THEVOICE | 2 Mayor to parkers: Pay up West Vancouver mayor says outsiders stealing parking spots at city's parks and beaches = By MATHILDA de VILLIERS on-resident visitors to West Vancouver's shops, parks and beaches should have to pay for parking, says the city’s mayor. ‘The current West Van mayor, Michael Smith, suggested recently that people from outside the mu- nicipality should pay for parking when they visit, while residents should be exempt. “We don’t have any paid parking. With good weather, all our park- ing lots surrounding our parks and beaches are jammed from people outside the community and I think they should be paying something,” Smith said. “We don’t have any paid parking. With good weather, all our parking lots surrounding our parks and beaches are jammed from people outside the community and I think they should be paying something.” —MICAEL SMITH, MAYOR And he encouraged other cities in the Lower Mainland to do the same. Smith’s comments came as Met- ro Vancouver presented a parking study recently that showed the most used times for parking are on evenings and weekends. Metro staff are looking for ways to discourage people from driving and instead take public transit to reduce the parking congestion. Jono Doneili and Severin Rol- land-Berge, both residents of North Vancouver, say that the parking on the North Shore has definitely gotten worse. When asked about what Smith suggested, he said, “If that were the case in North Vancouver, I would be really happy.” Rolland-Berge also said that she would have no problem paying for parking if the rule was implement- ed as she enjoys the convenience of having her car with her. Craig Cameron, a West Vancou- ver council candidate, says that he thinks Smith’s suggestion is a ter- tible idea. To him, it would mean treating people differently. He also stated that if paid park- ing is installed at Ambleside that it would kill the merchants in that area because people would most likely rather park for free at Park Royal and shop there instead. “We're trying to actually open our community to the public not shut it off and discourage people from coming,” he said. THURSDAY, OCT. 11,2018 | EDITORLISA STEACY such facilities are too full. cAiERoN THOMSON PHOTO Cyclists report insecurity Atlarge More than a third dont trust apartment bike storage = By CAMERON THOMSON fter Kevan O’Brien had the front tire stolen from his locked bike that was inside his Gas- town building’s parking garage, he lost his trust in leaving anything there. “On a scale of one to 10 being inside my apartment and locked up Id say the parking garage is a four for me. Pretty close to leaving it on the street,” O’Brien said. O’Brien’s wariness is not uncom- mon in the region. It turns out that more than one-third of people in the Lower Mainland don’t use bicycle park- ing facilities in their apartment ga- rages from fear of theft, damage or lack of room, according to a Metro Vancouver survey. The survey, which collected data on several apartment-parking is- sues, found that 42 per cent of Lower Mainland residents were afraid that their bike would be sto- len or damaged. Another 26 per cent of respondents answered that the facilities are too full. Something that O’Brien would like to see in his parking garage is individual bike lockers that could be used for storing helmets, tools and other riding accessories. An employee at a company that sells and installs bike racks all over North America says that having a separate room just for bikes is one solution builders could try. “The best thing for these people is to actually have a room where only people with bikes can actu- ally get in and out,” said Gordon Kingston, a 10-year employee of Rack Attacks. Richard Campbell, the executive director of the British Columbia Cycling Coalition, suggested one other option could be to make the creation of bicycle parking more enticing for landlords. “The government could pro- vide incentives for improving bike parking. They have incentives to add electric vehicle charging to existing buildings,” Campbell said. Relief greets street check review ‘They need to understand why and where we come from.’ m By LISA STEACY dvocates say they are re- y y lieved that the Vancouver police’s street-check prac- tices, which were intimidating and frightening for many Indigenous people, will be subject to an inde- pendent review. Lorelai Williams, an activist who also works with the Vancou- ver Aboriginal community polic- ing centre, said the review should consider the historical roots of the distrust that Indigenous commu- nities have for the police. “They should definitely look into our history,” she said. “They need to understand why and where we come from, and why we don’t like the police. Our people do get pro- filed a lot. It’s never good.” ‘The Vancouver police board or- dered an independent review in September of the controversial practice of stopping people, asking them for identification and record- “They should definitely look into our history,” she said. “They need to understand why and where we come from, and why we don’t like the police. Our people do get profiled a lot.” —LORELAI WILLIAMS, ACTIVIST ing their personal information in a provincial database. The board also agreed with six recommendations made by police on how to improve street-check practices. Chief Adam Palmer, who main- tained that street checks are a valu- able policing tool, said the findings of an internal review of the depart- ment’s use of street checks over the last 10 years proved that checks target people who needed to be targeted. “The people we're checking are people that have a heavy history of criminality regardless of their race.,” he said. In May, the department released data on all street checks conducted between 2008 and 2017. Indigenous people, who make up two per cent of Vancouver's overall population, were the subjects of 15 per cent of checks. The Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs and the B.C. Civil Liberties As- sociation filed a complaint saying that this data strongly suggested that checks are being conducted in a dis- criminatory manner. Josh Paterson, BCCLA’s executive director, said the police perspective is only one piece of the puzzle. “In Canadian law, something is judged to be discrimination by the effects on people, not by the intent,” he said. 2017 STREET CHECK STATS Indigenous women accounted for 20% of checks despite making up 2% of the female population. Indigenous people accounted for over 16% of checks despite making up just over 2% of the population. Black people accounted for 5% of checks despite making up only 1% of the population. SOURCE: BCCLA.ORG