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Border wars: Councilor moves to shift parking permits along stretch of Washington Street from South End to Roxbury
By adamg on Thu, 10/17/2019 - 8:58pm
The Boston Guardian reports City Councilor Kim Janey has convinced BTD that people who live along Washington Street between Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard need to have their South End parking permits replaced with Roxbury parking permits.
Tensions about which neighborhood the area is in have been rising in recent months, with controversy ranging from the question of whether the Alexandra Hotel at the corner of Mass. Ave. and Washington Street is in the South End or Roxbury to the opening of the Residence Inn by Marriott Boston Downtown/South End on Melnea Cass Boulevard, which nobody would ever argue is in either the South End or downtown.
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Comments
I've lived in Roxbury since
I've lived in Roxbury since 2003 and I don't think I've ever seen any signs for Roxbury permit parking anywhere. Is there even such a thing?
Yes
https://www.google.com/maps/@42.3299147,-71.0920691,3a,75y,326.18h,98.94t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sYUpf2ssrrpTLnSYU8if-CQ!2e0!7i16384!8i8192
There could very well be less of it in Roxbury than in some other neighborhoods, though, since residents need to ask the city and some residents may be more likely to do that than others.
Mission Hill and Roxbury
Mission Hill and Roxbury crossing are full of resident parking signs
Huh, now I know! Interesting
Huh, now I know! Interesting that those are two of the heaviest student populated areas of Roxbury. Probably no accident.
It's becoming more popular
It's becoming more popular lately, I've seen a few closer to Dudley now that developments are going in and density is going up (and gentrification is coming).
I believe part of the problem is the process to get signs... as I recall you have to get a certain % of the residents a certain-sized area to sign a petition. It's time consuming and unfairly burdens lower-income people who often have to work more to get by.
Really the city should simplify and do a city-wide resident parking permit system and use it to generate money for public transit improvements.
If anything, maybe go the other way
Not a citywide sticker (I mean, I'd love to be able to get a permit so I can park near certain T stops in JP), but smaller, sub-neighborhood ones. Why should somebody who lives in Lower Allston get a sticker that lets them park in Cleveland Circle, for example?
But remember what happened when Michelle Wu proposed changes? Heard anything about changes in the parking-permit program recently? Well, besides this shifting of permits in whatever that area is called.
A sticker from a neighboring
A sticker from a neighboring zone should at least get you 2 hours of parking. Hell, there should be no such thing as "resident parking ONLY" - the sticker merely gets you unlimited parking. Non-sticker folks have to pay. I've seen it other countries - pay to park kiosks even in residential, out-of-the-way areas. And pay-by-phone is only going to become more popular. If you're making a short visit to a residential area in the South End, Fenway, wherever, you shouldn't be tying up metered spots in front of businesses.
Should be residents only
Should be residents only parking for all non-commercial areas in Boston. XY and Z from the 'burbs can pay to park in a garage when they choose to drive into the city, otherwise they can take the T.
so you just, have no friends,
so you just, have no friends, then? or hang out with all your townie friends from highschool?
all-resident only works if they institute a guest-pass program the way somerville did
It would be even worse
Think Versailles treaty, post WW1 borders. Multiple empires crashing, clueless leaders from other nations deciding where the lines are. But in this instance, the inhabitants are armed with cars and votes. Every neighborhood has its nuances. Cleveland Circle denizens won resident parking stickers to protect their roads from the Brookline interlopers who, every evening, stealthily occupied the streets. Their allies from Allston, who earned their parking badge to fend off Harvard, BU and other occupiers, are welcome visitors.
Why should somebody get a sticker?
So that we can park over there to get laid.
Why is the process a problem?
Why is the process a problem? You do a small amount of effort and get free parking privileges for life, at the expense of the nonresidents who had reasons to park there.
And nonresidents get no consideration of what they're supposed to do instead. For example, the city has never said they'll give the T some extra money to increase service to an area when permit parking comes in.
Related question: what's the process for removing resident restrictions? Answer: there isn't one, because why would the city ever consider the needs of a nonresident?
Changes for new residents
Seems like all the changes are not for the local pop. They want to make everything downtown. I remember when you could park on any Boston street in Dorchester, Roxbury, or Mattapan. Nothing is comfortable for the ppl of color who made these neighborhoods great.
I've lived in the South End northeast of Mass Ave for most of
twenty years. My Comcast / Xfinity bill has always been addressed to Roxbury, MA 02118. Always a South End resident parking permit on my car, though.
Yeah, South Ender here too
And a Roxbury resident before that. For some reason my mail sometimes says Roxbury too, even though the last time the South End was part of Roxbury, all of the Back Bay and the Fenway were too. Prior to the filling around Boston Neck, which created South End, and the filling of the Back Bay, there was a water border between Roxbury and Boston at an area roughly between today's Arlington and Berkeley Streets, and a short land border on Boston Neck at about Washington Street and Union Park Street. That border was moved to about Lenox Street when the state began filling the tidal flats to form the South End, and later the Back Bay. If my memory of the history of that border, as described in Walter Muir Whitehill's book Boston: A Topographical History is accurate, the border may have been Stony Brook, which was later put into a conduit, and ran in the vicinity of Lenox Street.
I'm curious to know why Kim
I'm curious to know why Kim Janey decided to go through all of the effort required to get the street designation changed.
The same reason city
The same reason city councilors do most things - a small group of organized people probably bugged her enough about a seemingly innocuous thing until she acted to make them stop bugging her. That's how 90% of policy is made in this city.
End corrupt neighborhood system
Only citywide stickers or none at all
How about charge more than $0
How about charge more than $0? End handouts to greedy drivers.
I Agree!
If at the same time we end handouts to those equally greedy bike drivers who park everywhere for free. Everybody should pay, if only nominally, for storing their private belongings on public property.
No citywide permits. That creates a new problem.
Generally, resident permits are to keep commuters from parking in neighborhoods and then getting on the T or Commuter rail. OR as in the Cleveland Circle example, to keep Brookline ("No Parking at Night") people from taking up all the Boston spots. Even though I'm a Boston resident, if I travel to East Boston or Mission Hill I'm no more entitled to resident parking than some guy from Wellesley.
You do have more rights than Wellesley people
If you live in Boston you are a taxpayer who should be able to park in any space in Boston that your tax dollars pay to maintain. Neighborhoods are artificial constructs, unlike municipalities which are legal entities.
Wellesley People Parking on the Street? Pshaw!
It's hilarious that anyone might think that people from Wellesley are driving into Boston and parking on the street. Street spots where birds can shit on the car and millennial wankers on electric scooters can crash into and ding it are for you pleebs. The Wellesley people park in climate controlled garages with full valet and detailing services provided daily. Sheesh. Don't be so insulting.
/snark
So what does this mean?
So what does this mean? People who live there still get to park near their houses. But they lose the right to drive to other parts of the South End, and gain the right to park in permit areas of Roxbury (of which there aren't very many, since it's mostly free parking).
Meanwhile, residents of the rest of the South End lose the chance to park there, and residents of Roxbury gain it.
Nonresidents are still left out in the cold.
Janey is the worst
She's so underhanded and not a public servant. She is the WORST councilor ever. I'd rather have that woman who stuck money down her bra. I live in Lower Roxbury and I just love how she comes in and tells us how to live and what to think and feel. I've lived here 20 years and she is the WORST.
I plan to give so much money to anyone that runs against her. She says this is her neighborhood. It isn't. She lies. She's selfish.
based on median income
Rich neighborhoods shouldn't have neighborhood parking. It is hard on the low paid service employees that come and go at all hours. If you live in the Back Bay or South End you can rent a space or take a taxi. Or hunt for a space like everyone else. And we don't need to charge for permits as much as limit them to 2 cars per address.