The incident

Picton doesn’t get Wellington. It’s part rivalry. Think Sparta and Athens. It’s part sibling indifference. You look after you, and I’ll take care of mine. Some of it is in the setup. Radiating circles of relevance/concern/interdependence tend to drop off quickly as you move away from the decision-making centre. It’s human nature. (Sorry, South Bay and Carrying Place. Picton doesn’t think of you at all.)

There is nothing new or revelatory in this observation—a refrain as old as Daniel Reynold’s house. But sometimes the disconnect has real-world consequences.

Picton tends to invent new rules or schemes that may or may not actually work in Picton, and may or may not even be necessary— crafted on the fly in response to urgent appeals from an individual or small group.

It subsequently tries to apply them to Wellington. Later, it may even roll out such notions to Cherry Valley or Northport. But such efforts tend to hit a wall. Newly invented infractions often don’t exist on a meaningful scale outside Picton. And the remedy is often hard to enforce. But such regulatory band-aids tend to stick longer in Wellington—with dubious effect that is never measured.

Astute readers will have already deduced we are talking about parking this week. Indeed, most Wellingtonians, and likely only Wellingtonians, are aware of the PARKING INCIDENT that occurred in the village a few weeks ago.

CML Snider Elementary School hosts a track meet each year. The school boasts the only competitive running track in the County (a community achievement with which we in Wellington take some pride). Parents and families gather to cheer on the young athletes as they compete for a bit of glory and a hot dog. When the school parking lot reaches capacity, parking spills onto Niles Street. As it has done many, many times before.

Alas, this time when families returned to their vehicles, they found they had been awarded parking tickets. $35 each. Thank you for visiting Wellington.

Last week, the volunteers and patrons at the Storehouse Food Bank emerged to encounter parking enforcement keeping a close eye on their Niles Street operation.

It’s time to roll the parking enforcement machinery back to Picton.

FIVE BIG REASONS TO BACK OFF

1. Parking is rarely a problem in Wellington— and when on those rare occasions that the moons align and Main Street is teeming with visitors (not usually considered a bad thing in most jurisdictions)—the conflict is extremely short-lived. Like regulating fireflies. You might catch one, but it doesn’t alter the behaviour of the others. It is, therefore, merely punitive.
2. Parking regulations tend to arise, not from a problem today, but from worries that mayhem may arise if things get worse. We have seen how big, bad decisions are made in the heat of wild predictions of population growth. Parking scofflaws haven’t posed a serious problem in Wellington for 100 years. Maybe one day, but not today.
3. It likely costs County taxpayers money to enforce parking in Wellington. Shire Hall doesn’t break out bylaw enforcement costs in Wellington in its financial reporting—yet it is hard to imagine the County earns more than a fraction in fine revenue compared to what it spends on its parking enforcement bureaucracy. The upshot is that folks in Ameliasburgh and Milford are funding parking enforcement in Wellington—for no good purpose.
4. It is indecent to put the young man or woman as the face of the County’s parking bureau in Wellington. Putting a yellow vest on them doesn’t shield against the frustration of those freshly obliged to pay Picton $35. There are more productive and less ire-inducing jobs he could perform in the village.
5. And then there is the big reason: the County created public parking in Picton (Mary Street, King Street and Market Square. It created central public parking in Bloomfield to serve its commercial core. But when it was Wellington’s turn, the municipality decided the private sector should look after the public and economic needs. Council chose to nurture the commercial interests of Picton and Bloomfield, but concluded it wasn’t necessary in Wellington. Instead, it made it more expensive and more annoying to do business in Wellington.

For these reasons—and surely many more—Council must consider pulling parking enforcement back to Picton. Unless and until the municipality creates public parking in Wellington, it should not be in the business of punishing folks for enjoying their children participating in sports, volunteering at the Foodbank or stopping by the market on Saturday mornings.

Same for the Hillier beaches. Picton should not profit from folks walking their dogs at the end of Huyck’s Point Road.

As a rule, before Council considers venturing beyond Picton with new regulations—do a serious cost-benefit analysis beforehand. Demonstrate that there is a problem that needs fixing. Prove that the fix will work and prove that it won’t be another financial drain on the municipality.

Shire Hall is overdue for a conversation about getting thinner. About becoming more agile and better-sized to perform its core functions. Eliminating parking enforcement beyond Picton is an obvious place to start.

rick@wellingtontimes.ca