A parking deal for the chosen ones

City-owned space used by the well connected

For more than a generation, it has been perhaps Boston's most covert bargain, a city-owned parking lot in the North End where the lucky, the affluent, and the politically connected had assigned parking for just $55 a month - a rate that went unchanged for 26 years.

George K. Regan Jr., press secretary to Kevin H. White, former mayor, arranged for two spaces that he kept for more than 20 years. House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi, who lives nearby, also has a spot. So does his former wife, according to spotty records kept by the Boston Redevelopment Authority, which owns the lot.

Since the lot opened in 1976, thousands of other North End residents have competed for limited on-street parking, or paid rates that approach $500 a month in some private garages. Scores of others who knew about the lot languished for years on a waiting list controlled by neighborhood civic and political leaders.

Their wait was made all the longer by the fact that some of the spaces seemed to go to politically connected suburbanites. Robert E. Kenney, the son of the BRA director who in 1976 authorized the creation of the lot, parks in an assigned space - even though he lives in Wellesley. Others, according to the records, appear to have transferred parking spaces to relatives. And some who have assigned spaces have allowed outsiders to use them - even though the lot is supposed to be used only by North End residents with permits.

Which explains the 2006 Audi with Michigan plates that has been parked there for several months.

After inquiries from the Globe, the BRA recently said it was taking steps to reclaim the coveted parking spots from Kenney and Regan, who told the Globe he now lives in townhouses in Quincy and at Rowe's Wharf, which the city does not consider part of the North End.

BRA records - or the lack of them - suggest that the agency effectively lost track of the lot starting in 1982, when its board voted to raise the $35 monthly parking rate to $55. A BRA spokeswoman, Jessica Shumaker, denied that that was the case. But the agency has no records for the lot between 1982 and last July. During all of those years, the BRA received token monthly payments. Most of the proceeds went to an outside management company.

With the Big Dig complete and the lot expanded to 2 acres, the BRA in July expanded the number of spaces from 69 to 142, and raised the monthly rent to $100 - still a substantial bargain. For its North End lot, the BRA for the first time is requiring those with assigned spaces to have North End residential parking stickers. The lot sits at Cross and Fulton streets, abutting the Rose Kennedy Greenway and just a stone's throw from the mouth of the Callahan Tunnel.

Under the new rules, the BRA gets the lion's share of the rental fees - $14,000 a month, Shumaker said.

But, the Globe found, there remains little control over who parks in the lot. Two weeks ago, Shumaker told the Globe that each of the 142 people granted permission to use the lot had obtained North End residential parking stickers, which require proof of residency. As of 10 days ago, however, 16 of the 142 did not have valid parking stickers, according to records provided by the city's Transportation Department.

On the ground, it is a different story still. During periodic visits to the lot this fall, Globe correspondents have found numerous cars without the required stickers, and some with out-of-state license plates. One recent Saturday evening, 23 of the 68 cars were without stickers. Another nine cars had expired stickers.

From the outset, when BRA director Robert T. Kenney, established the lot in 1976 to help alleviate a neighborhood parking shortage, there was scant oversight. Kenney awarded control of the lot to a coalition of North End community groups, which in turn contracted with Peabody Properties to manage the site. Peabody, in its present contract with permit holders, states: "It is specifically understood that the Parking Area will at all times be unsupervised and unattended."

And unadvertised and unnamed, too. The only sign on the ungated lot, to this day, states: "NO TRESPASSING, NO PARKING. UNAUTHORIZED VEHICLES WILL BE TOWED AWAY AT OWNER'S EXPENSE."

Even in the July 2008 agreement, there is language that appears to leave room for the BRA to play favorites. It states: "Preferential rights to use the Parking Facilities will be given to such persons and neighborhood residents that the Authority may, from time to time, request and direct by notice." Shumaker denied that the language was intended to permit continued favoritism.

The BRA spokeswoman said the 2-acre parcel is slated for eventual development, but that is not likely to happen soon because of the stagnant economy.

Shumaker emphasized in an interview that it is not fair to compare the monthly parking fees to commercial parking rates. The BRA, she said, is not in the parking business and its sole intent has always been to provide resident parking.

If that is the BRA's priority, said Jeff Conley, the executive director of the watchdog Boston Finance Commission, the authority ought to bring transparency and fairness to a process Conley asserts has not met any reasonable smell test.

"This has been a BRA political parking deal for some of their pals at the expense of regular North End residents who desperately need parking," Conley said. His proposal: Let anyone with a North End residential parking sticker park in the lot, with a parking attendant checking in for scofflaws. Or, he said, use the lot for metered parking during the day and free residential parking at night.

The expansion of the lot this year opened up spaces for many people without connections who had waited years. And many of the original permit holders said they got their spaces by being atop the waiting list.

David Guarino, spokesman for DiMasi, who lives in the North End, said DiMasi has parked in the lot for more than two decades and obtained the space without any favoritism involved. "The speaker has paid out of his own pocket," Guarino said.

Regan, who had two spaces until a year ago, makes no pretense about how he obtained them. "I applied for two spots when I lived across the street," Regan said last week. "I assume I got them because of my connection to the mayor." He kept the spaces for 20 years.

His public relations firm's office is in the North End, and Regan owns several other units near the lot. But he now resides elsewhere, and stands to lose his parking space.

Kenney, reached last week, said he couldn't discuss the issue because he was putting his children to bed. A day later, a receptionist at his office said he was in meetings and unavailable.

As for permit holders who have been letting others use their spaces, that, too, will stop. When the Globe raised that issue, Shumaker said that, for the first time, people who park in the lot will be issued special decals.

That means that some unauthorized users will have to find space elsewhere. They include Mary E. Chowning, a business executive from Grand Rapids who owns a North End condo - and the Audi with Michigan plates.

In an interview last week, Chowning said she had been loaned space number 53 by the permit holder, Darida Carvin. Chowning said she did not know that such an arrangement was not allowed.

Chowning also expressed puzzlement about the phone call. When a reporter mentioned the lot's history, she laughed. "That is so Boston," she said.

This article was reported by Augusto and Collette for a course in Investigative Reporting at Northeastern University. Their work was overseen and this article was edited by Northeastern journalism professor Walter V. Robinson, former editor of the Globe Spotlight Team. Robinson's e-mail address is wrobinson@globe.com. Confidential messages can be left at 617-929-3334.