So; you wanna talk about our 'parking problem'...? Part Three

It's remarkable to watch how a downtown, a main street, a city center, a village core can grow, adapt, respond to consumer influences, react to retail demands. What previously may have been seen as 'impossible', suddenly seems not only possible, but surpasses even the highest of aspirations. Vibrancy, ingenuity, vitality and inspiration...all of these can be present, and more. Further, over time, there are knock-on effects. The surrounding community, having been affected by the area's organic growth, becomes energized itself. A different mood suffuses its residents. A sense of belonging is entrenched. Before you know it, opportunities for celebrating -festivals, parades, events- become elements in an ever-looping urban 'circle of Life'.

Conversely, it's depressing to watch a situation where -from a regular resident's perspective- no influences have been exerted, no initiative applied, and no imagination generated. The result is stagnation. Worse, bitching and complaining, whining and blame-gaming become aspects of passive inculcation: people expect less, get it, expect even less...but never really understanding their lot and how they arrived at its state, the dissatisfaction rises up in truly sad ways.

I don't like what Downtown Stoney Creek is. It may be some things for some residents, but I can't even begin to consider the possibility that the 5,000 or so people who live within the contiguous borders of 'authentic' Stoney Creek (Centennial to Gray, Queenston to the Escarpment) would be unified in saying 'What we have is exactly what we want!'

I believe Stoney Creek residents deserve better.

I believe Downtown Stoney Creek deserves to provide better.

And I believe we haven't even scratched the surface of how truly wonderful Downtown Stoney Creek could be.

Which came first, the chicken or the egg?

Which has to change first, the downtown, or the downtown parking?

I can't answer the first question, my brain's not big enough. The second one?

"They both have to change at the same time." (But the downtown has to be a hitch-step ahead. LOL)

Recently, I came up with an aggressive proposal that would effectively double the amount of public parking in Downtown Stoney Creek. (One hundred and sixty additional spaces.) Granted, it was an audacious plan. It requires some drastic measures, some lofty co-operation, and a common goal. But it dovetails nicely with the suggestions I posted on this blog, in my ten-part series addressing the downtown. (The final suggestions can be found here.)

I understand completely that I'm thinking outside the box...never mind talking out my fundamental orifice. But here's one of my core beliefs (it's nothing I haven't said before):

'Nothing changes if something isn't changed.'

I like to believe that things have ended up the way they have not because someone, or a group of someones actually believed somewhere along the way that this is how things should be. That it was an enviable goal back then, and it's just as much an enviable achievement now, in the present. That prospect, that all this was part of a plan, turns my stomach.

For the record, this has nothing to do with seeing Stoney Creek as having some kind of insecurity thing going on in the face of our neighbour to the west, Hamilton. It's more about seeing this enormous potential that's never really been recognized and longing for others to see it too, and maybe finding a way to get a dialogue going, finding a way to make something of this potential.

Which is why I'll continue to yammer on, continue to make suggestions that few hear and even fewer are willing to consider, continue to try to be that grain of sand inside the oyster...and I'm sure you know the rest of that analogy.