Parking rules drive Somervillains nuts (Boston Globe)

[nvidia99999.livejournal.com]

By Danielle Dreilinger, Globe correspondent

Snow emergency, street cleaning, resident-only: Parking rules drive (sorry) Somervillains nuts. They got mayor Joe Curtatone in trouble in his first month, when he ticketed cars for a snowstorm that never came. (He forgave the tickets.) This year, they put him on the hot seat again.

The uproar started on May 21 when the Traffic Commission took a break from OK’ing handicapped spots to make sweeping changes in the city’s parking rules. All streets without two-hour spots or meters would require $15 resident stickers. Those meters would increase in price to $1 and run until 10 p.m. in Davis and Magoun squares, 8 p.m. elsewhere.

The Somerville Chamber of Commerce broke the news the next morning. Egg, meet face. Total PR nightmare. Somervillains were equally angry over the changes themselves - the potential impact on business and quality of life - and the way they were made: by an appointed five-person body in the dark of night. Not even most aldermen knew.

It was “unacceptable,” said Davis Square alderman Rebekah Gewirtz. “They should’ve had a public community process.”

More here: www.boston.com/yourtown/news/somerville/2009/10/by_danielle_dreilinger_globe_c_4.html

Comments

[djdreilinger.livejournal.com]

Whoops—Tom corrected me: people on non-restricted streets have always been able to buy *resident* stickers, not guest passes.

[hammercock.livejournal.com]

Ah, yes, that is true. Definitely better to have one than not, even if you don't live on a permit-only street. There have been plenty of times when I've had to park my car on a nearby permit-only cross street, for instance.