At the height of the pandemic, Naarm/Melbourne allowed some of its unused on-street parking spaces to be converted to parklets, i.e.
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At the height of the pandemic, Naarm/Melbourne allowed some of its unused on-street parking spaces to be converted to parklets, i.e. outdoor seating areas, for free. With Covid being officially over*, they’re now phasing this out, requiring businesses to pay for the spots. And they’re happily paying thousands per year to convert parking outside their premises into seating:
Something to keep in mind next time carbrains cry about how loss of parking will kill business.
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@acb in Sydney there are locals who are objecting to these being made permanent, on the basis that they’re privatisations of public space, that they’re beer gardens that would never have passed planning muster before 2020, and so on.
What you can’t hear are the planners grinding their teeth saying yes, and the space was privatised before, just to cars so nobody noticed