Karen Palkowski of the High Park Residents’ Association informs us about an important public meeting to take place on January 17 at Howard Public School (30 Marmaduke St), from 7-9 pm. The purpose of the meeting is to discuss the possibility of making the school’s parking lot available to the public, presumably outside school hours.

Parking is tight in the Roncesvalles area, with only about 200 or so on-street spaces. Proposed plans for the 2008 or 2009 reconstruction of Roncesvalles call for the widening of the sidewalk in several areas, which would reduce parking further. If the public were able to park in the school’s lot on evenings, weekends and holidays, this would add significant capacity while bringing the school added revenue.

Such partnerships are not new for Roncesvalles. Green P recently installed a meter in the parking lot of the St. Stanislaus - St. Casimir’s Polish Parishes Credit Union, making a few dozen additional spots available to Roncesvalles shoppers. These are creative solutions that allow for increased parking without needing to build additional lots.