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What’s with this parking crackdown?

As Elise Stolte reported, Edmonton has handed out 1,672 parking violations around Rogers Place since it opened on September 8. These include cars caught in two-hour zones and no-stopping areas. And at $75 apiece, that’s roughly $125,000 in citations. Potentially more galling, though, is that the City of Edmonton is expressing its intention to crack down on citizens trying to capitalize on the parking shortage. Neighbours have opened up their driveways and front yards for roving drivers, and landowners have even begun selling impromptu parking on vacant lots. But city officials have warned Edmontonians that anyone hawking parking in their driveway or their front yard could be hit with a fine topping $1450 ($450 for failure to produce a business license, and $1000 for failure to produce a development permit). At the very least, it’s paying the bills. City hall paid $226 million to build this arena (well, more like $600 million, but the $226 million is the cash they put up for the place that’s already been written off), and they openly cited increased parking revenue as a way to pay that off. For one thing, on Rogers Place event nights street parking doesn’t become free until 10 p.m. — instead of the usual 6 p.m. So $125,000 pays off .05 per cent $226 million.

Are there any other NHL venues built without parking?

Not typically. Even urban arenas like Toronto’s Air Canada Centre, Vancouver’s Rogers Arena and Montreal’s Centre Bell were all constructed with some option for onsite parking — and they all have wildly better transit options. Winnipeg’s MTS Centre, however, approximates Rogers Place; the 15,000 seat arena has no onsite parking options and simply uses Winnipeg’s existing parking infrastructure. South of the border, New York’s Madison Square Garden also joins Edmonton in the “no affiliated parking” club. But it’s situated in Manhattan, one of the few areas of the United States in which large venues are routinely constructed without any consideration as to parking. Just ask Broadway.

Isn’t Edmonton the place where they screwed up that bridge?

Yes. Last year, a routine bridge project bridging a major artery was delayed by more than a yearwhen the girders suddenly buckled. Leave us alone; infrastructure is hard.

• Email: thopper@nationalpost.com | Twitter: TristinHopper