Events put the squeeze on parking

The US women's Olympic marathon trials last Sunday added another day of street closures and parking woes for Back Bay residents, merchants, and shoppers. (ELSA/GETTY IMAGES)

Boston has always been known for narrow streets choked with traffic and a perpetual scarcity of on-street parking. But even the most battle-scarred local drivers have been jolted this month by what has been a perfect storm of sporting events and movie shoots in and around Copley Square that has made the area feel like one big "No Parking" zone.

Much of the recent parking squeeze has been a result of the Boston Marathon, which finishes in front of the Boston Public Library on Boylston Street and has grown from a one-day event into a weekend extravaganza attracting more than 25,000 runners and thousands more spectators to the Back Bay.

To accommodate the festivities, organizers began on April 18 by erecting a large tent on Dartmouth Street between Boylston and Huntington Avenue that blocked traffic flow around Copley Plaza and forced drivers to navigate around the confusing maze of one-way streets, leading to gridlock. Some drivers said it took them close to 20 minutes to go three blocks.

On April 19, the Boston Marathon's Children's Relay Race closed Boylston Street between Exeter and Clarendon streets, city transportation officials said.

Then last Sunday, the women's Olympic marathon trials were held, closing the race route - which started on Boylston Street west of Fairfield Street, wound through the city and into Cambridge, finishing back on Boylston in front of the Boston Public Library - from 7 a.m. to noon. The trials also caused parking restrictions on the inbound side of Commonwealth Avenue from 200 feet east of Hereford Street to Clarendon Street; both sides of Dartmouth Street between Newbury and Commonwealth Avenue; and both sides of Mass. Avenue from Belvidere and Haviland streets to the Charles River.

And on what has become known informally as "Leave Your Car at Home Day," Marathon Monday, most major streets from the Brookline line down to the Public Garden were shut down entirely or had stringent parking restrictions all day.

Parking was also tightly restricted or banned outright on many streets around Copley Square beginning several days before the Marathon so that organizers could set up equipment.

Whatever Boston's newfound status among Hollywood filmmakers as "Toronto South" has done for the city and its star-watchers, it has been a bust for anyone trying to park in the Back Bay lately.

Production crews shooting several romantic comedies - including "The Ghost of Girlfriends Past" with Matthew McConaughey and Jennifer Garner, "Bride Wars" with Kate Hudson and Anne Hathaway, and "The Proposal" with Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds - have been given permission by the city to commandeer a large number of public parking spaces in the Copley Square area this month. Nearly 350 metered and resident spaces from Clarendon Street to Exeter Street and from Stuart Street to Marlborough Street have been put aside for film trucks since April 1, according to data provided by the Boston Transportation Department, which issues the permits.

"It's kind of gotten out of hand," said Jacquelin Yessian, chairwoman of the Neighborhood Association of Back Bay. Part of the problem has been the sheer volume of activities going on at once, she added, noting that the Olympic trials added an extra day of road closures. Also, most film crews that worked in the Back Bay last year did not start until after the Marathon weekend, she said. "This year, having the shoots and doing the Marathon - it's a lot to manage."

Though there is widespread neighborhood support for the film crews and the Marathon, Yessian said a better job could have been done getting the word out to residents that streets will be closed for an extra day or that parking spaces will be lost. "The bottom line is better communication," she said. "I don't even have a car and it irritates me."

Charles F. Sarkis, owner of the Back Bay Restaurant Group, which runs several Copley Square-area eateries - including Abe & Louie's, Papa Razzi, Joe's American Bar and Grill, and Atlantic Fish, - said Marathon-related road closures, while disruptive, are not the big problem. Rather, it's frequent road closures caused by other events like walk-athons and other fund-raisers that really hurt business.

"It's all a negative," Sarkis said. "It makes the area more congested and less attractive for people to come to the area."

And while the presence of film companies and celebrities may be great for people-watching, it does not bring any economic value to the city, Sarkis said.

"It helps nothing," he said. "Baseball, the Marathon - that helps the economy."

The on-street parking crunch has not trickled down to business at area parking garages.

"I think people were afraid to drive into the city," said Rena Prosper, who works at the 830-space Copley Place garage on Huntington Avenue, which she said was not especially busy over the Marathon weekend.

"Generally, Marathon Monday is one of the slowest days of the year," said manager Melvin Garcia, who oversees the Prudential Center Garage. The garage has 1,591 spaces open to the public but has not felt much of an economic impact from the Marathon or the filming.

Garcia said one movie production company paid for about 30 parking spaces in the garage this month to ease the inconvenience caused to residents by the loss of on-street spaces.

Christina Pazzanese can be reached at cpazzanese@globe.com.