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

[badseed1980.livejournal.com]

Technically, it doesn't quote him directly as saying that. There aren't quotation marks. It's a paraphrase or summary by the journalist of what the person said: an indirect quote. Pero might well not have used those words himself.

[agnosticoracle.livejournal.com]

By "citywide permit parking" do they mean permits that are good anywhere in the city? If so that would be VERY bad for neighborhoods near a T stop, which would effectively lose all their on street parking.

[wandelrust.livejournal.com]

I think if you add the implicit "... or the city will go broke," it's not unreasonable.

Taxes and fees are never popular, but the city needs to raise money from somewhere. If elected officials only did what constituents told them too, governments would never be able to do anything.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_meej_/]

Confusingly, the article states that the vote was 6 to 5 against, but then lists 5 aldermen voting against and 6 voting for. Anyone know what actually happened on that note?

[tt02144.livejournal.com]

This is definitely a money-grab, there's no doubt about it. And besides the fees for permits and guest passes, and the restrictions on where you can use guest passes, there are also restrictions on when. The same vehicle can only use your guest pass once in every so many days (don't recall the specific number of days). So if you have a friend, son, cousin, whatever, who visits regularly, guess what? They can't! And parking near T stops is not necessarily alleviated, because anyone with a permit can still park on a street near Davis, for example, all day (and do!).
I personally find it offensive, that on top of the taxes we pay, we must park for the privilege of actually using the streets we are paying for. I don't think the city/state/federal government ever seriously cuts costs, and that's the problem.