A small business owner is celebrating after community efforts to remove a New Westminster e-bike station in front of his store were successful.
Florin Mezo of Queen’s Meat & Deli launched the online petition because their “livelihood is now under threat [due to] the placement of Lime e-bike parking right at the entrance of our store.”
Mezo told Daily Hive that there was “no warning” from the City of New Westminster and that the e-bike station greatly impacted his customers and sales.
City of New Westminster
“There’s been a butcher in that location since 1926, and there’s always been parking out front,” Mezo explained. “Ever since the Lime e-bike parking was installed, we’ve received bad feedback from customers and people with mobility challenges. We also lost business and sales dropped.”
A total of 20 Lime e-bike share stations were installed in the initial New Westminster service area upon its launch in August 2024. An additional 40 locations are planned to be added citywide over the coming months for a total of up to 60 e-bike share stations.
City of New Westminster
“This e-bike stand is robbing us and our customers of much-needed parking spaces, hampering our day-to-day business operation,” Mezo wrote in the Change.org petition. “The City didn’t take into consideration the many elderly and disabled people that shop at our store. It’s a known fact; convenient parking makes a significant difference in a retail business’s success like ours.
“We, as a small business, contribute to the local economy — but this action from the City means we can’t perform our business to the fullest.”
Google Streetview
The online petition garnered nearly 500 signatures before it declared victory, with supporters of Queens Meat & Deli demanding the e-bikes’ removal.
Change.org
Change.org
The City of New Westminster told Daily Hive that the broad plan to reallocate curbside space for e-bike stations was communicated publicly as part of the public engagement process in 2023 and then again in the report to Council on the Implementation Plan in early 2024.
“The intent when locating the E-Bike Share Parking Zones (e-bike stations) is to provide coverage across all neighbourhoods of the city so that everyone has access to the system if they desire to use it, ” said Ashleigh Young, manager of communications with the City of New Westminster. “In this case, the station requires the reallocation of one on-street parking space.
“While this does not appear to be a significant impact, staff since learned that the elimination of this space had a disproportionate impact on some customers with mobility challenges, and also affected loading and deliveries for the business.”
Lime
Young added that staff spoke with the business owner on October 31 about his concerns about the e-bikes.
“Upon gaining a better understanding of the issues, staff have come to appreciate that the station should be relocated; work is already underway to find a new location for the station.”
Mezo thanks all of his customers and supporters for their help in raising the issue with the City.
“I feel grateful, it’s a relief,” he said. “We don’t need any more stress on the business so I am thankful that the bikes are gone.”
With files from Kenneth Chan