saving parking spots

[phpanda.livejournal.com]

What is Somerville etiquette about chairs set in a parking spot to save for the person who shoveled once in the intial storm and continues to hold the space for their individual use only?  Does the city have a policy about this or cars buried on the odd side that have never been shoveled or moved for the last month?  Do people honor the saved spots? Meanwhile, stay warm and safe as the next blizzard event begins!

Comments

[somerfriend.livejournal.com]

Sort of, these are public spots. But yeah, there are many times where I only need to be in a place for 20 minutes, and I pass 5 space saved spots.

I think the real solution is to actually charge money for the stickers. Instead of $10 it should be about equal to the cost of renting an off street spot. With the current system, we've got a good product which is scare because it is given away for almost nothing.

[intuition-ist.livejournal.com]

dunno which somerville you live in, but the resident sticker is $30 here, not $10. and off-street spots run $100+ per month. i think the city would have full-scale riots on their hands if they tried to charge $1200/year for a resident sticker.

[somerfriend.livejournal.com]

30 does not make a difference in the argument-it is 2.50 per month to park anywhere in the city. Yes, people would be whining babies, as they always are when they have been getting something for free or heavily subsidized that is ending. But look how angry they are now. We need to step back and look at what would make sense.

[intuition-ist.livejournal.com]

I don't think being angry if the city decides to charge 40x what they do now for a sticker qualifies as "whining babies" -- there are a lot of people in this city who are barely hanging on, and something like that could stomp on their fingers pretty badly.

but really, i'm stepping back now.

[rmd.livejournal.com]

Great idea! That'll push non-wealthy people out of somerville even faster than rising rents!

[somerfriend.livejournal.com]

Aid to low income people could be shifted away from subsidizing driving into rent/food subsidies.