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City limits parking to two hours on Roslindale side of the Arboretum, causing uproar among healthcare workers who used to park there
By adamg on Tue, 02/27/2024 - 9:37am
WFXT reports the new BTD regulations along Walter and Bussey streets, aimed at making spaces available for Arnold Arboretum visitors, are causing problems for workers at the Hebrew Rehabilitation Center and Faulkner Hospital.
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Comments
Your car isn't our problem.
Your car isn't our problem.
I've noticed with the Faulkner construction the amount of cars in that area. The construction company should rent a lot somewhere and bus their workers in.
Oh, the trucks with Lets Go Brandon stickers and NH plates?
Yeah, they can celebrate their freedoms in other markets for their work.
Cool
Next they can ticket the school buses that idle there half the day
"The city said there will be
"The city said there will be a grace period before parking tickets are issued, but didn’t specify how long that grace period will be." Using history as a guide, I predict that no one will ever actually get a ticket. That would require some sort of enforcement, which is just silly.
Kinda like the "education"
Kinda like the "education" and not "enforcement" in WR...it works so well!
"New" bus lane on Washington still not enforced...
Every time I take the 35/36/37 bus from Forest Hills down Washington Street during the evening rush hour there are cars parked in the bus lane. I've yet to see one tow truck in action.
The buses have dash cam
They should mail them tickets.
Many things should happen,
Many things should happen, but they don't, because that's how it goes.
Can be done but...
...lobby the lawmakers
Heres an even better idea:
Heres an even better idea: get rid of Bussey street. There shouldn't be a damn road going through the middle of a busy park. Same goes for Circuit Drive in Franklin Park, Charles Street between the Common and Public Garden, etc. Parks should be parks, not medians between streets.
As for the complaining workers: you are not entitled to have free parking provided to you by Boston residents. Its ridiculous how spoiled drivers are around here.
That's right, screw those workers
especially the immigrant minorities who do the housekeeping and menial jobs which keep healthcare facilities operating 24/7. How dare they drive to work.
Faulkner provides parking
Faulkner provides employee parking at two off-site locations with free shuttle bus service to the hospital. Also, the workers you claim to care about ("immigrant minorities who do housekeeping and menial jobs") are the ones who are least likely to drive to the hospital.
Do they?
Do the "the immigrant minorities who do the housekeeping and menial jobs which keep healthcare facilities operating 24/7" actually drive to work though? Much more likely they take are taking the bus. People who drive are wealthier than average and low income workers drive a lot less than high income ones. Much more likely that the people parking there are Doctors and administrators.
Parking is for the park.
The parking is obviopusly there for people who visit the park.
Chester Square belongs on
Chester Square belongs on this list too!
Bussey street provides access
Bussey street provides access to the interior of the Arb for those with disabilities, small children, etc. It also allows for the Arb to do maintenance, access to utilities in the area, etc.
I would 100% support a reworking of the street to discourage anyone from using it as a cut through, though. Say a speedbump every 15 feet? A dozen more stop signs? Make it unappealing to anyone who isn't using it for the intended purpose which is accessing the park.
Just make it a dead end
Park access preserved, with no opportunities for using it as a cut-through. Problem solved!
A permeable dead end
There is no reason to block pedestrians or bike riders from using the full length of Bussey street.
Small children can walk
Mine were trekking miles at a time but age 3. I would bring a tiny stroller just in case but didn't even do that by age 4.
Parents need to stop using their kids as an excuse for sloth.
Arboretum Maintenance
The Arboretum already has a network of roads throughout it that are utilized by the staff/rangers for access throughout the park. Closing Bussey Street would not prohibit them from maintenance or utility access. Just closing that off to the public and/or restoring it to parkland would go a long way.
Get rid of Charles Street ?
Get rid of Charles Street between Boston Common and the Public Garden?
Boston Common and the Public Garden are two seperate parks with two
separate sets of rules (not that they are ever enforced), different characteristics, etc. You seem to think "a park is a park is a park".
Yes, get rid of that speedway.
Allow access to the underground garage only and tear up the rest of the pavement.
"no options"
"There are no options she said, after listing off two reasonable options."
On a more serious note...
I don't understand how it's the city's responsibility to provide free parking to one of the richest employers in the commonwealth.
The same thing happens in JP
from all the LMA commuters.
And in Mission Hill
Most of the metered parking, visitor 2-hour parking, and nearly all the handicapped parking spots are taken by hospital employees with handicapped placards. Same hospital employees take the same reserved handicapped spaces every M-Fri. and walk the 1/4 to 1/2 mile to the hospital to work.
It is great that hospitals in the LMA make it a priority to hire folks with disabilities, but perhaps they could have designated handicapped spaces at the hospitals for them. Seems cruel to make them park so far away.
City Hall does not care
A significant portion of the residential street parking is abused by out of state cars and commuters who don't live here. Residents have been complaining for years and City Hall won't do anything to stop it.
Out of state cars
So, if Massachusetts absorbed those states, you wouldn't be bothered by their parking anymore?
Or is what you really meant to say "I'm upset because people who live more than 30 miles away are parking here?" It's possible that people in Austin, TX have parking issues too, but they don't have that argument.
Very simple Will
If you don't live here, gtfo
And how much money
Did you give to enrich Steve Bannon, er, build the wall?
And if a frog had wings, it
And if a frog had wings, it wouldn't bump its ass a-hoppin'.
Good quote
RIP Jimy Williams
I Wonder
What do you think the percentage is of folks that have a HP placards actually need them? They seem pretty easy to get. I may apply for one for the recurring hangnail I get on my big toe.
The City
Allows some of the most successful restaurants/bars and their wealthy owners use City property for very low cost outdoor dining.
Many v. Few
This is a silly comparison. Far more people benefit from the space if it’s used for dining than if it’s used exclusively by one person to park their stupid giant SUV while they go work an 8-hour shift.
There's very little public
There's very little public transit over there, I don't blame them.
The only bus serving those institutions runs once an hour off-peak/once every ~30min on-peak, and only connects you to Forest Hills.
They're 1mi+ from Forest Hills or the Needham Line stops, which is further than most people are realistically going to walk.
Hospitals mean many of the workers are on shifts that don't correspond perfectly to normal peak hours either.
-----
That said, those institutions could certainly have invested some money in either transit shuttles or building adequate parking for their staff.
There are employee shuttles run by MGB!
There are three private shuttle routes run by MGB that connect the Faulkner to employee lots near Chestnut Hill and Forest Hills in addition to the green and orange lines. The fact that there is little public transit is irrelevant as Faulkner plugs that gap for its employees.
During off peak hours when the shuttles and the T aren't running employees are permitted to park on campus.
“ They're 1mi+ from Forest
“ They're 1mi+ from Forest Hills or the Needham Line stops, which is further than most people are realistically going to walk.”
Walking is good for most people. A mile is nothing for most people. The path from the Faulkner to Forest Hills is through the Arboretum and one of the pleasantest commutes you could hope for.
Ever walk a ward for a living?
You have never worked at a hospital on your feet all day.
Not in a hospital but in a restaurant.
Then I walked 2 miles to my evening gig. So yes, I can walk the walk.
I mean to be fair there's one
I mean to be fair there's one bus that swings by there and it's not exactly on a commuter schedule. Realistically public transit would require walking to the square or maybe biking through the arb to get to Forest Hills. And the MBTA is barely functional as a system. I'd also be upset if my commute went from a 30-40 minute drive to a possible 2+ hours where you're also risking getting assaulted and thrown onto active train tracks.
But really the employers should be addressing this. They should either be running better more frequent shuttles to off-site parking or providing uber vouchers or building a garage or something. There's a big shortage in health care workers right now so it's not like these people can't walk away for somewhere that has parking.
Be reasonable
"you're also risking getting assaulted and thrown onto active train tracks"
This is not a reasonable concern. And yes the MBTA has its well-documented problems, but plenty of us still use it to get to work most days. It's not "barely functioning."
Really
“where you're also risking getting assaulted and thrown onto active train tracks.” How often do you think this happens? The truth is that the T is way safer than driving and it’s not even close. You are far more likely to be injured, assaulted, or even killed commuting by car than you are on the T. Facts don’t care about your feelings.
I favor both the rule and enforcement
But I have to admit, it's hard to see what the hospital employees will do. Public transit to the area is pretty bad, just a single bus line that operates infrequently. The Faulkner has an employee shuttle from Forest Hills, perhaps the Hebrew Rehab can institute something similar. The employers will need to step up and take this on, as subsidizing employee parking really isn't the job of the city, which has valid competing needs for those spots.
They'll do
what every other person does that doesn't get free parking: public transit, walk, bike, rent a spot, get dropped off, etc. Most likely they will park on residential streets and BTD won't ever come and ticket them.
Great
Now do the same thing in all of JP.
I can understand this being a
I can understand this being a temporary issue given the constant development of Faulkner up the road, and construction causing parking areas to be closed, but...
Given the development of Faulkner up the road, their development plans should include places for their employees to park, rather than clogging up public streets all day. Maybe that's the plan? If so, the parking restrictions could be delayed until that work is complete (which is never /s )
It's also worth noting...
That MGB provides three different employee shuttle routes connecting Faulkner to two different off-site employee parking lots and the T. This princess just doesn't like the options provided to her.
Don't forget about blue bikes
And all mayor Wu's bike lanes !
Actually, they aren't Mayor
Actually, they aren't Mayor Wu's...they're for the tax paying citizens of this city.
Parents and car owners aren't the only people that pay taxes. Us childless losers also like to use things that our tax $ pays for.
Yes, I also own a car - I just think it's time we stop killing cities with cars.
I guess
You're killing the city then.
Yes, 100%. But we're a 1 car
Yes, 100%. But we're a 1 car household that puts about 2k miles a year on it. We take the T, bike, walk and drive on occasion.
Our excise taxes don't fill a pothole and the gas tax hasn't been raised in ~25 years. We have eot change our thinking and it's doable.
Get back to me
Get back to me when entire neighborhoods are demolished for bike infrastructure like they were for car infrastructure. Until then you can calm down and get a sense of perspective.
What a gutless copout
Total capitulation
Neighborhoods demolished for ….
… bike infrastructure.
Lol. Great visual.
they don't budget the time.
I don't know how often the shuttles run. These people probably are upset that they can't park 5 min before their shift starts.
But the Arboretum is for everyone to enjoy, not car storage.
Construction parking
As someone who drives by there early in the morning I can’t help but think the influx of construction workers parking for free all day working over at the Faulkner was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
Hard to pretend you’re a local taking the dog for a walk when you’ve got a snow covered pickup with NH plates
I've watched commuters
zipping to and from the job sites in the area daily for years. The city knows what they're doing and still won't install resident parking for it's constituents.
There is a process for establishing resident permit parking
Neighborhood residents can petition the city for resident permit designation. A certain number of people in the neighborhood must indicate support, and if that threshold is reached, then the city will put up the signs. The city will implement it anywhere that process is followed. The issue with a lot of the Arboretum parking, though, is that there are no residences specifically at that location.
Petitions were submitted years ago
BTD and City Hall have the petitions, they just won't give the residents what they want. This was all highlighted in the complaints about the White Stadium deal.
Didn’t the Neighborhood
Didn’t the Neighborhood Liaison from the Mayor’s office talk to the Longfellow Neighborhood about this 6ish months ago?
I thought the feedback about 2 hour parking was pretty positive.
BTD hasn't zoned a street in nearly 5 years
The Neighborhood Liaisons don't do anything
Whoa, seriously?
Is that data publicly available anywhere? Not trying to sound skeptical or dismissive, I'm genuinely curious. If BTD has put a de facto stop to their own documented policy for changing neighborhood parking designations, under the nose of two different mayors, that's a huge freaking deal.
Seriously
There's articles around that mention the moratorium. There is no official press release. We submitted petitions before the pandemic and then they told us the whole program is on ice.
Post some links?
Extraordinary claims require at least a small amount of evidence. I have not seen any articles suggesting what you say, but I have seen two anonymous posters on two web forums make such claims. I need a bit more than unverified claims by you and the anon from the other site to buy the idea that the city has shut down this program.
"I have not seen any articles suggesting what you say"
Oh really? You commented on one of them!
https://www.universalhub.com/2023/jp-roxbury-residents-say-soccers-kick-...
"Residents said the city could go a long way in soothing their fears by letting them turn their streets into resident-only parking zones. But BTD's Nick Gove said the city currently has a moratorium on new resident-only areas."
https://www.boston.gov/departments/parking-clerk/resident-parking-permits
"The City of Boston is currently not accepting applications for new resident parking permit locations at this time."
https://www.bostonherald.com/2023/07/11/patchwork-of-parking-rules-makes...
That was six months ago
The words, "at this time" kind of imply that things can change. Was it a policy choice, a practical limitation regarding the specific application, a temporary circumstance? I'm sorry, but neither of those articles say that the city no longer runs a resident permit program.
Keep apologizing
The links confirm everything I said. That must really bother you because now you're misquoting me. They won't tell you why or when they're going to do anything. Bottom line, City Hall is actively resistant to the needs of its constituents in this regard. This only serves to benefit nonresident commuters and disadvantage residents.
Faulkner employees were
Faulkner employees were parking there LONG before the construction started.
Next - go after all those Brookline folk who park next to Jamaica Pond for DAYS.
Yes!
There's cars and trucks from all over the country parked for months here. City Hall won't lift a finger.
Perkins St.
Perkins St. next to Jamaica Pond is a DCR road, I believe. Not the city of Boston.
Wrong
It's not
Right
See DCR Parkways report, p. 192. https://www.mass.gov/doc/dcr-parkways-master-plan-2020/download
Not from Jway to Hyde Square
And even on Perkins b/w Prince St. and Parkman Drive there have been abandoned vehicles. A graffitied Uhaul was there all summer with expired tags and inspection. It never got towed.
Weeks and months? No,
Perkins Street has street cleaning once a week, so no one is parking for more then 6 days in a row. They DO tow.
LMFAO
There's a Jeep from Vermont that's been outside my house since December. Look at all the ignored 311 abandoned vehicle reports.
Jesus, guy
Get a real hobby.
That's rich
coming from you
Not in winter
You know street cleaning stops between Nov 30 and April 1, don't you?
The Hebrew Rehab staff
who care for my sister and others often have long commutes and work longer shifts and/or very early shifts. The Harvard land on which Hebrew Rehab Center is built only has so much parking. I hope the administration can figure something out to minimize the commuting hassles for these dedicated folks.
Hebrew Senior Life
owns the land where Hebrew Rehab is located. It is not Harvard/Arboretum land. It was originally the city-owned Joyce Kilmer Park.
Years ago Hebrew Rehab proposed building a parking garage. I'm not sure why they didn't follow through with those plans. That is an option for them.
Thanks for the correction.
Maybe they can reconsider that garage.
If the alternative to
If the alternative to allowing on-street parking is building a garage, I say keep the street parking. Off-street parking is a huge waste of land in the city, and also costs a whole lot of money that could have gone to the health care these institutions provide. Parallel street parking is the most space-efficient way to store vehicles.
Replacing street parking with garages is a good way to transform Boston to be more like Miami or Phoenix.
Minor correction
Hebrew Rehab doesn't sit on Harvard land. It sits on what was at one time a city park, a woodlands aptly named Joyce Kilmer Park.
In 1955, the governor signed a law letting the city sell the 9 1/2-acre park to the Hebrew Home for the Aged, which at the time was located in Dorchester, according to a Globe report at the time.
In the mid-1950s, municipal and state leaders thought nothing of selling off parkland for other uses - that's when the state built Shattuck Hospital right in Franklin Park (although the city parks department drew the line at letting the School Committee build a new Boston Technical High School next to White Stadium).
The sale of Kilmer Park did not go quietly, according to the Globe: Even after a judge dismissed a suit by nearby residents, at a zoning-board hearing on the proposed new Hebrew Home, people started yelling "It's not in your parish!" when Msgr. Edward Murray of Sacred Heart Church rose to support the facility. Others, including the area's state senator and state rep, opposed the project because it would detract from the area's residential qualities.
The board, in fact, eventually voted against the proposal, although obviously at some point, it won a city OK, because the home held a cornerstone ceremony in June, 1960 for its six-story building.
Thanks Adam.
This also explains the plaque dedicated to Joyce Kilmer in front of Hebrew Rehab!
Doesn't Faulkner charge the Employees for Parking
They used to charge the workers to park on the property
Who cares
I live about a block from here and could care less if employees of the Faulkner and Hebrew Rehab park here. Before the Faulkner took away on-site parking for its employees barely anyone parked on Walter or Bussey. There isn’t exactly raging demand to walk the arb in the middle of the day during the week (weekends are a different story). Parking is parking and people working healthcare shifts at this location are going to drive to work given the unpredictable schedule and very limited public transit options. The Faulkner construction has definitely supercharged the issue but that will be over soon enough.
Half good/half bad move
Limiting the parking time on Bussey Street makes a heck of a lot of sense.
Conversely, limiting parking time on Walter is bad. Right now, the cars parked on Walter act as traffic calming, as they narrow the street width. I want to say that before the City got into trying to slow cars down on the street there was no parking going up the hill from Bussey, then it was reinstated.
For the tone deaf, at least before construction began at the Faulkner it was mostly Hebrew Rehab folk who were parking on Walter. No shuttle bus for them.
Ooh boy, I’ve been waiting
Ooh boy, I’ve been waiting for this to happen…
(Sits back with popcorn…)
Paying for parking stickers
When will Mayor Wu finally start charging for resident permit parking stickers? This is something Councilor Wu (remember her?) long advocated for, and now she's in a position to do it.
Is she in a position to do it?
I'm pretty sure it would require action by the Council, and we all know from when she pushed the idea as a member of that body, that there was very little support from the others.
Why 2 hour parking? Instead,
Why 2 hour parking? Instead, there should
be all-day meters, priced at a level that results in a few spaces being available at peak times. There’s clearly a need for some people to park all day in the area, and the city shouldn’t make it illegal at any price.
Aggressive agreement
2hr parking is really bad parking policy.
What a wasteful way to limit street space use of a (clearly) high value asset.
This seems like a great place to implement a more performance driven system instead of isolating a versatile asset to single function uses.
It will either go underutilized, or switch to a unenforceable mess that only the experienced will be able to take advantage of.
This kind of thing leads to more demand for parking facilities even when they are not actually required. And this will likely trickle down and be borne by all of us in some way, including those who do not use cars...
...increased demand for private parking, traffic, and even healthcare costs.