Toronto businesses 'have a bone to pick' with the City's snow removal route ticketing
A slew of small businesses in Toronto are airing their grievances with the City of Toronto's snow removal route practices following Jan. 25th's historic snowstorm.
As of Thursday, Jan. 29, Shannon Nocos, owner of Dundas West cake shop Kwento, has accrued $450 in tickets from the city of Toronto for parking in the "snow removal lane" directly outside of her bake shop, to say nothing of the money spent filling the Green P parking meter on the street that was willingly taking her payments all the while.
Here's the kicker: the street was plowed on the very night of the snowstorm, and has remained clear ever since. With the street behind the bakery still unplowed to date, Nocos and her customers have been left with no choice but to park on the street in front of the business: a decision that's costing them.
While typically, when snow removal lanes are in place, the Green P app and meters won't accept payment, instead displaying a notice informing the user that parking in that area is illegal, according to Nocos, that hasn't been the case this week.
Paying for parking every three hours only to be slapped with hefty parking tickets each day, Nocos was fed up. On Thursday, Jan. 29, she took to Instagram to express her frustration with the situation.
"@bravodavenport @cityofto @mayoroliviachow @lptbia I HAVE A BONE TO PICK WITH YALL," Nocos writes in the caption of the post.
"WHERE OH WHERE are we supposed to park??? Green P takes our money EVERYDAY, EVERY 3 HOURS, and yet we get slapped with $150 ticket for the snow route removal."
Nocos tells blogTO that she was at the bakeshop during the snowstorm on Sunday night and watched snow crews plow the street, which, she alleges, has looked the same ever since that night, so she argues that snow removal lane ticketing shouldn't be enforced in the area.
At the very least, she and her customers shouldn't have been able to make Green P payments while parking illegally.
And Nocos isn't alone. In response to her post, a slew of other local businesses commented that they, too, believe they had been unfairly ticketed for parking in snow removal lanes.
Logan Dunn, owner of Dundas West's Bad Attitude Bread, tells blogTO that a near-identical headache happened to him and his employees.
"We were ticketed out front of our business on Dundas Street at Palmerston," he says. "It was $100, and we got ticketed after the parking meter let us pay," he adds, noting that meters typically don't accept payment when snow removal lanes are active.
According to Dunn, this issue has not only made him incur extra charges, but has also negatively impacted his ability to run the business, in turn leading to longer wait times for clients.
"We load our wholesale and delivery orders out front of our business, and we cannot now," Dunn tells blogTO, "but the side streets also don't have parking shovelled out, so our driver is bringing them up bag by bag to the car up closer to College."
The very same day that Nocos made her Instagram post, the team at Sugo in Bloordale Village took to social media to voice a similar gripe.
"@cityofto how are you still ticketing snow routes and not clearing the snow?" they write in the caption, calling snow removal route tickets "a scam" and claiming that the tickets, in conjunction with the fact that snow in many areas of the city still hasn't been cleared, are "killing small businesses."
In a statement made to blogTO, the City of Toronto explains that, per City bylaws, "parking on snow routes is prohibited during Major Snowstorm Condition declarations, which Toronto is currently under," noting that the City provides "as much notice as possible" before snow removal begins.
In the case of Dundas West, the City notes that occasionally snow removal is required multiple times in the same area, necessitating snow removal routes to be clear for extended periods of time.
"We're committed to making all parking restrictions as clear as possible for everyone. We recognize this can be confusing and frustrating, and we have worked with the Toronto Parking Authority today to turn off the payment options at parking kiosks along snow routes to ensure drivers know parking is not permitted," the City adds.
Both Dunn and Nocos tell blogTO that they plan to appeal their parking tickets, with Nocos adding that she expects a refund on her Green P payments, too.
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