Re-parking for the street sweeper will be easy because it will be during work hours. The real cause of the parking problem at night is conversions of single-family homes to rentals.
Posted by: Noel Jones
There is a City Council meeting tonight at 5pm that was rescheduled from yesterday because of the snowstorm. At the meeting, the council will be voting to move back the start time for the 3-hour time slot that the street sweeper needs to clean the streets to 9am, so that all 9-5 commuters will be gone already. This will make re-parking very easy, as the West Ward only has a parking problem at night, when most cars are home from work and daytime activities.
There are apparently some letters to the editor in the Express Times today concerned about the parking issue in the West Ward--I want to make one thing clear: the street sweeper has nothing to do with the parking problem at night. We need to address the real problem at the root of our parking problem: the steady conversion of single-family homes and neighborhood storefronts into rental units over the years. When more people live in the buildings, more people park on streets whose blocks were never designed to hold so many cars. Below are two articles, one from the Express Times, and one from the Valley 610 blog:
Michael Duck's Article on the Valley 610 blog on Changes to the Street Sweeping Program
Express Time's Article on Changes to Street Sweeping Program Start Time
We need to urge our officials to begin to aggressively market de-conversion incentives for our neighborhood. Having most of our
original corner storefronts converted into multi-family rental units not only puts more cars on the street, but eliminates commercial space where entrepreneurs could open neighborhood businesses, which keeps our neighborhood dependent on stores that are driving distance away. If we had our storefronts back, we would have less need to drive, less need for that extra family car, and we would also have less residents on each block that need to park cars on the street.
So let's get it straight--the parking problem is because of the city's practice for years of giving investors permission to convert single-family houses and storefronts into multi-family rentals. We do not just need de-conversion incentives developed--we need them aggressively marketed to investors in our neighborhood, and we need for no more conversions to be allowed.
In our recent resident meeting with WW Rep. on City Council, Mike Fleck, I brought this up and Mike said that the de-conversion incentives are already written into an ordinance, they are just not being marketed or applied effectively. This is what has to change, if we want parking relief in the West Ward at night.
I know that 5pm is a tricky time for a lot of people who work day jobs, but for those of us with flexible schedules, please come out to support the street sweeping program, and urge the council to aggressively market de-conversion incentives to relieve our parking problem at night.
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8 comments:
Persons complain about having to move their cars once a week (how hard can that be?) Please note that there are many junked cars and even just cars belonging to who knows that end up stashed on our streets. Requiring people to move their cars once a week will address this and may actually open up more parking spaces due to putting an end to this stashing.
On the car issue...my street (Chidsey) is just one block long with no alley access on either side so no garages or parking pads at all...rather unique for Easton. In any event, if I'm not home by 10pm there will be no spaces within half a block of my house. This is relatively inconvenient and frustrating for me, based on past parking situations on the street but really not that horrible in real terms since I can manage to walk a few more steps to my door.
The annoying thing is this: half these cars are not there during the day and don't live on my street. Who are they and where do they come from? How come when it snows - like this week -they magically disappear? Something wierd is going on here.
The way people park (and waste valuabe spaces) is another issue but I'll save that for later. Easton doesn't have too few parking spaces; it has too many cars. we need to start to realize that moving into a city requires rethinking how many vehicles you can bring with you.
In America, people own three or four cars and think it's their right to have free parking handed to them. Japan requires new car buyers to prove they have a legal place to park it before they can buy it. In a country where space is at a premium they have realised that responsability comes with ownership. Something-for-nothing Americans need an attitude adjustment.
DRL
I'm all for registering vehicles in the city.
Charge 10.00 per car for a sticker. No sticker-pay a 20.00 fine everytime you are ticketed. Residency gets parking privileges. Then, you know who belongs and who doesn't. starts cleaning up neighborhoods fast
I counted the cars belonging to the homes on ONE side of a HALF block recently; in SEVEN homes, there are SIXTEEN cars.one apartment has THREE cars. and as Dennis has observed, some cars disappear for awhile, then come back. as Seinfeld would say "who are these people?"
we are trying to do our part; we are trying to go w/ one car for awhile. but parking is a real big issue.
as for the deconversion need, I did just that, almost 15 years ago! there was no incentive from the city. the only incentive I had was I didn't want to pay 2 trash/water fees and do all the code updates. when I did change it back to a single, all the city said was that if I ever wanted to go back to 2 family, I probably couldn't.
one more thing about parking, I don't understand why people from NYC don't know how to park better than this! there are a bunch of people here who will park in the middle of two spots, even in the winter when they KNOW parking is tough!
I would love to see lines painted on the street like downtown and issue parking permits; two for homes and one for apartments.
The legislation passed tonight, so the new street sweeping program will begin this Spring and the cleaning times will be once a week, from 9am - 12noon. The neighborhood deserves to be really proud of this accomplishment--it's been a two-year effort of WW residents at several neighborhood and town hall meetings.
It just goes to show what we can get done when we are consistent and persistent in our pursuit of a healthy neighborhood!
Many thanks to the residents who came down to City Hall tonight...
Great news about the street sweeping program having passed the city council. This program is needed and with a 9 am start time, will be a success.
Speaking of the rental parking issue, landlords should have to provide off street parking for their tenants of there is more than one unit in the building
If this will be done to our town as well, I think more will agree on the 5pm schedule than doing it at night. Many people find it inconvenient to move their cars at night in order for street sweeper trucks have access to the curb lane where dirt and debris are most likely trapped. That’s the time in which majority of the people are resting, so it’s only natural that they don’t want to be disturbed.
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