What a wonderful evening it was last night for St. Albert and the Arts community! The weather was perfect for a stroll through downtown and stopping into each of the participating venues to chat with residents and business owners. When the conversation turned to issues facing the downtown I heard over and over again that parking is a problem. It appears that city staff is parking in spots reserved for the Perron Street and St. Thomas Street businesses. I have heard this complaint before. We need to investigate solutions such as park and ride or carpooling/ public transit incentives for the staff in order to free up spots for shoppers and clients. We are quite a long ways away from seeing a parkade built downtown.

I was excited to see the progress on Perron Courtyard. What a great addition it will be to the downtown. I think I even saw a spot that would be perfect for a restaurant with an outdoor patio which last night was flooded in sunlight. I can image many hours spent up there enjoying our downtown after 5 o’clock