I received this email from a friend:

I was parking on Cypress street just north of Burrard.  I looked at the meter and it said $2 for 80 minutes.  After I put in my money the meter read 1 20...I assumed the timing of my visit was in a better rated time slot and I got 120 minutes.  But is is reading 1hr and 20 min....this is very misleading (possibly deliberately so).  Really, it should read 80 minutes to match the posted rates.  I am not the only one who noticed this as there some other people at the same Xmas gathering I was at that also got tickets thinking they has 120 minutes.  $35.00 - Merry Christmas to you too!  There is nothing more irritating than doing your best to obey the law and pay what's due and be mislead in this way.  This should definitely be corrected...the meters should say 80 minutes such that they match the posted rates and not deceptively as 1 20.

I was also dismayed to learn that you have already quietly cancelled the first-ticket grace on Dec. 4.  I understand there was a notice in the Vancouver Courier...what about the Sun or the Province?  I had actually read that this had been proposed along with a rate increase and time extension for downtown parking but had know idea that you people had already slid it into effect.  A bit slimy in my opinion.

I would also like to express my opposition to the expansion of metered hours from 8 PM to 10 PM.  I think that it is despicable that because you have mismanaged the budget you feel you have to punish the rest of us.  I want you to know that it will not be forgotten by this constituent in the next election.

Thanks for listening and I look forward to your response.

I'm going to respectfully disagree with this for a number of reasons.

1. By law, the City of Vancouver cannot run a deficit. Now I don't think that makes much sense - other levels of government and corporations don't restrict themselves so, there are sound economic reasons when you might want the ability to go into the red, etc - but until the law is changed, that's the reality. Thus to meet the current budget shortfall you will have to either raise taxes and user fees (such as parking rates), or slash services - which are already being slashed to the bone. (more info here) I won't shed much of a tear for the Petting Zoo or the Bloedel Conservatory, but I do care about the loss of services at libraries and community centres that affect low-income earners disproportionately, doubly so given the current economic climate. So if you are not prepared to increase revenue, you'll have cut spending more than it has already. And just what, specifically, would you cut?
2. I personally support encouraging public transit use through mechanisms such as parking rates and tolls. For cities with restrictive geographies such as Vancouver, this is a necessity. London charges a congestion tax, for example. Yeah, that's me, but I don't like breathing smog.
3. Yes, you can point to things - the Olympic Village springs to mind - and cry "mismangement", but the current budget shortfall is really all about the collapse of global credit lending. Unlike other Lower Mainland municipalities, a large portion of the CoV's revenue is from building permits and when credit dried up so did building starts, and so did Vancouver's revenue.
4. Re: the loss of first ticket grace, I'll turn it over to this Allen Garr column 
5. There are different kinds of meters in use throughout the City, and granted I don't use them very often, but I've never been personally confused by the time. There is usually a ":" separately hours from minutes (photo). Perhaps yours was broken.
6. As for the Sun/Province, I note these article in the Sun from just a cursory search: One from March 19, and one from December 2nd

House Minority Leader John Boehner, November 5, 2009

That bill, of course, is not the Patriot Act. LOL

Here I sit watching GOP Senators and Congressman give speeches before a crowd holding signs with graphic images of Dachau. A crowd that organizers say will  later on storm the offices in Congress...on this, Guy Fawkes Day.

Let's repeat that...GOP officials are speaking to a crowd that plans on storming the Congress building. On a day that commemorates rebellion.

All this over health care.

SMELL.THE.FREEDOM.

Environmental protestor Jeh Custer apparently has been caught adding blood to his face for an interview with CBC following yesterday's Bill C-311 protest on Parliament Hill. Utterly self-defeating.

The bear, who was wearing ice-skates when the incident occurred, attacked 25-year-old circus director Dmitry Potapov, dragging him across the ice rink by his neck and nearly severing one of his legs before relenting.

A suicide bomber attacked a suspected nuclear-weapons site Friday in Pakistan, raising fears about the security of the nuclear arsenal, while two other terrorist blasts made it another bloody day in the country’s struggle against extremism.

Increasingly daring and sophisticated attacks by terrorists allied with al Qaida on some of Pakistan’s most sensitive and best-protected installations have led to warnings that extremists could damage a nuclear facility or seize nuclear material.

Link: http://www.youtube.com/user/VancouverArchives

Link: http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/gallery/2009/10/political-activists-and-pranksters.php?img=1&ref=fpb&ref=fpblg (via shareaholic)

Another shout out to the Straight: An excellent overview of the climate change denialist industry. Funnily enough, funded by industry:

Hoggan, the author of Climate Cover-Up, told the Straight by phone that average people need to gain a greater understanding of the issue to avoid being misled by the media, which echo the claims of industry-financed groups. He described these campaigns as “manipulation of the highest order” and “Darth Vader public relations”, suggesting that consulting firms can generate hundreds of thousands of dollars by coming up with simple phrases like “junk science” or “clean coal” to downplay the issue.

Link

Link: http://www.straight.com/article-265325/city-puts-georgia-viaducts-future-play# (via shareaholic)

Glenn Greenwald has a very good post today.