New West business launches petition to relocate Lime e-bike stand

Queen’s Meat and Deli in New Westminster has launched a petition to remove a Lime e-bike stand that was set up at the entrance of their store.

Owner Florin Mezo says the stand has been installed for over a week and claims it’s taking away needed parking space and impacting their day-to-day operations.

“Every person that walked into the store had something to say about it, and some of the comments were absolutely disgusting,” said Mezo.

Mezo says he started the petition over the amount of negative comments they were getting. It calls for the Lime e-bike parking to be relocated from the front of the Queens Meat and Deli to a location that will not negatively impact the business.

He says while he’s not opposed to the bikes themselves, their location is causing issues.

Since its installation, he says he has lost around 20 per cent of his daily revenue, and it is restricting access to his store.

“It’s not as easily accessible to the elderly customers…we have a lot of customers with disabilities, that makes it that much more difficult to access our store,” said Mezo.

Last August, the City of New Westminster announced a total of 60 Lime e-bike locations would be added over the coming months. The city said the service would offer increased transportation options for areas with reduced parking and require minimal cost and infrastructure investment from the city to implement.

However, Mezo claims this latest location has actually restricted access to the store and taken away the spot where their delivery trucks would drop off heavy meat products.

“It’s taxing on my body,” said Mezo. “I have a hernia…back problems and so forth…carrying all these heavy loads.”

Mezo says he’s spoken with the city about the situation, but he was told the space is public parking and there’s other parking in the area he can use.

In an emailed response, Jacob Tugendrajch, the
senior manager of communications at Lime, said, “We will happily work with the business owner and the city to try and address any concerns as best we can.”

We have reached out to the City of New Westminster for comment on this story.