Tom Champion tries to justify parking changes

[ron_newman]

The Somerville Journal asked Tom Champion some questions about the new parking regulations, which were enacted without advance notice or democratic process by an unelected body, and are set to go into effect on August 1st.

Read the answers here:
Start saving: Parking meter rates and hours to increase, permit parking to expand citywide

(thanks to: Somerville Journal Blog)

(See also: very long DSLJ discussion from earlier this week
and Somerviile Chamber of Commerce's description of the changes)

Comments

[sonofabish.livejournal.com]

He really didn't compare Davis Square to downtown Boston, did he? Oh, wait, he did.

Which doesn't explain why the need for permits near Union Square. Or is US now the "Newbury Street of Somerville"?

Frankly, I hope some poor bastard who was moving to Somerville and chose a neighborhood precisely because there was no permit required and signed a lease now turns around and sues the everloving fuck out of the city.

Where are our Aldermen during all this? Is anyone standing up and saying "hey, wait a minute!"? Or are they all standing silently by?

You know, this just shows once and for all what a big fucking jerk-around all these "community meetings" are and how they're nothing but a milksop to give the impression we actually have a voice.

The only way we're going to change this madness is to vote every single person out of the city government the next election- get rid of them all. And Ron, if I'm still a resident of Somerville, I am totally writing you in for Mayor.

[ron_newman]

You know, this just shows once and for all what a big fucking jerk-around all these "community meetings" are and how they're nothing but a milksop to give the impression we actually have a voice.

I don't really agree, because when this community process is used it works pretty well. The problem here is that the process wasn't used at all.

[sonofabish.livejournal.com]

Which proves my point. Toss people a few crumbs to make them think they're empowered, but when it comes to the really big stuff, oh no, the people's voices don't mean squat. If they did, they would have announced hearings on these proposals or they would have been on the agenda of all those meetings that have been taking place in the different wards.

Nope, instead, we were presented with a fait d'accompli, but oh, by the way, if you care to object after the fact, feel free to send us an email.

Please, can we at least get a kiss, just because it's really nice to be kissed while getting fucked?*


* Paraphrased from the Al Pacino movie "Dog Day Afternoon"

[intuition-ist.livejournal.com]

another option is to organize to avoid Davis Square by car altogether. take the bus or the T when going there, and if you live in somerville, avoid getting a parking permit if you have any driveway space at all available.

if they don't get the revenue they're expecting from meters, and tickets, and permits, then they'll rethink their brand of crazy. it's all about squeezing more money out of folks.

[ron_newman]

If this was just a price increase in Davis Square I wouldn't be so upset by it. But it affects every business district in the city, most of which don't have adequate transit access but do depend on non-local customers.

[sonofabish.livejournal.com]

Honestly, if it was an increase in the meters to $.25 for 15 minutes, that would have been ok. Having the meters go until 8pm..... well, that's pushing it. Boston does it and it's fucking annoying. But 10pm and the meters are only 2 hours?

Anyone want to start a pool on how long it will take for that to drive the final stake in the heart of the Somerville Theater? Only way they'll survive is if they start putting in 15 minute intermission in their films so people can go feed their meters mid-film.

Even then, I'm sure there's something on the books about fines for meter-feeding and you can be sure the meter maids will be instructed to be uber-vigilant about ticketing those who dare flaunt that law.

So either way, people are fucked.

Way to go, Somerville!

[ron_newman]

I don't even think it's necessarily a bad idea to charge for parking at night -- IF you make it easy to pay (which doesn't mean carrying around bags of quarters) AND you extend the meters to 4 hours after 6 pm.

[sonofabish.livejournal.com]

Well, let's see.... the same film is playing at the Somerville Theater and, oh, let's say the Kendall.

And let's take "Armand" (nice art film fan-sounding name, that) who lives over in Brookline. Is Armand going to root around in the cushions of his Italian leather couch for quarters to feed the meter in Davis, or is he going to find a spot over near the Kendall, where after 6pm, the meters turn off.

Or let's take "Joe" from Charlestown. He likes BBQ. Hey, Redbones is great but damn, man, Blue Ribbon in Arlington is just as good and sure, it's a few more miles, but hey, free parking.

And maybe the city could swap the meters for shiny new high-tech ones, but I thought the city was financially hosed and spending's being cut? So suddenly the city can find a few million to replace parking meters? Oh, right, they're an "investment".

[ron_newman]

Most of the street parking near the Kendall is resident-permit. So most people who go to that theatre park in its garage and pay a lot more than the Somerville meter rate.

Check your Facts, please

[puckbear.livejournal.com]

So most people who go to that theatrer park in its garage and pay a lot more than the Somerville meter rate.

Um... The Kendall has validated parking at the garage - $2.70 for four hours. So at $1/hr the Somerville meters will be more expensive.

Re: Check your Facts, please

[ron_newman]

Oops, I didn't realize that. (Has that always been true?)

[sonofabish.livejournal.com]

Au contraire, there's a ton of metered spaces within a 5 minute walk of the Kendall. Or maybe I just know more of them because I do a lot of deliveries in the area.

[tober.livejournal.com]

This is true, although what legal parking there is on Binney Street is not resident-only. Rates in the garage are high although parking for any length of time is permitted there. Once the meter hours are extended to 10pm, it will be more-or-less impossible for non-residents to park legally in the vicinity of the Somerville Theatre in order to see an early evening movie. For most movies, it is not really possible to park, attend the movie, and be back in one's car within 2 hours - and forget about going to dinner and a movie without moving the car.

[tober.livejournal.com]

I do completely agree with you, however I will point out that in fact the Somerville Theatre and the Kendall Square Cinema never play the same film at the same time. They have a formal non-compete agreement with each other. As far as I know, they're the only two cinemas in the immediate metro-Boston area that have such a non-compete. I was going to say that I thought they were the only two cinemas in the immediate metro-Boston area operated on a for-profit basis and not part of huge[1] chains. Maybe that used to be the case, but the current owner of the Fresh Pond Cinema, Entertainment Cinemas, is a quite small chain.

[1] Landmark operates 57 cinemas (and only 2 in New England). That's substantial but not huge.

[ron_newman]

there are a few other non-chain, for-profit cinemas around, though not many:

Capitol Theatre in Arlington (same owner as the Somerville)
Lexington Flick in Lexington Center
West Newton Cinema
Studio Cinema in Belmont (same owning family as West Newton)
Dedham Community Theatre
CinemaSalem

and then there's the small regional Patriot Cinema chain on the South Shore (Hingham, Weymouth, Scituate, etc)

[sonofabish.livejournal.com]

Ok, so I must modify slightly. Let's say there's two equally interesting art-house flicks: the 2009 Golden Enema award winning Spanish movie "Dos Gay-os Cowboy-os Nom-Nomos Pudding-os" at the Kendall.

And at the Somerville Theater, the equally captivating "The History of Dirt", a 6 hour riveting retrospective on 10 years of a patch of dirt in an inner-city neighborhood, with interviews with neighbors, a couple of rocks, and a tearful tribute from Bono, who reprises his famous lyric "Tonight thank gawd it's them, instead of you."

I mean, what's an auteur supposed to do? Anguish result, hundreds of Twits and text messages fly across the ether, but then.... while cursing the gawds for imposing this harsh potentially life-altering choice upon him, the cross-eyed kid with the deformed ear who serves up Armand's daily triple uber-skinny venti mocha latte with a sidecar of Slick 50 (for regularity) points out that the $4 Armand would drop on parking could buy him one of his daily coffee fixes.

Grateful and in the throes of madness, Armand grabs his beverage and rushes out the door without paying, without leaving a tip, and without even so much as a thank you.

In fact, he was so beside himself, he ran blindly out into the street and got blindsided by a bus.

So I guess, yeah, this whole thing is much ado about nothing.

[craigindaville.livejournal.com]

I just peed my pants from laughing so hard!

non-compete? ha!

[svilletheatre.livejournal.com]

We do not have a formal non-compete with Kendall or any theater! We would LOVE to play day & date with the Kendall, but they block us from doing so. Kendall Square is part of Landmark Theatres, a sizeable chain owned by billionaire Mark Cuban. We cannot fight them as they have national film buying power. In fact, the one time we DID play the same title as them (when we convinced the little distributor releasing the Aqua Teen Hunger Force Movie that they should play both) we out-grossed them despite a lower ticket price and Kendall Square got so angry they stopped showing the movie 5 days into the run as a punitive measure against the distributor.

Re: non-compete? ha!

[tober.livejournal.com]

I apologize, I had truly thought that this was due to a non-compete, as I have memories of a past movie marathon at the Somerville Theatre (I forget which one it was) in which one of the films desired for the marathon could not be shown because it was showing at the Kendall Square Cinema at the same time. I am curious as to precisely how Landmark prevents films from being available to you and Kendall simultaneously - is this essentially a matter of them bullying the distributors and/or offering them better terms? It would seem there might be a viable anti-trust action there. In any case, let me close by saying that, although I have and plan to continue to patronize both the Somerville Theatre and Kendall Square Cinema, I like the Somerville Theatre better (and also better than any of the other for-profit cinemas in Boston/Cambridge).

[pierceheart.livejournal.com]

Only way they'll survive is if they start putting in 15 minute intermission in their films so people can go feed their meters mid-film.

And tickets will still be issued - meter feeding is forbidden: you park there for the maximum time allowed on the meter, then muv da carz.

That's how TP rolls.

[pushupstairs.livejournal.com]

You do realize that there are very few driveways in Somerville, right? That's why there's all those people parked on the street.

[intuition-ist.livejournal.com]

actually, there are about as many driveways for 1-, 2-, and 3- family houses as there are in other places, it's just that a) Somerville has one of the highest population densities in America, and b) there are lots of illegal apartments, and c) not everybody who has access to a driveway spot parks in one (in my 3-fam, the 3rd floor guy gets exclusive access to the driveway, the other 2 apts are left to fend for themselves). Oh, and d) it's more common for multi-roommate situations to cause car-overflow in whatever driveway space *is* available to a house.

[witzwurst.livejournal.com]

There are significant areas of Somerville where that doesn't seem to be the case -- a lot of them were built up a few years before automobile ownership was common, and so driveways are rare.

[clevernonsense.livejournal.com]

or we could vandalize parking meters :D

[intuition-ist.livejournal.com]

i wouldn't recommend that. :\