Poor parking curbs downtown dining on Valentine's Day

Romantic Valentine's Day dinner reservations were curbed when couples couldn't find parking in downtown St. John's over the weekend.

Snow that fell during Thursday's storm wasn't completely cleared until Sunday and downtown meters were bagged on Friday to ensure that cleaning crews could clear a path. 

Some downtown businesses are now questioning why meters were bagged all weekend long. 

Michelle LeBlanc, co-owner of Chinched and president of the province's restaurant association, said her restaurant lost business this holiday weekend — especially on Friday.

"Parking is always challenging but with all the extra snow on such a busy weekend that all of us depend on, the lack of parking has definitely been a challenge," said LeBlanc.

LeBlanc said Valentine's Day is one of the busiest weekends of the winter and, for some restaurants, it's the busiest night of the year. 

"Perhaps having a conversation with business and bringing us in on the conversation might help [the city and] us sort out some of these issues.

"There must be a time of the day where they can block off streets to clear parking to make it a little bit easier for everyone," LeBlanc said. 

Businesses also to blame

City council said removing snow on Friday and Saturday is too dangerous because of high pedestrian traffic in the downtown.

"The meters are bagged to ensure that we have a consistent flow of traffic and it also allows us the opportunity to ensure that nobody parks in those spaces for when we begin to do our snowclearing operation," said Councillor Jonathan Galgay.

Galgay said cars can't be allowed to park on both sides of the street because snowclearing crews would disrupt the flow of traffic. 

According to Galgay, business are partly to blame for the problem. 

He said that last year, the group representing downtown businesses stopped paying a contractor to clear snow in some parts of downtown.

"I don't think it's fair for the taxpayers of this city to have to pay for the enhanced snowclearing for the business community," Galgay said.

"I think they have an obligation to pay for it — they have for many, many years."