[Summit] parking passions

[Greg Gerritt]

I grew up in a city without a parking ban, and with a much denser population
than Providence.   It still works even when every street has cars parkked on
it.  In fact I do not know of any other comparabnle city that bans all
overnight parking.  My guess is that nearly every dcity in America allows
parking on streets, a permit system, catch as catchj can, any way you choose
it, except for a parking ban.  Providence is fianly starting to experiment
with permit overnight parking in one neighborhood.  Th goal is to allow
neighborhoods to make a choice.

If we held a vote and the vote was in favor of allowing permitted overnight
parking my gueses is that in a year we would all wonder what the fuss was
about.  It is just a comfort zone with what we have grown used to.

greg gerritt  who lives in ahousehold with a car owner, but who does not
even have a drivers license


on 10/11/06 3:10 PM, Andrew Nosal at andy at mapcenter.com wrote:

> OK Paul I do not doubt that you have obnoxious neighbors.  Something ought to
> be done.  What I am tired of is how the cost of your chosen remedy - a parking
> ban - is falling on hundreds of people who will never have the means or desire
> to annoy you.  It is a real cost, but as long as you don't have to bear it,
> you don't care.
> 
> Ironically, the tendency of buildings not blessed with ample parking to be
> occupied by less mature, more transient tenants is a consequence of the
> parking ban.  In this neighborhood it would be easy to find nice yuppie
> tenants perfectly willing to park on the street to live in every decent
> apartment that has had the asphalt in the backyard and front yard replaced by
> a patio and garden.  Even the slumlord next door to you would eventually see
> the light and upgrade.
> 
> Even when I had a house with a garage, I thought the parking ban was stupid.
> But now that I do not have a driveway sure enough I am more inclined to speak
> out against it.  My big mistake was underestimating what an intensely fraught
> drama people would make of parking around here.
> 
>  From where comes the conventional wisdom that public sentiment is against on
> street parking?  As far as I can tell, most people in this city do not care
> one way or the other.  The only ones motivated to speak up forcefully in favor
> of street parking are, naturally, those who need a place to park.  That they
> tend to be transient and politically disengaged is not an excuse to shaft
> them.  So who shows up at every meeting that might address overnight parking
> but the passionate opponents?  I think the influence of such opponents is out
> of proportion to their numbers.  This is what I meant when I called you a
> loudmouth.  I do not actually know what your voice sounds like.
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Summit mailing list
> Summit at sna.providence.ri.us
> http://sna.providence.ri.us/mailman/listinfo/summit_sna.providence.ri.us
> SNA Website: http://sna.providence.ri.us/


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://sna.providence.ri.us/pipermail/summit_sna.providence.ri.us/attachments/20061011/b645b9aa/attachment.htm>