City Councilor Michelle Wu (at large) says a rapidly growing Boston can no longer simply dole out unlimited free resident parking permits to residents and wants the city to start charging $25 per annual sticker - with exemptions for senior citizens, low-income residents and home-health and BPS staff who make regular home visits.
Wu's proposal, which the City Council will consider tomorrow, would also create, for the first time, a visitor pass, good for 72 hours - at a cost of $10 per visit.
"The current system is ineffective at managing curbside space in a manner that is fair and accessible to all who need to park on-street overnight," she writes in her proposal.
Boston has long doled out the permits for free - and has limited visitors to small numbers of spaces that are often taken by residents.
In her proposed ordinance - which they council will likely send to a committee for a hearing and study - Wu says that's no longer feasible when the Boston's population has increased by 100,000 since 1980 and number of permits in the city has increased 25% over the past ten years in a city that now has at least 300 households with five or more cars registered to them.
Her proposal also includes a way for the city to designate new areas for permitted parking, without waiting for residents to file petitions for them.
In her request for a hearing, she says the current system particularly benefits well off residents:
The current system to establish resident parking zones requires residents to self-organize and collect signatures from at least 51% of adult residents who live on the affected streets. Through this system, neighborhoods with resources and time have an advantage, which only perpetuates systemic inequities. ... More than half of households without vehicles have annual incomes less than
$25,000. Only 7% of zero-vehicle households make over $100,000
| Attachment | Size |
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 Wu's permit proposal | 255.86 KB |
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Comments
Good idea. About time. The
By Yup
Tue, 04/23/2019 - 3:19pm
Good idea. About time. The city doesn't even recoup administrative costs on this, which is crazy. Fee should be higher but can be incrementally raised down the line.
It really is crazy indeed
By RalphM
Tue, 04/23/2019 - 7:16pm
It really is crazy indeed that the city actually takes a financial loss on these stickers. People don’t expect ANYTHING to be free...except parking apparently. I’d suggest the bigger issue is needing to cap these permits per household, probably at 2. Beyond that, get a driveway or pay for a garage spot depending where you live.
The attack on urban working
By anon
Tue, 04/23/2019 - 3:29pm
The attack on urban working and middle class families who are struggling to stay afloat in the cities continues. Soon only the wealthy will remain in Boston. What a shame.
agreed
By SC from JP
Tue, 04/23/2019 - 3:58pm
This proposed fee of (*takes out calculator*) SEVEN CENTS PER DAY to store your private vehicle on a public street is a true outrage and clearly a conspiracy to punish those who do not have $25 left over after paying for insurance, gas, maintenance, and, oh right, a car purchase.
You're free to pay more
By Roztonian
Tue, 04/23/2019 - 8:07pm
It amazes me how people are so blah about government dipping into their wallets again and again.
Wow, some people have been conditioned.
And the beat goes on.
I don't think accusing people
By Mr Smith
Wed, 04/24/2019 - 8:46am
I don't think accusing people of basically being sheep is necessary just because you want free parking. There are good reasons to charge for these permits. They cost the city money, they take up public space, and they're a privilege as opposed to a right. They also should limit them, which would benefit all of us who use on-street parking. This seems pretty common sense to me.
Who said free?
By Roztonian
Thu, 04/25/2019 - 2:39am
I pay property taxes and excise taxes. Where is the free part again? I must have missed that while I was busy already paying taxes,...in Boston...where I own a home...and live.
You're right it's not free.
By Brad M
Thu, 04/25/2019 - 3:30pm
You're right it's not free. It's actually highly-subsidized and unfairly so by a lot of people who do not own vehicles or don't park them on the public way but pay for you to be able to do so through their own taxes. We accept taxes for things like education or libraries because they benefit all of society whether we use them ourselves or not. The same cannot be said by any rational person about parking on the public way. In fact, it's almost certainly a negative effect on society but we tolerate it. So, a modest permit fee to park there is one way to start better accounting for that subsidization by the people who actually use it, which is the essence of a fee versus a tax. If you don't accept that, so be it, but that is the core of what this is about.
No exemptions
By anon
Tue, 04/23/2019 - 3:42pm
I appreciate the interest in making the fee a bit more progressive, but get real.
1. It's $25/year, a small fraction of the total cost of auto ownership. It's not making or breaking the ownership of the car.
2. The cost of determining if a person qualifies is non-zero.
3. It opens the door up to fraud.
4. There are plenty of wealthy people who are 65+ (measured by wealth or income or whatevs). Why should they get a discount exactly?
5. Home health shouldn't be eligible for residential parking permits at all. Want to have a separate commercial permit? Have at it. For context, in Brookline the ability to park all day (not night) on the street is $20 for residents and $500 for commercial hang-tags.
6. BPS staff should have the same expectations of other people who work in Boston.
Handicap hang tag holders are already exempt. The rest should cough it up.
Exemptions = buying votes
By Lunchbox
Tue, 04/23/2019 - 3:55pm
Plain and simple.
cynically, I think the
By anon
Wed, 04/24/2019 - 8:47am
cynically, I think the exemption for 65+ people is because they're the ones with all the time in the world to go to city council meetings and flip the fuck out about a policy like this. by exempting them, the council has limited the grey-hairs interest in blocking the program from moving forward. hopefully at some point once it's regular policy and everyone's calmed down, they quietly do away with it (or up the age, etc)
limit per household of 2 permits
By cinnamngrl
Tue, 04/23/2019 - 3:51pm
A household of working adults that need cars need to find off street parking. And they should just be removed from Beacon Hill altogether.
The permits for home health aids and teachers is a little weird. State employees make more home visits than teachers, but overall to neighborhoods without neighborhood parking. The bigger issue is the need for parking near schools for employees. There was that crazy street in Charlestown that entitled themselves to park on school property.
Are you speaking about the
By anon
Tue, 04/23/2019 - 5:19pm
Are you speaking about the Edwards School incident in Charlestown a few years ago?
That incident was ENTIRELY driven by some school administrator not communicating to the public that a long-standing policy was changing. Suddenly one morning dozens of cars were towed. And when a public meeting was scheduled to discuss it, they accused the neighborhood of being racists.
Nobody in the neighborhood was against making sure teachers would be able to park. they wanted to able to use the parking lot when it was otherwise empty.
Longstanding policy
By SwirlyGrrl
Tue, 04/23/2019 - 8:24pm
Of not towing? From the time that I worked in the area, it was well known that it wasn't legal and there were long posted signs there, too - just nobody had been doing anything about it.
Should we make sure that we have a major public campaign to notify everyone that there will be a "sudden change in policy" because police now arrest domestic abusers and people who get in bar fights, too?
Instead of posing a lazy
By anon
Tue, 04/23/2019 - 10:16pm
Instead of posing a lazy strawman analogy like comparing a victimless infraction to a violent, victimful crime. How about the case where the Commonwealth suddenly starts enforcing one of its more obscure laws.
Brave anon
By cinnamngrl
Wed, 04/24/2019 - 1:41pm
Suddenly one morning hapless school administrators thought that those old signs instructing drivers that non employee cars would be towed meant something.
limit per household of 2 permits
By Greg Conyngham
Tue, 04/23/2019 - 9:45pm
And why should they be removed from Beacon Hill-issue with people there? It's not just the wealthy that live there. If you don't live in the Back Bay, South End or Beacon Hill not sure how you can be so critical of the demographic. A few do not mean everyone...
The rotating demise of small
By cinnamngrl
Wed, 04/24/2019 - 2:03pm
The rotating demise of small businesses because wealthy people store cars on the street that they might use on weekends to go on mini break s. The point of these changes is that if you can’t afford to store your car, then you can’t afford a car. And just because you remove resident stickers doesn’t mean you can’t park. It means that you are no more worthy than the visiting rabble.
(No subject)
By anon
Thu, 04/25/2019 - 12:20am
[img]//i.imgflip.com/2zeh59.jpg[/img]
Brave anon with mean cartoons
By cinnamngrl
Thu, 04/25/2019 - 5:22pm
Brave anon with mean cartoons. I hope this beautiful woman gets paid by all the idiots that think there is something insulting about her appearance.
Fully support this proposal
By Matt Lawlor
Tue, 04/23/2019 - 4:39pm
This is long, long, long overdue. Cities and towns all around us have been charging for the same type of parking stickers for years, but we just can't ever do it in Boston because...? I do believe the day has finally come.
Sam Adams must be turning
By anon
Tue, 04/23/2019 - 5:01pm
Sam Adams must be turning over in 'his" parking spot.
Michell Wu Parking permits.
By D Berg
Tue, 04/23/2019 - 6:37pm
I dont understand "neighborhood s with resources and time have an advantage which only perpetuates systemic inequities." It seems to me that anyone who resides in Boston can self organize and collect signatures to get residential permits.Also how is time available to one group less available to another group? How does existing system benefit well off residents moreso than any others? Any resident well off or less so can abtain resident permits the same as any other. There are far less available spots because of the recent explosion of appartment/condo building.
People in lower income
By cden4
Wed, 04/24/2019 - 10:00am
People in lower income neighborhoods typically work longer hours and at non M-F 9-5 hours, so they have less time to gather signatures for a petition, and would have a harder time reaching their neighbors when they are home. Just look at who has the time to go to public meetings right now. They are typically older and whiter than the population at large.
Somerville has an excellent
By cden4
Tue, 04/23/2019 - 7:16pm
Somerville has an excellent program that tries to take all needs into account. It's also quite straightforward. A few years ago, they designated ALL residential streets as resident permit only 24/7 (except Sundays.) Most major streets in town are 2 hour parking (some metered, some free), and resident permit only during overnight hours. Each residence can also purchase a limited number of visitor permits of different lengths to allow for their visitors to park on residential streets near their residence (within a block or two.)
So, daytime visitors can park on main streets or use a visitor permit belonging to the resident they are visiting on residential streets. People with legitimate business in the city where they need to park all over town can apply for a daytime business permit (for example home health care workers, contractors, landlords, etc). Residents can also purchase additional one-time one-day permits if they are having a party or large gathering.
It's not a perfect system, but it does a pretty good job at prioritizing on street space for residents while also allowing for reasonable visitor parking for guests of residents and other people doing business in town.
https://www.somervillema.gov/departments/traffic-a...
Yeah
By anon
Tue, 04/23/2019 - 8:12pm
And I’ll continue to keep me and my business out of Somerville. And I’m damn sure I’m not the only one with this mindset.
for what it's worth
By Michael
Wed, 04/24/2019 - 10:06am
we haven't missed you
I'm glad the city government
By anon
Thu, 04/25/2019 - 3:27pm
I'm glad the city government gets to decide if my reason to go there is legitimate. Be kind to your benevolent overlords!
I Dug Out my Cah . . .
By bannedinboston
Tue, 04/23/2019 - 8:28pm
. . . and I pay for this permit so now I have even more of a "right" when you park in "my" space.
Bring it on...
By Greg Conyngham
Tue, 04/23/2019 - 9:23pm
I've lived in the Back Bay for 28 years straight and 10 more part time, 3/4's of the time with a car as I need to drive places for work. Otherwise, fuggidt about it. But I believe in fair use costs and to me it's ridiculous that we don't have a fee that at least covers the cost of processing and printing resident stickers, besides the fact that it would cut down on "illegal" resident parking. Too many people that lived here, moved, and continue to use the resident sticker as a free parking pass-my ex included for a year. Make it at a minimum $10 a year MORE than cost and contribute the rest to bike/pedestrian improvements. While every dollar counts for me now, $36/year-$3/month doesn't move the needle much and really isn't starving anyone. A few packs of Ramen for me...
visitor passes
By anon
Wed, 04/24/2019 - 9:08am
so presumably, since they're time-limited and have a cost per-visit, these are something that'll have to be applied for each time? is this going to be the same way moving permits are issued, where you have to apply weeks ahead of time and then take time during the work day to go downtown and pick it up in person? because....nobody's going to do that. it's already massively inconvenient to do that for something big and planned like a move or something that lasts a year, and now they expect people to pre-plan every time a friend swings by for dinner?
hopefully they figure out some kind of workaround. maybe buy online and print at home, with a generated QR code to prevent counterfeiting?
Potential Candidates for Boston City Council...
By theszak
Tue, 04/30/2019 - 8:16am
࿀ More Boston City Council Candidates please!... for District 4 neighborhoods Dorchester, Mattapan, Roslindale, Jamaica Plain.
࿀ More Boston City Council Candidates please!... for District 6 neighborhoods West Roxbury, Jamaica Plain, Roslindale, Roxbury, Back of the Hill.
For daily updates please send request to https://www.boston.gov/departments/election
2019 Municipal Elections update
Potential Candidates
https://www.universalhub.com/comment/726241#commen...
Questions?... contact http://boston.gov/departments/election
PRELIMINARY MUNICIPAL ELECTION - SEPTEMBER 24, 2019
POTENTIAL CANDIDATES for COUNCILLOR-at-LARGE
1) Mary Church Jamaica Plain
2) Domingos DaRosa Hyde Park http://www.darosaatlarge.org
3) Michel Denis Hyde Park
4) Raymond R Duran Dorchester
5) Priscilla E Flint-Banks Roslindale http://www.priscillaforboston.com
6) Michael F Flaherty South Boston http://www.michaelflaherty.com
7) William A King Dorchester http://www.willamkingforboston.com
8) Althea Garrison Dorchester
9) Annissa Essaibi George Dorchester http://www.annissaforboston.com
10) Sal J Giarratani East Boston
11) David Halbert Dorchester http://www.davidhalbert.com
12) Martin Marty Keogh West Roxbury,
Peter A Lin-Marcus Chinatown
13) Herb Alexander Lozano Mattapan
14) Julia Mejia Dorchester http://www.juliaforboston.com
15) Roy Owens Sr Roxbury
16) George John Rigas Jamaica Plain
17) Jeffrey Michael Ross South End http://www.teamjeffross.com
18) Alejandra Nicole Stguillen West Roxbury http://www.alejandraforboston.com
19) Taushawn Tinsley Dorchester http://www.tinsleyforboston.com
20) Steven A Wise Dorchester
21) Michelle Wu Roslindale http://www.michelleforboston.com
PRELIMINARY MUNICIPAL ELECTION - SEPTEMBER 24, 2019
POTENTIAL CANDIDATES for DISTRICT CITY COUNCILLOR
DISTRICT ONE
22) Lydia Marie Edwards East Boston http://www.lydiaedwards.org
DISTRICT TWO
23) Edward M Flynn South Boston
DISTRICT THREE
24) Frank Baker Dorchester
25) Raymond R Duran Dorchester
26) Elciana Ogunjobi Dorchester
27) Pat Williams Dorchester http://www.reaching4dstarsllc.com
DISTRICT FOUR
28) Andrea Joy Campbell Mattapan http://www.andreacampbell.org
[b]More Candidates for District 4 please![/b]
DISTRICT FIVE
29) Ricardo Arroyo Hyde Park http://www.votearroyo.com
30) Maria Esdale Farrell Hyde Park http://www.mariaforboston.com
31) Cecily Leticia Graham Hyde Park http://www.cecilygraham.com
32) Yves Mary Jean Roslindale
33) Justin Matthew Murad Hyde Park http://www.justin4d5.com
34) Michael James Murphy Hyde Park
35) Alkia T Powell Hyde Park http://www.alkiapowellforboston.com
36) Jean-Claude Sanon Roslindale http://www.sanon4boston.com
37) Mimi E Turchinetz Hyde Park http://www.mimforcouncil.com
38) Michelle von Vogler Roslindale http://www.michellevonvogler.com
PRELIMINARY MUNICIPAL ELECTION - SEPTEMBER 24, 2019
POTENTIAL CANDIDATES for DISTRICT CITY COUNCILLOR
DISTRICT SIX
39) Matt O’Malley West Roxbury http://www.votemattomalley.com
[b]More Candidates for District 6 please![/b]
DISTRICT SEVEN
40) Kim Janey Roxbury http://www.kimjaney.org
41) Roy Owens Sr Roxbury
42) Valerie Hope Rust Dorchester Jamaica Plain
43) Steven A Wise Dorchester
DISTRICT EIGHT
44) Priscilla Kenzie Bok Beacon Hill http://www.friendsofkenziebok.com
45) Robert Couture Symphony
46) Montez David Haywood West End
47) Landon Lemoine Back Bay http://www.landonlemoine.com
48) Kristen Mobilia Fenway http://www.kristenmobilia.com
49) Helene Vincent Charlesgate Kenmore http://www.helenevincent.com
DISTRICT NINE
50) Jonathan Lamar Allen Brighton http://www.jonathanforboston.com
51) Brandon David Bowser Allston http://www.brandonBowser.org
52) Liz A Breadon Brighton http://www.liz4AB.com
53) Craig R Cashman Brighton
54) Daniel J Daly Brighton
55) Lee Nave Jr Brighton http://www.votenave.com
56) Amanda Gail Smart Brighton http://www.asmartboston.com
For daily updates please send request to https://www.boston.gov/departments/election
2019 Municipal Elections update
Potential Candidates
https://www.universalhub.com/comment/726241#commen...
Questions?... contact http://boston.gov/departments/election
Maybe I'm dense...
By thegirl
Wed, 04/24/2019 - 2:28pm
But I don't understand how charging a fee for resident stickers is going to suddenly make more parking spaces appear.
I think doing an analysis on the number of potential spaces versus stickers released is overdue and probably a good data point to have, but is the city going to really limit the number resident stickers doled out, especially now that they will be making money on them?
Still, this proposal does NOTHING about the congestion caused by non-stop construction and utter lack of coordination among utilities digging roads and blocking intersections with their vehicles. The stretch of Washington St where it turns into Hyde Park Ave is a nightmare. Further up the road, just past Ukraine, deliveries for the new apartment/condo complex routinely block traffic and prevent the 32 from passing. And that's just one tiny stretch of the city that's not even downtown...
There should be a charge for
By anon
Thu, 04/25/2019 - 3:41am
There should be a charge for resident parking permits, other cities charge why not Boston, especially since many Boston residents are not allowed to park on these Boston streets even when they want to attend a Boston event. Exemptions for low income should be limited to seniors and persons who work full time with cars worth less then X dollars. Students driving driving around in new Mercedes and BMW given to them by their parents should not be exempt. Home-health and BPS staff who make regular home visits and they should not be exempt. There is no way to know if they are actually rending a service to the neighborhood resident or out on the town not work related; they are not allowed to park in resident parking spaces now so that should not change. As far as visitors passes they should be limited to cars owned by Boston residents, there are already places for out of towner's to park its called parking lots, there are not enough spaces for Boston residents as is
Wait a minute
By Krantz The Wrapper
Thu, 04/25/2019 - 12:31pm
Why do seniors and low-income get a discount? Maybe get rid of your cars...
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