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

[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.