The parking epic Homer never wrote
Snow emergency, street cleaning, resident-only: Parking rules drive (sorry) Somervillains nuts. They got mayor Joe Curtatone in trouble in his first month, when he ticketed cars for a snowstorm that never came. (He forgave the tickets.) This year, they put him on the hot seat again.
The uproar started on May 21 when the Traffic Commission took a break from OK'ing handicapped spots to make sweeping changes in the city's parking rules. All streets without two-hour spots or meters would require $15 resident stickers. Those meters would increase in price to $1 and run until 10 p.m. in Davis and Magoun squares, 8 p.m. elsewhere.
The Somerville Chamber of Commerce broke the news the next morning. Egg, meet face. Total PR nightmare. Somervillains were equally angry over the changes themselves - the potential impact on business and quality of life - and the way they were made: by an appointed five-person body in the dark of night. Not even most aldermen knew.
It was "unacceptable," said Davis Square alderman Rebekah Gewirtz. "They should’ve had a public community process."
Some people thought that the mayor "quietly had this done" to sidestep controversy, said Courtney Koslow of the Somerville Parking Advocacy and Reform Coalition, a group that formed in response.
Even on the night of the vote, the commission hesitated: according to minutes on the city's website, two members wanted to table the topic to allow time for public discussion.
What was Curtatone thinking? (Besides, one suspects, relief that he's running unopposed for reelection.)
Mayoral spokesman Tom Champion said context was key. They were in the heat of "a compressed and difficult budget season," trying to close a projected $12 million gap. The new rules would raise an estimated $1.75 to $2 million per year with no cuts in core services.
For that matter, from inside City Hall the changes didn't seem that huge: two-thirds of the city's streets were already resident-only and $1 hour was a typical rate. Businesses could already get permits for employees.
In short, the administration thought "that it would not be as controversial as it turned out to be," Champion said. "We were surprised."
Since then, the city's been backpedaling furiously to remedy its reputation and get the public involved. Curtatone appointed a Parking Solutions task force on June 9 to review the changes. They set up a website to share relevant docs and mailed out flyers.
"They’ve admitted that this procedure happened backwards," Koslow said.
True, a review board upheld the May 21 decisions in August after SPARC led a 450-signature petition drive. However, the board operated on the understanding that the city and commission were listening to the task force, which includes Gewirtz, Champion and Koslow.
Which seems to be true. After the task force gave recommendations in late June, the Traffic Commission put resident-only parking on hold and limited meter expansion to 8 p.m.; 20 major streets will have resident parking from 2:30 a.m. to 8 a.m. only, not all the time. (The list is on the city's website. Businesses that cater to early birds can request that spots open up before 8; they can also get permits for night staff.
The commission continues to have lousy social skills. At its July meeting, people who wanted to talk were "shut down" by chairman Stan Koty’s insistence on sticking to the agenda, Koslow said, adding, "I don't think the Traffic Commission is used to dealing with the public." (Click here to listen to a traffic board meeting.)
In addition, the changes to the changes - which continue - have confused everyone. Fifty people called the 311 info line about parking regs in a single hour on Oct. 1, thinking that might be a key date, Champion said.
To save you a phone call, here"s where matters stand:
All Somerville meters charge $1 per hour and run until 8 p.m.
Citywide resident permit parking is on hold. Any resident, car-owning or not, can buy two passes for visitors to park on their street.
This month, the city expects to choose vendors to produce new signs and "pay and walk away"parking kiosks in Magoun and Davis off-street lots. Then they will implement the scaled-back resident parking and pilot 10 p.m. meters. The cost of mailings, signs and kiosks? An estimated $175,000 to $220,000. Yes, the new rules mean less revenue.
Gewirtz and Koslow still want to tweak meter hours and prices to fit neighborhood demand. Gewirtz thinks more streets should remain open to non-residents; Koslow envisioned "party passes that they would sell for a dollar, downloadable online." ((Let's not start on the tedium of schlepping to Traffic and Parking to pick up most permits, cash only.)
On a broader scale, Gewirtz thought the Traffic Commission's powers to make citywide changes "should be reined in" and returned to the elected Board of Aldermen. The key point, Koslow said, is "making sure that we’re holding government accountable."
Now everyone go out and move your cars.
Contact Danielle at somervillescene@gmail.com.
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Once again, I beg to differ with the City spokespeople. Installation of "resident permit parking only" signs began before October 1. For one example, go to the end of Nashua Street in the Magoun Square district. This street was previously unrestricted parking and now prominently displays a "resident permit parking only" sign. Maybe once again the city will split hairs on this one. "Well, we've installed the signs, but we won't be ticketing those without permit decals on their vehicles." Well how the hell is anyone supposed to know that?
If the city is currently installing these signs and does not intend to implement the citywide permit parking program until a latter date, then cover the signs until the actual implementation date.
Egg meet face indeed! This program is the all time winner for poorly planned and executed. Even beats ticketing for a snow emergency when there was no snow!
Somer"villains"? C'mon, we're not THAT bad! I support the city-wide resident permit rule. When the green line extension comes, we're all going to be happy we don't have to compete with people who drive in from the North Shore to park on our streets and take the T into Boston. I agree that the way this went down was not ideal, but I am pleased to see the city making adjustments in response to residents' complaints. I think Somerville's government is one of the best around and am happy to abide by rules that protect our space as long as they're reasonable.
"Any resident, car-owning or not, can buy two passes for visitors to park on their street."
Until now, they would only give visitor permits to people who lived on permit-only blocks. This affects fewer people now that every unrestricted street is (unfortunately) becoming permit-only. But what about the people who live on blocks with meters?
This is going to generate 1.75 to 2 million a year? In quarters?
Egg did meet face - well put and long overdue! Two other things to add - I just parked in East Cambridge at a city lot where it's still 25 cents for 1/2 hour and there's a four hour limit - perfect for the small restaurants and meeting places like St. Anthony's Brazilian Cultural Center.
In Davis Sq. along Elm St., by contrast, it's 25 cents for 1/4 hour and a 1 hour limit - so eat fast and ask the Somerville Theatre to start having a "Somerville Parking Meter" intermission, don't window shop, and don't gab with your friends at McKinnon's. I suppose we have to pay for that ritzy little sidewalk sweeper somehow...
The problem with the Somerville guest permits is that you're not allowed to use them for more than 2 days per week. So if you have visitors with any sort of regularity, they risk being ticketed even though they're displaying a permit. Have a family member or significant other who lives in a neighboring community? Out of luck.
How will anybody ever be able to have more than 2 spontaneous out of town guests at a time without getting a ticket? I'm baffled.
$200,000 to implement this - and it will prove _so_ unpopular that they will have to change back, ultimately losing loads of money. When Joe first became mayor, they put in 15 minutes for a quarter, and he had to change them all back, it was so unpopular. Nobody seems to remember that at all. But this time the permit issue is the bigger deal.
I just hope that when this fails and they remove all the signs, they don't leave those dangerous metal stumps sticking a foot out of the ground. People impale their legs on those things and they are all over Somerville. Very dangerous.
Christopher: Along w/ tickets, stickers and permit money, the expanded resident-only parking will bring in new excise tax revenue—when people who had registered their cars somewhere else switch their registration to Somerville.
Leave my street alone - we nave no parking problems. (Well we won't until the city starts screwing things up. 2 permits for visitors? I guess if you have a party or have your relatives over you are going to have to be pretty selective with the guest list.
Curtatone had better be glad he is running unopposed.
I'm fine with the changes. And my street is one of the ones that didn't have permit rules before.
I live on a street that turns into Medford--where they do have permit rules. We compete with Medford for parking in front of our own house.
In addition, I had already had a permit because it was so hard to do errands elsewhere in the city without it. I used to get tickets for picking up my CSA food. A sticker was a bargain compared to a couple of $40 tickets.
But now I've bought a scooter which I can park nearly anywhere, and it gets 100 mpg. If this encourages more walking, public transportation usage, and biking/riding, I think that's worthwhile too.
Yet another reason I will stop shopping and hanging out in in Somerville. Its just turned into one big hassle. You want to go to lunch and then meet friends after work in one of the squares its a nightmare. Running back and forth to the meter if you can find on. That why I have limited my trips into Boston. Every time I go there is one less street to park on. Either the meters have been taken out and replaed with a No Parking sign or its resident.
You guys can't have it both ways.
You want our money from bars, eateries, shoping and sevices- but we practically have to float on air to avoid getting a ticket or leave and extra half hour to find a metered spot..
Even Boston doesn't charge meters until 10 PM. That's the end of nights out in Davis for me. It's not an enjoyable evening when you have to run out to feed the meter in the middle of dinner or a movie. Somerville just lost my revenue.
This doesn't stop Somerville from giving out ridiculous tickets. In a 3 month time I was given 3 erroneous tickets.
1) For parking on Elm St. in Cambridge. Apparently the houses on the street are in Cambridge but the street is in Somerville.
2) For parking within 20 ft. of a private street (Everyone does it because there are not enough parking spots on my street, 1/2 of the side of the street that can be parked on has been deemed a fire lane. I was NOT blocking the street, but apparently was unlucky that night.
3) for parking somewhere I did not park. They could not prove that I was there, but because I could not prove that I was not, I had to pay the fine anyway. It was 3 blocks from my house but on a street I never park.
Somerville Traffic and Parking sucks and makes me want to move out of Somerville. And I never want friends to stay too long b/c I'm scared they'll get a ticket for doing nothing!
Somerville isn't that bad ?? U gotta be kiddin me !!! I don't know of another city on this planet ( there maybe one on Mars, but I'm not sure) tha requires a visitor to purchase a one day "permit" for $25 in order to have the priviledge of bringing a moving van into the City. If I owned my own van...no problem, but if I rent a U-haul van, I must pay for a $25 permit. ...and they say the winter hill gang is gone...no they have just moved to Somerville City Hall. Can you say..legalized extortion.
I'm glad residential permit parking is expanding. I just wish there was even more parking enforcement on my street. The SPARK group is a lot of people whining. I wish they'd channel their energy into a positive contribution to the city.
Unfortunately, continuing to tax residents and guests will not help your city. You need to control costs and eliminate services. I only visit somerville occasionally, but once recieved a parking ticket (not a big deal). If you want a bedroom community you need to move further away from boston. Sounds like you have real problems in sommerville, I for one do not want to pay for your lack of management in your city. Wont be back anytime soon.
My dinner group met in Davis Square for dinner on a recent Saturday night. When we got back to our car at 7:10, we were greeted with $30 tickets for going 10 minutes over two hour limit -- on a rainy night yet! Our group does not dine in Somerville any longer.
Mayor Curtatone should smarten up0 and do what he should done years ago: Jettison that holdover from the "bad old days" of Somerville, Stan Koty. The man is a disgrace and he showed it clearly at the Traffic Commission meeting. Several of the people he refused to allow to speak were Alderman in the city.
Please Joe, I like you. I want to support you. But first Stan has to go. Do you think that when you run for higher office people are really going to forget your association with Stan?
Clear Message- Do not go to or spend money ion somerville.
Shortsighted political idiots. I used to spend a lot of time (and money) in Boston as I went to school there and enjoyed the city. Many years and parking tickets later (yes there was an option, obscene tourist rates for parking garages), I spent more and more time on the other side of the river in Cambridge and Sommerville, which seemingly are heading in the same direction. These kind of policies are going to hurt business, as the transient population of any city is vital to supporting the economic base. The ability to visit friends will get difficult and expensive and will result in less visits at a time when everyone is struggling to attract people. I've always been amazed that I have less issues parking in NYC than I do the Boston area.
how about some explanation as to why there is a $40 ticket for "parking within 20 feet of an intersection?" i have received tickets for this supposed offense multiple times despite my car being within the white lines painted on the sides of roads. why are the lines even there if one is still subject to a ticket even if one's car is clearly parked within them? there are more head-scratchers to be sure, but i will spare you and your readers all of my gripes. the parking policies in somerville are beyond confounding. sometimes i wonder if the city's budget is solely dependent on the amount of tickets handed out.
I recently purchased an annual parking permit for my car so I can park on my street (Vinal Ave.) I went to Traffic and Parking on Holland St, stood in line for 35 minutes, and received my "annual" parking permit which is good until "May 2010".
So late September to May is "annual"? They can't even make
permits for a full year? Then they give you an annual permit
that last only 8 months and they charge you the full annual permit charge?
Let's start a campaign to "refund" 4 months of the permit parking fee for people who purchase their permits after June 30th 2009. It's a rip-off and planning should have been done to give permits purchased in the current month to "expire on the same month the following year"!
Call city hall and tell them to REFUND any shortage of permit coverage.
This is absolutely ridiculous - What a waste of time and effort. All this does is irritate EVERYONE in the community, visitors and residents alike.
Isn't this what Somervillians want? It's a very great concept to control people and regulate something.
If you don't like rules like this, then stop voting in the same Democrats that love regulating every tedious detail of your life.
You Somervillians are supposed to be part of the "intellectually" elite. You guys should stop whining and deal with it, or if you don't like it then vote out that clown Curtatone. Pay up, you guys owe it to your city. How else are you going to get all of the liberal social programs that you want?
What a bunch of whining hypocrites you Somervillians you are. You want to tell other people how to live their lives, but when it directly affects you, you do nothing but whine about it.
The goal of the city here is:
1. To give priority to tax paying residents(permit parking)
2. Collect revenue from visitors(meter rates)
On the first point:
A) Residential parking only areas make sure the residents like myself have a place to park when we come home from work. We are actually tax payers and deserve to have a place to park and not be pushed out by visitors. Hence residential parking only streets.
B) It's not fair that residents on some streets without "residential parking only" can park for free while those on residential parking only streets must pay for a parking pass. Hence the conversion of unrestricted streets to restricted.
And on the second point:
A) Nonresident parking is required for businesses, without meters people can't visit the local businesses
B) Why not capitalize on visitors with parking meters as just about every city in the world does?
C) But...why charge residents to park at meters when they pay taxes and have residential parking stickers.
Several weeks ago I proposed to the city that residents should be allowed to park at meters for free with a valid Somerville Residential Parking Sticker in the area surrounding their home. Since the stickers have numbers on them corresponding to specific areas/zones of town this should be easy to police. I have not received a response from the city on this suggestion.
I live on the border between residential and business areas. According to the original plan, my 1/2 of the street (near my home) would have become residential parking only which would have at least help with parking problems, preventing non-residents from taking up the parking near my home. Now the city has ammended the plantto be 1/2 meter and 1/2 free two hour(on my half). I understand that visitors need a place to park and this ammendment gives them more options on the edge of the business district. However, this means more people will be parking on my 1/2 of the street where it's FREE two hour parking to avoid parking in a metered space. So, as a result, parking will be even more difficult now. Since non-residents will be allowed to park on my street for free, its only fair to allow me to park at a meter for free. Hopefully the city will consider this option in future ammendments.
People, it is parking.
What the heck are you getting worked up over.
If you are incensed over this, you are not a "functioning member of society"
Damn, get a life and find something important that gets your blood flowing.
The parking tickets in Somerville are HIGH! Compare these to Boston downtown Zone A, which increased their rates about a year ago. Somerville really likes to sock it to you, and after receiving 3 expensive tickets (snow, 2 non-resident), I avoid going to Somerville to patronize their stores, restaurants or movie theater, or to visit friends. Way to go Somerville!
Meter Violation: $30. Boston=$25
Obstructing Street Sweeping: $50. Boston=$40
Permit Parking: $50. Boston=$40
Obstructing Posted Fire Lane: $100. Boston=$100
Within 10 ft. of Hydrant: $100. Boston=$100
Within 20 ft. of Intersection: $40
On Crosswalk: $50. Boston=$85
Obstructing Handicap Ramp or Space: $200. Boston=$100
Double Parking: $50. Boston=$30
I posted this already, but oddly enough it didn't make it past the sensors?
Number of parking tickets issued in 2008 = 212,600
Number of residents in Somerville = 77,000
That's almost 3 tickets PER PERSON. Does anyone think that that is not a problem? You can't walk through Somerville without getting a parking ticket.
Visitors: Does parking stop you from going to Cambridge or Boston? That's the big question to me.
Converting streets to resident parking will be a BIG help. I just wish it would actually happen sometime soon! Having to compete for parking on our street with everyone in the neighborhood that has an out of state registered car is not fair. And we can't get a visitor permit since we're on an open street- though finding parking on it is nearly impossible.
And as far as tickets go, in Cambridge they TOW your car during street cleaning, not just give you a ticket. So it's not cheaper once you add on the price of the tow.
We no longer patronize Lyndell's, D-Square, Laronga or any of the other fine establishments where we previously spent lots of $$$$. We have transferred our prescriptions out of Rite-Aid Somerville to Rite-Aid Cambridge and now spend our money in Cambridge stores and bakeries, etc.
These meter rates are crazy when I can park in Cambridge with my permit.
The reason we need to ticket so much is because the govt. is full of developers and friends of developers who get sweet deals on property here. Building condos and apartments do not generate enough taxes but actually need city services. How about helping businesses and manufacturers out?? Nothing it in for them I guess. RIP Russ´ Donuts. More condos bringing more traffic problems.
Get Koty and Kotzba outta here!
Couple of points...
*Political affiliation of the city's elected officials has nothing to do with this. If right-wing Republicans ran Somerville, parking tickets would be $400 apiece so they could brag about lowering taxes.
*Whoever advises Mayor Curtatone on public relations needs to be fired. Since he took office it's been one gaffe after another in this department. He's done good things for the city but he's lost my vote on the parking issues alone.
*The current resident parking system works just fine - if a majority of residents want it on their street, they petition the city and they designate that street or block as resident parking only. In general, congested areas are permit-only and quieter areas of town are not. The system works - yeah, turning my street into permit-only might help me find a spot sometimes, but it would also prevent any friends or family from visiting more than 2 days a week.
*If permit-only is going citywide, they need to relax the rules on visitor permits. Let people use them for up to 5 days, but ticket any guest permit car that doesn't move every 24 hours, to ensure that people aren't abusing the permits. The current rules call it "guest abuse" if you have someone over on monday, and then they come back on friday night and saturday in the same week. That's hardly "abuse".
*A lot of cities, though unfortunately not in this area, have resident parking that allows for visitor parking up to 1 or 2 hours (depending on area) without getting a ticket. That will allow for brief visits, contractors, realtors and delivery people to park in residential areas for short times without getting a ticket. Of course, they'll never do that, but in other congested cities like San Francisco, it works just fine.
You're directing your anger at the messengers. Koty and Kotzuba do only what Mayor Joe Curtatone tells them to do. It was his idea to raise all the rates, his idea to do permit parking across the city, his idea to raise the fines for violations, his idea to extend the hours of operation till 10PM.
Now who will you vote for Mayor in November?
Parking hassle does indeed stop me from going places. (I live in Somerville, but see movies in Revere over Davis Square or Boston Common, because of traffic & parking.)
Somerspeak,
Like you, I disagree strongly with most of these parking changes and think that the mayor made a big mistake here. HOWEVER, come November I will once again vote for Curtatone, because I will be looking at the larger body of work. He's done and outstanding job while in office. Look how much progress the city has made since he has been mayor. The list of accomplishments and accolates is massive. No one is perfect and everyone is going to make the wrong decision once in a while. But overall, we're a better city because of him.
Now, hopefully he can fix this traffic mess eventually.
Redo - appreciate your take on my comments. We are a better city than we were 10 years ago. But I think most of that improvement is a result of a multitude of factors. Somewhere down at the bottom of the list of postitive contributing factors is Joe Curtatone. Let's just agree to disagree on this.
My girlfriend and I are looking to move in together. We've ruled out staying in Somerville unless we find an apartment with off-street parking (generally unlikely). Both of us agree that it is simply too hassle to park on the street in Somerville with the constant worry of street cleaning, snow emergencies, visitor permits, move your car every 48 hours, park at least 20 ft from any private alley that has a street name, etc. The level of parking enforcement is unbelievable. It's amazing to both of us that parking regulations could dictate where we live.
There is a parking offices standing everyday at Capuano School - this is disgracefull. PEOPLE we just park on the street to drop off our kids to school. That guy is just waiting for us to park and he is ready with a ticket. There is no effort left behind to ticket people for little or no reason whatsoever. Now I am planning to park far away from the school and walk my son to the school during chilly winter season - unbelieavable!!!! I got a $200 ticket for just touching the white walking stripes, he said I obstructed the handicap ramp. This is too harsh but I guess it is a known issue that city want our $$$$.
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