My OperaMore on Parking
Wednesday, November 12, 2008 2:05:37 PM
The editor noticed this last week that a number of those Arts and Crafts types were getting coffee at First Cup. Uh-Oh. Going to be one of those weekends.
There was sone sort of "local" show at the Convention Center. And that meant that parking was going to be non-existent over the weekend. Saturday parking enforcement was also going to be sparse, of course, since there would be too much illegal parking on the Zone 2 sides. It would seem like a money maker for DC, but that argument has never carried much weight with the authorities.
The editor remembers collecting 950 signatures to get, if not the first, one of the first Residential Parking Programs for Foggy Bottom. That would have been in the late 70's. Foggy Bottom, of course, has an endemic parking problem. We've got a bad problem, made much worse by the Convention Center's local shows.
The editor and future wife were (founding) ANC Commissioncers in Foggy Bottom, and one of the first things we were involved in was getting this RPP thing going. There were innumerable discussions about how it had to be structured to avoid court challenges, and who did what elsewhere in the counry and what problems they had and how they were handled. Seems like that part of it was over a year long. John Wilson and his AA Eric Jones could not have been more helpful. The ramrod for DCDOT was John Brophy, a young up and comer in the Department. Later he went to E-Systems (I think) in Texas, for a traffic management group within that company. Later he formed his own company, even making the NY Times. (The editor retrieved that by googling "john brophy traffic bribery". Many hockey players and politicians (in that order) are also named "John Brophy", but these other people don't play in traffic. Bonus question: Remember "Brigid Brophy"?
The RPP has a problem: One cannot tell that it's often enforced. At least not here. Over the years the editor and many others have tried to get the attention of the powers-that-be, but to little avail.
It has other problems: The ticketeer has to remember/write down the possible violators and come back in two hours. That presumes several skills that most of the ticketeers don't seem to have, even if their shift schedules made it possible and the weather was warm and dry. When downtown management doesn't take the program seriously, that just compounds the problem.
So Jack Evans slid the "zoned parking" through a while back for the folks impacted (lovely word, reminding of teeth gone bad) by the Convention Center. It has made a hell of a difference. Now the Ticketeer can look at a sticker on a car, and if it's not there or not right, voila, instant ticket.
It's a shame, but misery does love company. The Mount Vernon Square blog has a good entry, and serveral interesting comments here. Most of the comments are what the editor has heard over the years. The one about a spare "tag" for visitors to the zoned realm has been made often and shot down consistently as a problem. Just think, how much would a commuter pay for that tag for six months to park in our neighborhood.
One of the basic problems with the local shows at the Convention Center is that the attendees know the neighbhorhood and how to get parking spaces. (The editor used to be in sales and work shows. He understands.) Until parking enforcement enforces the various regulationws that it has on hand so consistently that the local news programs warn not to park around here because "parking regulations are severely enforced", it will not change. The Convention Center was partially built to handle things like these local shows as well as the surprizingly neighborhood-friendly big ones, so they can't change.
But maybe the kind folks at the Convention Center could do an email broadcast as the they do before a traffic rearrangement, saying something like: Say goodbye to parking this weekend!
We could add a traffic regulation that says that any van from PG County with enough dirt and mud on it to write "Wash Me" with the tip of your finger gets a double fine. That would cut out half the interlopers.
More to Come
The editor looks forward to the O Street Deveopment completion, but many O Street residents already have a strong foreboding. It will be a good thing, and make a difference. It will actualy have lots of parking spaces. But not enough.
If Elsa and Rick lived in Centreville, they could say "We'll always have parking". We're not so fortunate.
There was sone sort of "local" show at the Convention Center. And that meant that parking was going to be non-existent over the weekend. Saturday parking enforcement was also going to be sparse, of course, since there would be too much illegal parking on the Zone 2 sides. It would seem like a money maker for DC, but that argument has never carried much weight with the authorities.
The editor remembers collecting 950 signatures to get, if not the first, one of the first Residential Parking Programs for Foggy Bottom. That would have been in the late 70's. Foggy Bottom, of course, has an endemic parking problem. We've got a bad problem, made much worse by the Convention Center's local shows.
The editor and future wife were (founding) ANC Commissioncers in Foggy Bottom, and one of the first things we were involved in was getting this RPP thing going. There were innumerable discussions about how it had to be structured to avoid court challenges, and who did what elsewhere in the counry and what problems they had and how they were handled. Seems like that part of it was over a year long. John Wilson and his AA Eric Jones could not have been more helpful. The ramrod for DCDOT was John Brophy, a young up and comer in the Department. Later he went to E-Systems (I think) in Texas, for a traffic management group within that company. Later he formed his own company, even making the NY Times. (The editor retrieved that by googling "john brophy traffic bribery". Many hockey players and politicians (in that order) are also named "John Brophy", but these other people don't play in traffic. Bonus question: Remember "Brigid Brophy"?
The RPP has a problem: One cannot tell that it's often enforced. At least not here. Over the years the editor and many others have tried to get the attention of the powers-that-be, but to little avail.
It has other problems: The ticketeer has to remember/write down the possible violators and come back in two hours. That presumes several skills that most of the ticketeers don't seem to have, even if their shift schedules made it possible and the weather was warm and dry. When downtown management doesn't take the program seriously, that just compounds the problem.
So Jack Evans slid the "zoned parking" through a while back for the folks impacted (lovely word, reminding of teeth gone bad) by the Convention Center. It has made a hell of a difference. Now the Ticketeer can look at a sticker on a car, and if it's not there or not right, voila, instant ticket.
It's a shame, but misery does love company. The Mount Vernon Square blog has a good entry, and serveral interesting comments here. Most of the comments are what the editor has heard over the years. The one about a spare "tag" for visitors to the zoned realm has been made often and shot down consistently as a problem. Just think, how much would a commuter pay for that tag for six months to park in our neighborhood.
One of the basic problems with the local shows at the Convention Center is that the attendees know the neighbhorhood and how to get parking spaces. (The editor used to be in sales and work shows. He understands.) Until parking enforcement enforces the various regulationws that it has on hand so consistently that the local news programs warn not to park around here because "parking regulations are severely enforced", it will not change. The Convention Center was partially built to handle things like these local shows as well as the surprizingly neighborhood-friendly big ones, so they can't change.
But maybe the kind folks at the Convention Center could do an email broadcast as the they do before a traffic rearrangement, saying something like: Say goodbye to parking this weekend!
We could add a traffic regulation that says that any van from PG County with enough dirt and mud on it to write "Wash Me" with the tip of your finger gets a double fine. That would cut out half the interlopers.
More to Come
The editor looks forward to the O Street Deveopment completion, but many O Street residents already have a strong foreboding. It will be a good thing, and make a difference. It will actualy have lots of parking spaces. But not enough.
If Elsa and Rick lived in Centreville, they could say "We'll always have parking". We're not so fortunate.
