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Citizen complaint of the day: Outrage over out-of-towners parking on Beacon Hill to go to church

By adamg on Sun, 07/07/2024 - 12:55pm

A disgusted citizen filed a 311 complaint about BTD's callous disregard for Beacon Hill residents by refusing to send in a squadron of ticket writers to ding people parking illegally on Brimmer Street to attend Sunday services at an unspecified church on Mt. Vernon Street (Church of the Advent?):

Called in illegal parking violations to be told by parking enforcement officers, that because the church is open on Mount Vernon street, they will not ticket. Why do I get a ticket for parking illegally but if you want to go to church you don’t. This nonsense is taking parking away from beacon hill residents in favor of those coming from outside of beacon hill to park at church. If they need to park, they can pay at a garage or park at a meter.

Ed. note: Boston meters are free on Sunday.

Neighborhoods: 
Beacon Hill
Topics: 
Driving
Religion
Free tagging: 
Mt. Vernon Street
Parking
311


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Comments

By W.C. Plains on Sun, 07/07/2024 - 1:00pm.

Put this person next to "asshole" in the dictionary. People in Beacon Hill. Provincialism at its worst. Which in Boston is saying something

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By Bob Leponge on Sun, 07/07/2024 - 1:52pm.

You could argue either in favor of or against resident parking, but without taking a position on that, why does asking the city to enforce its own laws fairly and equitably make one an asshole?

Beacon Hill has, if I recall correctly, about 1,600 parking spaces on public streets. Mass General Hospital, at one end of the neighborhood, has around 8,000-10,000 employees. The state house, at the other end of the neighborhood, has a few thousand more employees. There are over 5,000 valid parking stickers issued to Beacon Hill residents. The resident parking permit system by no means gives anyone a reserved space; it gives the people who live in the neighborhood a fighting chance of finding a space occasionally.

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By robo on Sun, 07/07/2024 - 4:05pm.

Assumes everyone in Beacon Hill is rich and W.C. is not. Haters always gonna hate.

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By Lee on Sun, 07/07/2024 - 5:33pm.

… architectural beauty of an historic neighborhood like Beacon Hill than hundreds of garish ugly cars jammed up all over the sides of the roads.
The sidewalks should be widened and all on street parking should be banned on Beacon Hill.

By Bob Leponge on Sun, 07/07/2024 - 6:46pm.

There are conflicting policy objectives in play. I’d love us to turn away from automobile culture, automobile-centric civic planning, and automobile-centric urban streetscapes. I also like that Boston is trying to preserve its downtown neighborhoods as places that a variety of kinds of people actually live, as opposed to it being all airBnB and rich empty-nesters’ pieds-a-terre.

Much as I wish it were otherwise, the broader society has not yet migrated away from automobile dependency enough that most families can easily live car-free. If you want to make downtown attractive to people who are living broadly within the mainstream, there needs to be some concession to cars.

I think the resident parking programs are a reasonable set of compromises.

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By cinnamngrl on Sun, 07/07/2024 - 7:46pm.

If you can afford to live there AND own a car then afford a parking space. No residential parking would not take away anyone's car. The people that actually need a parking space in beacon hill are the service workers. The idea that this system prevents workers from parking in Boston during the day is stupid. It really should not apply to neighborhoods above a median income. But no politician has the courage to change it.

By Bob Leponge on Sun, 07/07/2024 - 8:46pm.

If you can afford to live there AND own a car then afford a parking space

You understand that parking spaces in the neighborhood sell for over $500K, right? Not everyone who lives there is that kind of rich And that the waiting list for rental spaces is many years, in part due to Mass General’s insatiable appetite for parking; they have outcompeted us for the available rental spaces and has gobbled them all up.

It really should not apply to neighborhoods above a median income.

That sounds a lot like “if you live in a high income neighborhood but don’t yourself happen to be rich, screw you.”

By merlinmurph on Sun, 07/07/2024 - 8:56pm.

If you can afford to live there AND own a car then afford a parking space.

Are you still pushing that crap? You forgot the part where the residents can afford car services to drive them. Totally delusional.

By BostonEd on Sun, 07/07/2024 - 9:24pm.

I’ve lived on the hill for many years. Parking on Sunday mornings is as easy as it gets. Anyone complaining about churchgoers taking parking spaces is a douche.

By Bob Leponge on Sun, 07/07/2024 - 11:15pm.

We have an elected city council. If you and other like-minded neighbors believe that street parking shouldn't be limited to cars with resident stickers on Sundays, by all means lobby to get the rules changed. In the meantime, asking the city to enforce its own laws does not an asshole make. Arguably it was slightly dickish to bring the church into it; for my taste the complainer should have left the church out of it altogether, and simply, without editorializing, asked BTD to step up enforcement.

By Ben on Sun, 07/07/2024 - 1:00pm.

That the city doesn't have their attendants out on Sundays is a weird anachronism that costs the city $$$ (fines) and hurts businesses because spaces don't turn.

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By SupGup on Sun, 07/07/2024 - 3:20pm.

I spotted a BTD employee walking my residential street in Roslindale checking for inspection stickers/registration. (I happen to live in a neighborhood that does not have Resident stickers and plenty of on-street parking - so not much else they could be checking for.)

By cinnamngrl on Sun, 07/07/2024 - 7:47pm.

residential parking hurts businesses.

By Bob Leponge on Sun, 07/07/2024 - 11:33pm.

residential parking hurts businesses.

And free-for-all parking, in a neighborhood whose major employers have many more commuting employees than there are residents living there, hurts residents.

It's a finite resource. Allocating it between businesses and residents is a zero-sum game.

Sound policymaking examines the interests of multiple constituencies and reflects the particulars of the local situation. It seldom pleases everyone.

By Friartuck on Sun, 07/07/2024 - 1:05pm.

I mean, if he can't help in this scenario with what is seemingly low lying fruit, what the actual heck?

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By anon on Sun, 07/07/2024 - 1:35pm.

You can't require churchgoers to pay for parking. 1st Amendment issue.

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By Bob Leponge on Sun, 07/07/2024 - 1:42pm.

You're joking, right?

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By Lee on Sun, 07/07/2024 - 4:03pm.

… you will not be admitted to heaven and will be forever dammed if you deny a parking space to a churchgoer on their way to worship the Lord.

By SwirlyGrrl on Sun, 07/07/2024 - 5:43pm.

Driving is a privilege.

No rights are involved.

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By ShamusJP on Sun, 07/07/2024 - 6:10pm.

Lmao

By Angry Dan on Sun, 07/07/2024 - 1:53pm.

n/t

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By Ron Newman on Sun, 07/07/2024 - 2:25pm.

They don't in Cambridge or Somerville.

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By Adeas on Sun, 07/07/2024 - 3:11pm.

Certain signs will say M-F with hours (sometimes day time, sometimes over night). If days are not specified, then technically restrictions apply 7 days a week.

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By Fenway Crank on Sun, 07/07/2024 - 5:28pm.

but it’s seldom enforced

it makes it very difficult in the Fenway neighborhood

By Friartuck on Sun, 07/07/2024 - 5:17pm.

Only to Cabots,
And the Cabots speak only to God.
And God apparently talks to BTD

By Lee on Sun, 07/07/2024 - 5:36pm.

My dad was no Brahmin but a famous Lowell poet used to regularly bum cigarettes off him when we lived on Beacon Hill.

By Bob Leponge on Sun, 07/07/2024 - 6:37pm.

I’ll stack up the percentage of housing units in Beacon Hill that are section 8 or otherwise subsidized, against pretty much any other neighborhood in the city. The neighborhood has a long history of forcefully supporting low income housing, and asking that said housing be meaningfully integrated into the neighborhood rather than be sequestered off as “poor people’s housing.” The people living in those properties are my neighbors and my friends.

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By cinnamngrl on Sun, 07/07/2024 - 7:49pm.

Do you really think you have more low income housing than Dorchester, Mattapan, Roxbury or Hyde Park?

By Bob Leponge on Sun, 07/07/2024 - 9:02pm.

When looking at Beacon Hill you really need to look at the census tract data. Sure there’s little subsidized housing on the south slope; but the north slope has pushed hard and successfully for subsidized housing, putting its money where its mouth is, and the results compare decently with the citywide 17% average.

By anon on Sun, 07/07/2024 - 9:08pm.

Would love to go to Cabot's for some ice cream!

By anon on Sun, 07/07/2024 - 6:16pm.

Yet again we learn charity doesn’t begin on Beacon Hill.

By anon on Sun, 07/07/2024 - 6:18pm.

Where’s John Forbes Kerry when you need a Beacon Hill parking compromise?

By Pure Culchie on Sun, 07/07/2024 - 8:42pm.

And even though it all went wrong
I'll stand right here before the Lord of song
With nothing, nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah

By Johnson on Sun, 07/07/2024 - 10:08pm.

Oh, boo fucking hoo