Medium length parking solutions

[uranusbytes.livejournal.com]

I'm in a bit of a quandary and after a review of tagged posts as well as perusing the Somervillema.gov parking enforcement website, I'm stumped for a solution.

Problem: I'm going on vacation Sept 1 for 2 weeks. My plan was to take a cab to Logan (6am flight) and the T back to Davis on my return, but this requires me finding a place to park the car. I no longer have a local person who I can give a key and ask to move my car every couple of days to avoid street cleaning and the uncommon, yet still existent, 48hr limit.

Possible solutions:
1) Park at airport - At $18 a day, this would cost me ~$250.
2) Prepay parking at Alewife T station - At $5 a day, this wouldn't be as painful (~$70), but I'm not sure they will let me park there that many days.
3) ???

Others must find themselves in this same predicament (especially students who don't know local people and fly home/away for extended periods of time). Is there another option I'm missing?

Comments

[allli.livejournal.com]

yes, park it in my driveway (i'm 7 mins walk from davis) and buy me a bottle of wine when you return.

[tastyanagram.livejournal.com]

Awwww. :-)

[uranusbytes.livejournal.com]

Sorry, for the late reply, but I've been without internet since posting!

Yes, it would be awesome if I could park my car in your driveway! Thank you!

However, I would rather I not buy you a bottle of wine when I get back. Part of my trip is going to Napa, so I would much rather I buy a bottle there for you. Would that be an acceptable substitute? :-)

[allli.livejournal.com]

well, i suppose that is doable.. (; certainly. e-mail me at a at zfyr dot net and we can talk details.

[rethcir.livejournal.com]

Park over the border in medford?

[grapefruiteater.livejournal.com]

There's permit parking on some residential streets in Medford, too, so that's something to look out for when parking there.

[bikergeek.livejournal.com]

And in any event, a car that sits on the street and doesn't move for two weeks is going to attract the attention of the neighbors and will possibly get tagged as abandoned. Ordinances governing vehicles that appear to be abandoned are pretty common. Enforcement varies, but two weeks is kind of beyond the pale.

IIRC there's construction work going on at Alewife and they're not currently allowing overnight parking there--or is that over?

[desiringsubject.livejournal.com]

Ironically, I know someone in/near Central near whose home a car *has* clearly been abandoned and no one can get it towed for love nor money! It's losing parts of itself fast... Even if the owner comes back, they'll come back to more car if it *is* towed.

I don't really get the whole, "you can't park your car and leave it for a while if you want to" concept. But then again, I'm from NYC and think permit parking at all is xenophobic and freakish.

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

I don't really get the whole, "you can't park your car and leave it for a while if you want to" concept. But then again, I'm from NYC and think permit parking at all is xenophobic and freakish.

Yeah, but alternate-side-of-the-street-parking makes the street cleaning situation up here look positively tame.

[grapefruiteater.livejournal.com]

I was going to mention this in my previous post and spaced out out: anecdotal evidence suggests that people in Medford, especially in the area right around Tufts, keep tabs on who's parking in the neighborhood and for how long. I know they do not hesitate to complain about Tufts employees parking on the street while at work. So yeah, I don't really know if leaving your car on a random street in Medford is a great idea.

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

I think the best solution is to post here and say something like, "I'm looking for a place to park my car for two weeks, can anybody help me? I can offer [foo] in return." We got good people here. :)

(In that past, I've also just offered to loan my car to someone to use while I was away.)

[desiringsubject.livejournal.com]

point

[bikergeek.livejournal.com]

I know someone in/near Central near whose home a car *has* clearly been abandoned and no one can get it towed for love nor money! It's losing parts of itself fast...

If the car is losing bits of itself, the neighbors can probably make a case that the car's a safety hazard. Kids might explore it and get hurt, etc.

[ron_newman]

Central St in Somerville, or Central Square in Cambridge?

[nathanjw]

An unfamiliar car, maybe. My car is routinely parked in front of my place in Cambridge for two weeks without moving. Can't speak to Somerville, but Cambridge seems happy enough to let street cleaning be the measure of abandonment.

[bikergeek.livejournal.com]

In Somerville what commonly happens is that they let snowfall be the measure of abandonment. If it last snowed more than two days ago and your car is still buried, guess what.

Sometimes this catches people by surprise, especially if they don't use their car every day and they park it somewhere out of sight.

[boblothrope.livejournal.com]

In Cambridge, cars with resident stickers can park for any amount of time, as long as posted regulations aren't violated (and every street has monthly street cleaning or stricter regulations posted, including newly-added street cleaning on Memorial Drive near MIT).

Cars without stickers can only park for 24 hours. This is only an issue for cars using visitor passes, or in the very few remaining non-permit non-meter areas. But I heard they don't enforce this "storage" regulation for cars with MA plates.

[ifotismeni]

haha, just what i want to see first thing in the morning, naked terry jones butt.

[warlord-mit.livejournal.com]

There are off airport long-term parking solutions, but you'll still probably pay on the other of $100 for two weeks. But as previously mentioned, unless there's planned construction on your street your only real issue would be street cleaning.

Friendly space

[vonelftinhaus.livejournal.com]

well I was going to say maybe someone could offer, which they have, or maybe you could please pretty please could I leave my car here in your safe spot while I go away for 2 weeks. I would take the first poster up on there offer, if not I could possibly help also. good luck

Some info

[lesliet-ma.livejournal.com]

Obviously, you've found the best solution, which is to find someone willing to help out. But for others in this situation, two comments.

First, Alewife does have a limit. I believe it is 1 week, but you should check. It's definitely less than 2 weeks.

Second, I've had good luck at Preflight Parking (http://www.preflightparking.com/BOS.aspx). They are a bit of a ways from the airport, but they do run very frequent shuttle buses, and they were helpful when I had a dead battery. Their base rate is $94/week, but be sure to go to their web site and look for coupons. The current deal is 25% of the entire stay.