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When Mayor Joe Curtatone's Traffic Commission rolled out a series of changes to Somerville's parking policies, everybody in the city completely flipped out.
Yes, it's a very dense city, and yes there are chronic parking shortages wherever you go, and, yes, clever visitors to business districts like Davis Square often eat up all the nearby resident parking. But citywide resident parking zones and dollar-an-hour meters in Davis and Magoun Squares that remain in force until 10 p.m. and have two hour limits? That was too much for ordinarily mild and retiring Somerville to handle, and residents took to the internets and movie theaters to rage over the proposals. (Will somebody please tell these people what's going on with the T?)
Today, Mayor Joe told everybody to chill.
Well, okay, he also promised to create a committee to look into specific complaints about the proposed parking changes and to work with business and affected residents to mitigate their ill effects, proposing modifications like kiosks in lots that offer multiple payment options and longer time limits.
But, he also reminds us, "we don't have the big open lots and empty curbs associated with suburban sprawl. Parking is a scarce and valuable resource here, and we need to treat it that way." See, Somerville? Only right-wing surburban nutcases are opposed to parking restrictions!
He didn't answer Bostonist's question of why the heck anybody would drive to Davis Square instead of taking the T in the first place, but he did tell people to stop whining about having to pay to park there:
Paying a dollar an hour to park in a walkable entertainment district like Davis Square is not an undue burden - provided you can find a space and pay for it conveniently.
But our favorite graph comes when Mayor Joe addresses whether or not the new parking grab is all about the Benjamins—or, in this case, the mountains of Washingtons. Of course it is!
And for those folks who say, "This is all about the money," my answer is that these policies stand on their own merits, but we can't afford to pass up any legitimate revenue opportunities at a time when the state has cut Somerville's local aid by 30 percent.
Rock on, Mayor Joe. Under that well-coiffed pate is the skull of a champion.
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I can easily answer the question "Why would you drive to Davis Square?" If you live in Malden or Medford (as I do), it takes about ten minutes to drive to Davis, and at least an hour to get there on our stupid stupid T (orange line to Downtown Crossing, red line to Davis). My husband and I lived in Somerville for several years and still enjoy patronizing Somerville businesses like Davis Theater, Redbones, Highland Kitchen, etc. But I'm not going to feed a meter up until 10 pm in order to do so.
I really think the MBTA needs a perimeter route to "connect the spokes."
The perimeter route you're looking for is the bus.
Rick,
I can't tell if you're trying to be insulting or funny, or both, but the point most of us were trying to make was that this would hurt the businesses of Somerville that don't need, or want fast turnover.(movie theaters, etc). I know quite a few people who drive in from outer areas (Lexington, Arlington, Medford), and with Davis and Magoun lacking large capacity parking garages and lots such as the ones offered in Cambridge, the later meter times are damaging. Businesses in areas without meters will also be damaged by after 6 permit only parking in spots that were once 2 hours till 6 then free to anyone. Now they have no parking for their business after 6pm (This situation is very common along Broadway) I haven't talked to one person that grudges the raise in meter rates, we grudge all the other grabs at income that will damage local businesses. And as for us paying attention to the T, one monetary disaster doesn't make another acceptable.
-The "raging" resident who petitioned at the Theatre
is there a reason suburbanites can't just drive to alewife (which i know has a parking garage, though i don't know how full it tends to get), then taking the t to davis? one stop. pretty easy. and cheaper/simpler parking than you'd get in davis (unless the garage is a mess, i suppose).
i've also heard of these things called "bikes"...
The problem isn't paying a dollar an hour. It's forbidding nonresidents from parking, for any length of time, at any price, on most streets in the city, even where there's no parking shortage. And imposing a 2 hour limit until 10 pm, which means leaving your movie in the middle to feed the meter.
And as far as Alewife, it's priced for solo commuters going downtown for the whole day. For a group of people having dinner in Davis, paying $7 to park at Alewife plus $3.40 per person in T fares is ridiculous, not to mention a waste of time. Plus there's the whole 12:45 AM last train thing.
The bus? Yeah, I've checked that out. O line to Sullivan then the bus to Davis.. That would take about an hour and a half. Also, good luck actually catching a bus...many of them run on an hourly schedule. Until we have decent mass transit, it is in Somerville's best interest not to make their parking rules MORE draconian than Cambridge (which 10 pm meters would certainly be).
Couple the pitifully unreliable buses with the last train thing and wellll...I'll miss you, Somerville Theater, but Kendall and the Harvard AMC will be happy to take my money.