Petition Signing this coming Wednesday at Somerville Theatre

[geekpixie.livejournal.com]

This coming Wednesday, June 3rd from 6:30-8:30pm I will be at the Somerville Theatre in Davis Square (hey, someone may not know where it is..) collecting signatures in the lobby for a petition against the parking meter hour extension. Currently, the theatre is also collecting signatures at the box office as well. They're providing me a table in the lobby, so please, come on by and say hello! We need at least 50 registered voter signatures, but I am sure that more would make an impression.

Please note, this is ONLY a petition against the meter hours extension in items 9-12. I have always lived on a permitted street in Somerville, and paid far more at meters in other places, so the two other major changes are not as large an issue for me. Hurting businesses that are already suffering in an economic downtown just to scrape together a few more dollars on TOP of doubling parking rates? I have issue with. If you are unhappy about the permitting of streets, or any other part of the new regulations, I encourage you to draft a petition yourself, and organize. I'll happily sign it. It took me all of a half hour to write one up, get in touch with the ST, and set up times to be present and collect signatures.

If you are interested in a copy of the petition to collect signatures yourself, and return to me, or the city, just ask!

I hope to see you there!



Petition

On street parking meters are frequently used by visitors to Somerville who are attending concerts and movies, dining, and shopping. By extending the hours of our on street parking to 8 in all of Somerville except Magoun and Davis Sq. and 10pm in Magoun and Davis Sq., as detailed in items 9, 10, 11, and 12 of the provided excerpt from the commission's agenda, local businesses will lose patrons who cannot afford a ticket while watching a movie, and/or enjoying a leisurely dinner. In a time when the economy has done more than enough to discourage customers to local businesses, they should not be further discouraged by difficult parking time maximums and unreasonable parking meter times. The standard times for Parking Meters to be enforced are 8am-6pm for street meters, and 8am to 8pm for parking lots we request that you keep Somerville's parking meters enforced only at these times, and help, not hinder, our local businesses in their success.


We the undersigned registered voters of Somerville, Massachusetts oppose the extension of Parking Meter hours to 8pm and 10pm, and respectfully request that these hours stay as 8am-6pm for street meters and 8am-8pm for parking lots.

Comments

Re: take action, not whine? wtf?

[geekpixie.livejournal.com]

Thanks, your positive attitude means a lot. I also look forward to meeting a lot of people at the same time and putting faces with usernames :)

Re: take action, not whine? wtf?

[bryant]

Despite the fact that I'm being a dick one post down, I think this is a good thing. I may be in JP that night but if not I'll come down and sign.

I'm also going to reiterate: you need a plan for what you're going to say at the hearing, and all respect to Ron: complaining about elected representation is not going to do it. The people who made this decision were appointed by elected officials.

You also have to take into account that we're in emergency time here; the city accurately feels that it has little time to prepare for the 2010 budget. Again, the parking changes represent $4,000,000 in revenue, or over half of the budget shortfall. Curtatone's on record as saying that this entire process is hurried as is (which I suspect is one reason it didn't get a lot of public debate). Asking the city to stop, go back to square one, and reopen debate is going to be really, really hard.

Re: take action, not whine? wtf?

[geekpixie.livejournal.com]

They're going to have to regardless due to the petition. I've got a history of public speaking, not here, but in my hometown and I've done it many times. I had to act quickly to get this going in time to make a difference, but I'm working hard to be educated for later. One of the reasons I'm not going after the whole change list is that I know the money is needed. I have no issue doubling the parking fees, it was rather cheap before. Even permitting all the other streets in the area stinks, but there's a lot of parking (more now than there ever was when I was driving in previously) in lots, and on the streets. I understand it would be challenging, but still, not bad. Making it so people can't see a 7pm movie without serious ticket consenquences? (Or sprinting to their car afterwards, as movies are rather long now) not so awesome. Killing business revenue is only going to hurt the city in the long run far more than any additional income from extending meters will. If a business closes because that percentage of business lost was the final straw, that's taxes to the city gone too. (not that you don't know this,but I'm already building up arguments in my head, can you tell? ;))

Re: take action, not whine? wtf?

[bryant]

I can! And I think it's in good hands. And yeah, you get the public hearing in front of the three person Traffic Board -- the trick is going to be convincing them that they shouldn't just rubberstamp the change, because that's the quickest thing to do and the city is short on time. Hm; I'd get in touch with as many aldermen as possible. Lobbying them before the meeting ought to help.

Three hours definitely seems a bit short. It's worth noting that the validation for parking at Fenway or Kendall Square allows for four hours -- that's evidence that four hours works for movie theaters. I think we've got to acknowledge that longer parking meter hours are a two-edged sword. The limits don't start at two hours for no reason; shorter limits mean more turnover and more people coming through the square shopping at more businesses. We can't pretend that effect doesn't exist.

I liked the idea of one lot with four hour meters. I can't think of any good way to restrict use of said meters to Somerville Theater customers, though. You get back to needing an attendant to handle that, which is more expense.

Re: take action, not whine? wtf?

[geekpixie.livejournal.com]

The harvard vanguard parking lot would be a great option for 4 hour meters. The fact is we have a unique situation here, most places in cambridge have private garaged parking for things like movie theaters, etc, and hotels that do private garaged parking with discounts for local businesses. I always enjoyed Northampton when they had a parking garage (where I grew up) you could park, validate at businesses, shop all over the very busy and business-full downtown, and then pay out the nose when you left the garage ;)

Now that they have a pay before you play setup a lot of businesses have closed. They don't have a good option of public transportation (bus's, not so good there) so cars is it.

Re: take action, not whine? wtf?

[ron_newman]

I'm curious how much money the city could save by discontinuing all enforcement of all drug-related and other victimless-crime laws....

Re: take action, not whine? wtf?

[geekpixie.livejournal.com]

Check the budget and add it up, otherwise, don't stir the pot here :)

Re: take action, not whine? wtf?

[thewrongbloke.livejournal.com]

When my personal family budget goes into "emergency time" I don't go to my
boss and order her to pay me more money. I may ask, and she may agree,
but it's not something to which I'm entitled.

Instead, I cancel the cable television and start packing my lunch. Cities
and towns have been packing on the empty calories in recent years and now
should trim the fat, not coerce their constituents into paying for their
gluttony.

It's politically unpopular to close schools, layoff city employees, and
cancel city services, but politicians should have considered this before
they approved their budgets. And voters should consider it before next
voting for their representatives.

Ultimately all city employees are responsible to their residents, not
vice-versa. If it's not something the citizenry approves, then the
politicians are required to find another way.

Until they can demonstrate that they've sweated off all those extra
pounds, eliminated the extraneous services, and made tough, honest
decisions, then they should not be forcing anything onto their already
distended businesses and residents.