Neighborhood Politics

[lydamorehouse]

I'll be honest.  We have a lot of issues in my tiny Midway neighborhood, not the least of which is three--count 'em THREE--abandoned houses on the block on the other side of our alley.

But you know what makes people REALLY scream on our local e-forum? The new ban on street parking.

I actually don't blame them.  The plowing in St. Paul has been sucking for a number of years now, and it's fairly ridiculous when you go to the suburbs and discover dry, wide roads that seemingly miraculously have been plowed to the curbs (proving both are POSSIBLE).  It does make a person wonder what they have in the suburbs that we don't have in the city (besides, presumably, money).

Also, my street is clogged with cars on a good day; parking has always been difficult given our proximity to University Avenue and the people who work at the various businesses at the end of our block.  Plus, a lot of residents, including myself, have no working garages.  (We have a "garage" but it has barn doors and probably last fit a car the size of a Model-T.) This is fairly typical up and down our alley.  Plus, we are in what is politely called a "high-density" neighborhood, which means a lot of what look like single-dwelling houses are actually duplexes, triplexes, and more.  So, though it looks like we only have half-a-dozen houses on our block, in reality, that's more like fifteen or more families, many of whom own more than one car.

So, yeah, I'm not sure how things are going to go. I wish, in fact, if St. Paul was going to do this, they'd give residents in neighborhoods like ours parking permits and ticket and tow all the neighborhood "interlopers."  I doubt I'm going to get to park in front of our house any time soon.  I suspect that during these frigid weeks I may have to park blocks away and haul groceries and kid the distance....

On the flip side, right now, we have to skid to one side or another if two cars are coming down the same street from opposite directions.  Because the roads are already piled high with snow and ice that are inches from the curb, the streets really are dangerously narrow when cars are parked on both sides--especially since people won't go all the way up to what exists as a curb because they still want to get out on their passenger side doors.

It's a gnarly business, though I can't help but side with the people who are screaming WELL, IF YOU'D PLOW RIGHT THE FIRST TIME WE WOULDN'T HAVE THIS PROBLEM, WOULD WE???!!

Comments

[mle292.livejournal.com]

Our suburb of Saint Louis Park also has single side of street parking, but we all have off street parking - as ordained by the city. It was voluntary until not enough people followed it. We do need it - a firetruck or an ambulance can't pass with cars on both sides of the street.

I think your solution of issuing local resident parking permits, and not allowing non-resident parking is the best one. Saint Paul near downtown has that, it's not an impossible system for them to implement and they already have a system to do it. There are visitor passes for when friends visit, they are a buck each through the city of Saint Paul.

[kalmn.livejournal.com]

My only disagreement is that I think we are feet from the curb, not inches. My alley is plowed better than my street.