Restaurants are purchasing rice, flower, and cheap cooking oil in bulk (hoarding) in Toronto rite now, due to the weekly price increases here. Trans fats?-economics over health is the path being traveled currently.

Family care packages – usually toothpaste, clothing etc going from Canada to Asia, the Caribbean, Africa and Europe are now including bags of rice. These two points are unusual actions.

I’m too young to know what a real adversity is, but I have a picture of my great grandfather from WW1 to remind me daily that I grew up in a privileged country and I don’t know what real suffering is. I’m listening to stories from people here in Toronto this week, of what their families are currently going through in other parts of the world, and what they are personally experiencing with their own businesses here in Canada.

I have always been a supporter of reduced parking spots to increase pedestrianization, and I still am.

Please weight the current food supply and demand consequences to restaurants, when you are facilitating a decision for the mayors task force, as the business owners operational demands are changing dramatically in a way which those of us who are too young to have experienced real adversity in Canada, have any personal reference to.

Is it feasible to provide free parking after 4 pm, AND the removal of the few parking spots for the full pearl design? (oh … and the nightsky map in the ground please – that would be super nice to know what planets etc we night owls are looking at)

The city could re-coup the $50K or so decrease in parking revenue by implementing a “take-away drink container tax” which would also work to encourage the reduced use of disposable take away drink containers and increase the use of sustainable personal re-usable drink containers. There may even be some sort of carbon credit the city is entitled to.

Do be prepared with counter arguments as there are going to be restaurants going out of business in the next 2 years, which will publicly state parking, the spirit square, and a change to the smoking bylaw as the reasons for the change in their business – omitting increased food prices due to increased fuel prices, reduce food supplies due to increased farming of fuel, reduced personal spending, and layoffs affecting the public sector.

best regards,

Lisa Nolan

you might want to read the headline from todays Vancouver Sun – parking is the least of a restaurants worries.

gas is 130.7 today, which is about 3 months ahead of what was predicted back in Jan 2008, so that means by summer it should be around 145

creating a viable and economically friendly way for people to get to/from/along marine drive is a solution which is timely and will greatly assist the restaurants which are still in business if they can afford food.

creating a space which is attractive to people and inviting, is also timely given todays Vancouver Sun headlines.