Editorial:

As if the businesses along Victory Boulevard, or anywhere for that matter, didn’t have enough to deal with in the form of a depressed economy and rising costs, the city recently delivered another blow when crews painted enough storefront curb for about 10 parking spaces red.

The curb-painting was included in a plan approved 12 years ago, but a lot can happen in that amount of time, like, say, a debilitating recession.

Why it took the city so long to implement the curb plan is a whole other topic of discussion, but the decision by Public Works to move ahead with it and provide little to no notice to the affected business owners was an example of bureaucracy at its worst.

Even assuming that the city followed proper notification procedures — which officials have conceded they didn’t — the decision to even move ahead with the plan would have been hair-brained. At a time when business owners face one of the most challenging money-making climates in recent memory, now is not the time to be a hindrance.

People like Glen Bergstrom, owner of House of Hobbies on the 900 block of South Victory Boulevard, reported that 80% of his curbside parking was removed for his 50 to 70 driving customers per day — all within 24 hours of being notified of the change. Ouch.

We’re not suggesting the city’s actions were nefarious, but it’s not enough for city officials to say “oops” and pledge to look into it. As Councilman David Gordon suggested, perhaps some form of compensation or proactive mitigation should instead be implemented.

Tinkering with existing time zones in an attempt to alleviate the neighborhood parking issue is fine, but at the very least, the red paint should be removed and a plan that was approved a dozen years ago should be reexamined to see if it’s even still valid.

There’s no sense in sticking to traffic flow plans that are that old. That applies to any city plan.