More on Parking

[winterhill.livejournal.com]

An article in the Somerville Journal quotes Alderman Pero as saying "city officials can't give in to constituent concerns."  Huh?  Isn't this otherwise known as listening to the people who voted you into office?  And will vote you out?  I understand they haven't come up with the right answer yet, but this statement is arrogant and lame.

Link to the full article:
http://www.wickedlocal.com/somerville/town_info/government/x1885874713/Somerville-aldermen-split-on-citywide-permit-parking

Comments

[dent42.livejournal.com]

Except there was already a policy in place to fix this problem. If you live on a street that's not permit, and you feel like its being used as a commuter lot, you gather your neighbor's signatures, and convert the street over. I've seen it happen on Willow when I was living near there. If parking is really that bad in the neighborhood, this will be really simple to gather. My guess is if ANY phone calls are made to complain, its from some dude who has lived in the neighborhood for year, and thinks the spot in front of their house belongs to them. They'll find other reasons to call when this goes away.

I spoke with Trane, and he admitted it was a money grab. not only will they get to ticket more, they also are going to pull in the permit fees for cars that didn't necessarily have to register before and will now.

I'd be fully in support of this if they'd go back to the days of phone registering parties/gatherings, or introducing some other self-service option that doesn't require a trip to an office that is barely open, much less open at convenient hours for people with, you know, jobs. (you used to be able to call T&P, tell them you were having a party, the time and number of guests, and that was that). If anyone got a ticket, you could go and get them rescinded without even a hearing. Presumably the person walking that neighborhood beat was told about the party, because we never had guests get hit when we did that. At my current house, Broadway is a few minute's walk away, and ALWAYS has parking available.

While we're at it, can we PLEASE kill the stupid 48 hour rule? Hi, I drive my car once every week or two, and commute to work by T. Don't make me go out, start it, roll it a few feet, and park it again because I have some neighbor who is an ass. The 24 hour rule (its not actually 48, but 24) exists so the city can force cars to move by posting signs in the event they need to do some emergency roadwork.

[wombatbanana.livejournal.com]

> [Provide 24-hr self-service party passes and ditch the 48-hr rule.]

This. I agree with the mayor's argument (http://somervillenews.typepad.com/the_somerville_news/2009/06/parking-its-all-about-access.html) that making parking free causes a scarce resource to be poorly utilized, but business (and/or their patrons) and residents need to be able to pay a fair price for their use of city streets.