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Closed bike rack irks city councillor Laura Busch Northern News Services Published Friday, September 23, 2011
The metal cage outside of the Extra Foods store was expanded over what used to be a public bike rack. "It is disappointing to see businesses moving in a backwards direction," said Coun. Paul Falvo, who is a bike enthusiast himself. "It doesn't do anything to help the downtown core, to help business when people restrict options for customers," he said. City council approved an amendment to the city's zoning bylaw in November 2009 requiring new buildings in the downtown core to instal bike racks upon completion. It was passed with the goal of reducing vehicle traffic downtown, and encouraging more environmentally-friendly transportation in the city. "From a city council point of view, we made requirements for new businesses or new developments to have a certain amount of bike space," said Falvo. "Maybe it's time to look into whether it's possible to make existing businesses have a certain amount of parking for bikes." Hughie Graham, manager of tenant services for NPR Limited Partnership (formerly Northern Property REIT) - which owns the building housing the store - said the cage was installed at the request of staff working in Yk Centre. "We created a secure bike storage for our tenants at the tenants' request and we expanded the bike cage because of the high demand from our tenants," said Graham. "We took an unused piece of our property under that overhang at the YK Centre and were able to finally use it for something." NPR argues it has provided the public with plenty of open bike racks near YK Centre - some at Shoppers Drug Mart and some behind YK Centre East - and plan to instal more next year. "So, we feel there are a lot," said Graham. "We are going to expand some more but it's September and you'll find that your bike ridership drops off in the winter. "The request from our tenants was that we have a secure bike storage facility for them so we've just accommodated them that way."
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