Parking stickers

[rethcir.livejournal.com]

Questions for the Davis Square community. I apologize if these are dumb or have already been asked.

We're moving from Medford ("ample parking day or night") to one of the streets a few blocks away from Davis. There are 4 of us moving in. In terms of getting parking stickers, all four of us have a car and will need stickers. Also, we are moving within a couple weeks time. I have some questions about setting up our parking situation.

The somerville website says you need a registration (Car registration?) and a utility bill with your name and address on them indicating that you live there. How anal is town hall about the proof of residence? Do you think we will be able to use the lease doc with our 4 names on it as proof of residency, or do we need to get utility bills first? (which would be a pain since probably one of us will be the named person on all the utilities)

Should we plan RMV trips to get our registrations all changed immediately?

Can each of the 4 of us get the 2 guest parking cards or is that 2 per-household?

Are any of the streets off Elm street near Davis non-resident parking friendly? (for when our friends visit)

Comments

[unferth.livejournal.com]

You can get your address changed without going to the RMV - you can do that on the web, and get change of address stickers in the mail.

The guest parking cards are supposed to be 2 per household. I don't think they check very carefully before issuing them, though.

Bank statements are acceptable as well as utility bills, according to the web site. I believe when I first moved to Somerville I was able to use my lease as proof of residence, but that was long enough ago that the standards may have changed.

When I moved, I was able to get a grace period before getting my permits by calling the Department of Traffic and Parking. I still got tickets, but when I picked up my permit they verified that the tickets were issued during the grace period and cancelled them. I did this over the phone, so it was a lot more convenient than trying to get my permit before moving - especially if you do need a bank statement or similar to prove your residence. I don't know if they're still doing that or not.

You didn't mention this in your post, but you get permits at the Department of Traffic and Parking, which has a stand-alone office on Holland Street roughly halfway between Davis Square and Teele Square. I don't know if the actual Town Hall can even issue the permits.

[koloratur.livejournal.com]

They are actually really strict about the guest passes. When I got my sticker, it turned out that the people who lived in my apartment (moved to another floor in the same building) had not updated their address. The lady was very nice about it, and after a lot of wheedling agreed to give us the permits for another apartment in the building, but it took a supervisor's approval, and my solemn vow to correct it when they sent out renewals. They have a big database or something that they're using to verify this stuff.