replied:

“In terms of signage, the Town has standard regulations on signs as residents/visitors are entering the Town. These regulations are similar to both the City of Brampton as well as the City of Mississauga where an exemption is required in order to park on the street.”

The regulations mentioned might be standard to longtime residents, but for newcomers they are less so. Call me an odd duck, but as I drive into a new town my eyes are not peeled to spot a sign stating parking regulations.

In fact, Monday morning as I arrived for work, I actively searched for those signs and still couldn’t find them.

Again, this might be very common knowledge for residents, and if so I apologize for barking at the moon over this, but I can’t be the only one. Let me know what you think.

And, yes, I have received an exemption, but they’re just temporary. What do people do in the long term if they don’t have access to parking?

On to other business. Have you been watching the World Cup? I’m not much of a soccer fan, but that doesn’t stop me from enjoying the games. The biggest beef I have with soccer is the diving and flailing and screaming for mercy from the pain you see from so many players. An example of this would be the video that shows a hockey coach taking an errant puck to the head. It opens a wound and creates a pretty impressive goose egg. He touches it to see if it’s bleeding and then goes on as if nothing happened. Then you see a soccer coach get clipped in the head by a paper airplane, just like the kind you used to make in school. It’s a piece of paper folded up. Well, you’d think he had been shot. He falls to the ground holding his head in agony. When he’s finally helped up, he appears wobbly and still in visible pain.

This sort of thing happens all the time and it makes it difficult to watch, but so far in the World Cup I haven’t seen much of that nonsense at all. The players have let their talent do the talking and the games have been competitive and, in some cases, surprising, especially Mexico’s win over the favoured Germans.

One reason the world loves soccer so much is almost anyone can play it. You just need a ball and a couple of feet and even the ball can be made out of almost anything in the very poorest parts of the world. I have a friend who says soccer is a terrible waste of a good lawn, but I disagree. When it’s played with skill and passion it can be a great game and when an underdog country such as Iceland finds a way to make it to within a win or two of the championship, you’ve got some compelling reasons to get involved with the fun.

If only Canada could put together a decent men’s team . . .

Finally, with the provincial election now in our rearview mirror, we can start to set our sights on the fall municipal election. It’s important to get to know the candidates and what they stand for because municipal politics has the most immediate and direct effect on our daily lives. It’s still months away, but now is as good a time as any for us to start our homework.