The Newton Police Department does not have up-to-date transportation planning views. First, we had the Police Chief making the case that managing through-traffic congestion in West Newton is more important than cyclist safety. Now, the PD is waiving parking enforcement over the holiday season. Between 12/18 and 1/2, the po-po will not be writing any tickets for meter violations. Park for as long as you want.
Not a good idea. Ever since UCLA economics professor Donald Shoup wrote The High Cost of Free Parking, urbanists have understood that underpriced parking is not good for people who want to actually purchase things from the stores the parking is intended to support. And, what’s not good for the shopper is disastrous for the shopkeeper.
The real impediment to shopping is not meters, it’s the inability to find a space near enough to the place you want to shop. Free parking next to stores gets used by employees and low-motivation shoppers at the expense of folks ready to buy, but less interested in walking a long distance than in paying a buck or two for a short stay.
Here’s what happens when, instead of lowering the already below-market parking rates, you raise them, with rates varying according to time of day and proximity to desirable locations. Properly set, a market-based rate will ensure a small, but regular supply of open spots. Somebody ready to shop and willing to pay a modest parking fee will be near guaranteed to find one near their favorite boutique. Those who are a bit more price-conscious regarding parking will avoid the closest spots and walk a modest distance. (More on that in a future post.) Employees will find parking furthest away. (Recognizing that parking should not be optimized for employees is not anti-worker. It’s pro-worker to make sure that the establishments they labor in have customers.)
What we want — and variable, market-rate parking delivers — is a regular supply of parking at rates shoppers are willing to pay.
“Wait,” I can hear you screaming into your computer screen, “village centers have to compete with malls, strip malls, and big box stores, all of which offer free parking!” (Now, pause, take a deep breath, and wipe down the display.) True enough. But, offering free parking in village centers that just gets eaten up by low-value parkers isn’t going to solve that problem.
If the argument is that the cost of parking is so high that folks are actually avoiding village centers for free-parking malls and the like, then even the modest rates are too high for non-prime spots. We want our village center parking at close to capacity across the various zones of desirability. The problem is that free parking is a waste for the prime spots that matter to store-owners’ success.
If the police really wanted to do village merchants a favor, they would modify the seasonal program to be consistent with the lessons of Professor Shoup: enforce meters for the prime spots and declare a meter holiday for the rest.
Sean I think you can make your point without the inflammatory headline. I suggest you change it. I think it is very disrespectful to the city employees who put their lives on the line for us every day and night including holidays.
Does anyone know if there was a public discussion about suspending parking meters before doing so?
I’m not aware of any outreach to the business community about this.
We Newtonites definitely don’t want any “low-value parkers” hanging around our village centers.
@Emily I agreed completely. The headline was just click-bate and unnecessary. Sean raises some good points but non of them have anything to do with the Newton PD
@Claire – I agree that Sean was unnecessarily confrontational with that headline (though I do have a soft spot for clickbait 😉 ) but this does seem to be directly connected to the PD if they are the ones who decided this policy change.
I work in Wellesley where they do this as well. I noticed the “Happy Holidays” bags appeared over the meters last week, and now as I drive down route 16 past all those covered meters you know what’s different? Nothing. I haven’t noticed any substantive change in the relative number of open spaces at different times of day. Keep in mind that while the meters are not in effect, overtime parking rules still apply. So if it’s a one hour spot, you can park for one hour for free, but stay longer and you risk a ticket.
Rather insulting and quite inaccurate headline, my friend.
@Tricia. I was about to make the same point about holiday parking in Wellesley. I occasionally shop in a few Wellesley Hills’ stores this time of year. I’ve yet to hear a single complaint from merchants, shoppers or anyone else for that matter. In fact, I believe the merchants were the catalysts for this seasonal relief. And there’s kind of a nice feeling that one less hassle of this season (even if it is a quite minor one) has been removed.
@Adam Goldman. It’s good to see you on Village 14.
@Sean, “po-po”? Really? Grow up and show some respect to the Police Officers who work very hard in this City to keep all of us safe…including you.
Maybe it doesn’t fit in with your idea of a bicycle utopia, but I think it’s a nice gesture that hopefully helps local businesses.
In addition to changing the snarky and insulting headline, how about retracting the errors of fact? The announcement from NPD makes it clear that it’s not “Park as long as you want”, which seems to be the linchpin of your argument:
“To encourage people to shop and frequent our villages, the Police Department will not enforce parking meter fees from December 18th through January 1st, throughout the city. All other parking restrictions, including overtime parking rules, use of accessible spaces, and regular no parking zones, will still be in effect. ”
Sean, your one informative argument about how we potentially revise and modernize our parking structure gets lost in between your horrid, disrespectful headline and Po Po reference and your lack of support for the seasonal generosity that several cities and towns offer during the holiday season. Your usual intelligence and insite that I enjoy reading should not get cluttered with such distractions.
A snarky, disrespectful post. In addition to the terrible (inaccurate) headline, the name-calling was childish and frankly embarrassing to see in a Village 14 post.
To the Newton PD – this was a nice gesture for residents during the busy holiday season. Thank you.
I disagree with your premise and your headline. Basically you are touting a well thought out opinion but not necessarily proven fact in and around Newton. I agree with Shoup on street design but not on parking. I think his parking mantra is good in theory but not in practice around here.
It seems the chief may be encouraging shoppers based on results in other towns and cities. If parking is free for the holidays unless parker’s go over the time limit, shoppers have an easier time parking and doing their shopping.
Many places I visit and shop do well with no parking fees or free parking for around three hours. There are multiple areas in Wellesley that have what you term as bad for shopping, etc. – free parking in front of their shops. One of my favorite bakeries, always packed to the gills and Talbots. In fact, Talbots tells me they moved within Wellesley to another location just for that reason.
In Winchester center there are no parking meters in front of the shops. I was there recently, parked for free and enjoyed walking from shop to shop purchasing gifts and enjoying the decorations. (I would love for Newtonville Center to have their beautiful streetlights and sidewalks dressed up for the holidays.) Packed stores again – on a Wednesday.
At Assembly Row in Summerville parking meters are mixed in with free parking. The parking garage next to the theater is free for the first three hours. The shops and restaurants are almost always busy. They do have residential above some stores so they do have shoppers who live there but the parking is plentiful and generally close to full so shoppers, theater and restaurant goers do come from other places.
Newburyport is doing great while having free parking. As is Concord.
The biggest problem many of these shops and restaurants have is landlords raising rents and pushing long time business owners out just like in Newton. If they don’t own the building, they are always concerned about the rent going up like most renters in general.
1. What an offensive headline / title!
2. Thanks to whoever made the decision to waive meter fees for the holiday season! Great idea to encourage us all to shop local.
Independent of the noise of the post or the merits of the move, having this announcement coming from the police seems strange to me.
It would seem the Mayor’s office should have made and announced this decision.
The police are charged with enforcing the laws, not picking or choosing between them (individual discretion about safety aside). It isn’t the police’s call about what is business- or shopper-friendly. That is a political decision.
Perhaps this did come from the Mayor and this is just an oversight, but appearances and protocol matter.
I am really interested in how this policy of non-enforcement of meters happened. I would be very concerned if this is a move initiated by the police (unless there is a public safety benefit?). Parking pricing is an economic issue and one the city has a parking manager and several other people in Transportation and Planning that might have some feelings about this. I am also pretty certain this is not one of the strategies recommended in the Newton Centre parking study. As for comparing this to Wellesley, it may be that the buildings in Wellesley have more off street parking for employees or they are better conditioned to use the 12. Hour meters in the lot. Lastly, how are the parking patrol officers verifying if people are exceeding the time? Has the city outfitted all the parking control officers with the special technology that scan license plates?
“Lastly, how are the parking patrol officers verifying if people are exceeding the time? Has the city outfitted all the parking control officers with the special technology that scan license plates?”
How does the parking patrol officer verify if I park my car in front on my home in excess of two hours? I assume it is the same technology
The police aren’t transportation planners. I’m sure someone at city hall must know about this.
To the extent it encourages people to shop our village centers during the holiday season, all the better.
That said, the real threat to local retail isn’t parking meters; it’s the increasing bite and reach of Amazon and other online retailers.
@Sean,
C’mon Sean….no comment?
@sean: Please fix the extremely disrespectful headline!! We have way too many issues with people trying to be hateful to others. 2018 is the year to think positive and add value to the conversation and your community!
@greg: Your blog has many positive aspects to it and normally adds value to the community. Maybe time to review V14’s overall goals as a good citizen. Headlines like this will drop me off of your readership.
@Councilor Cote: Add me to the long list of folks who are also not a fan of Sean’s headline. But Village 14 is not my blog and this is not my role. Village 14 is a collaborative, all volunteer site. The bloggers here do not approve, pre-approve or edit each others’ threads or headlines (except perhaps for typos, to add a link, or other tweaks along those lines). So the decision about this headline and anything Sean writes is up to him.
I’ve been a big Village 14 fan for awhile, but these titles are getting increasingly clickbait-y. Let’s chill with the titles and focus on interesting discourse.
IMHO, Sean’s frequently flippant tone in his blog posts really don’t help any of his causes. There are about ten different ways he could have voiced his concerns that would have been better than this post.
*doesn’t. BRB getting caffeine. 🙂
I wonder how many people on this blog actually know police officers personally. I can tell you from my friends in law enforcement that over many years that it takes a lot to offend them. I have tremendous respect for what they do. But I also don’t think it is a negative thing to call out and challenge the police, the city, the mayor, the council on any policy we don’t agree with.
So yes, the headline is a little clickbate for my taste. But I think it is a good thing to challenge authority respectfully. And while the headline is a bit silly, the post in my view is fine.
And talk to a cop once in a while and ask them what gets them upset or offended. Because no cop I’ve ever known would be offended by this. Maybe a eye roll. But offended? Disrespected?
Often times folks rush to post their outrage. It makes them feel better. But communities don’t support cops or fire folk or EMTs with talk. Fair contracts, great facilities and equipment, focus on training, city support during a crisis, survivor benefits and insurance. That’s what it means to actually support those folks. And that isn’t easy, since as a city it means money and setting priorities. But that is what matters. At least in my conversations with actual police officers.
And Jim Cote, I would hate to lose you as a poster here, but Village 14 is an open forum. That’s a good thing for democracy in my mind. I would think you’d support that. Being a good citizen isn’t just falling into line and supporting the party line. And forums that allow ordinary citizens to express themselves without editing are good for our community. We don’t have to agree with each other, we just have to allow each other to speak. Would you want Sean to be able to censor your posts?
I don’t mean this to sound egotistical (although like virtually every comment I make, I’m sure I’ll get plenty of thumbs downs) but I sincerely don’t know how any city councilor could credibly do his or her job these days without reading Village 14. Councilor Cote we would miss you but not as much as you’d miss us.
@Greg, it may not be your blog but you do have some influence over it. Many comments by bloggers have been removed by you (and other moderators) for being offensive or inappropriate. It seems that it’s okay for Sean to be very inflammatory with his blog topic headline and that’s ok. Further, he has clearly refused to come back to this thread and either defend his choice of wording or apologize for offending as many people as he has. It’s a double standard and V14 is supposed to be above that.
As I said above I disagree with the title and would not have written it myself but I also appreciate Sean’s posting what he wants and in a way he deems will get people to notice and start a conversation. It’s too bad a lot of the conversation is directed at Sean instead of the subject at hand.
I also think the outrage is ludicrous as well as the demands for him to change the title and answer to all of you who find offense for others. They don’t need commenters protection. They are the police you know.
There is nothing offensive in the title – click bait is not outlawed – at least not yet. There’s no “attack” of the police – there are however attacks against Sean, along with demands of explanation.
So many critics. There is a difference between posting threads for discussion and commenters having comments removed. The duties of moderators include removing comments for various reasons. That’s the way blogs, newspaper comments and Facebook groups work.
@Marti,
Police don’t need protection, they need RESPECT.
You are entitled to your opinion, as is Sean. But voice it respectfully and with civility and you will get much further with your argument. The majority of the posters here took offense to the headline and the “po-po” comment, not just one or two people.
So maybe the majority should be heard. And the substance of Sean’s argument could have gotten the attention he wanted and you think should be addressed if people were not subjected to the nasty overtones.
I’m baaaack. And, I have two thoughts:
1. Oh, c’mon!
2. Seriously?
As a writer, the outrage seems a little much. The headline is a common (though probably dated) internet construction: why does [particular group doing something worth criticizing] hate [the subject of the thing at hand]? It’s a rhetorical device, folks. Hyperbole. As for po-po, it was a long post. I didn’t want to keep writing “the police department.” Variety.
Its figliness, not uncharacteristically, has the right perspective.
As a citizen in a democracy, however, I am genuinely appalled by the outrage. My job, your job, our job is not to genuflect to the uniform, but to cast a skeptical eye towards the men and women to whom we delegate so much power.
Do you people read the newspapers? Surf the web? Watch TV? Cops gunning down unarmed civilians in cold blood. Overwhelming evidence of systemic racial bias in police departments. A growing cancer of white nationalist cops. Back to po-po, for a moment. Do you know where the phrase comes from, what informs the informality? (I might be guilty of cultural appropriation.)
Whoa, Sean. You’re overreacting. We’re just talking about streets and traffic.
Okay, cops all over the country woefully under-investigating and under-charging traffic-related deaths. Misguided enforcement priorities. Cops over-enforcing minor bicycle infractions. The criminalization of walking. Or, the use of traffic violations as a gateway to civil rights violations (and dead civilians).
Whoa, Sean. Calm down, dude. This is Newton! We’re different.
I have had the good fortune to regularly meet and work (periodically and briefly) with a bunch of different Newton cops. They all seem like decent people, a few especially. I like them. But, I’d hardly say that Newton is immune to to police fallibility. Scandal forced out one chief. Another chief testifies that the winter parking ban makes Newton safer because it removes places for bad guys to hide. Cops had to be convinced to investigate when a thug in a moving vehicle threatened to hit a grandmother on a bike with a car door. Recently, we got to listen to the current, ill-informed police chief comment on the West Newton Square design, undermining his city colleagues who actually knew what they were doing. And, we got to watch Jim Cote and his colleagues sit in the room and not push back. Because, it would be disrespectful to challenge the police.
So — Emily and Aaron and Jim, especially — you undermine the so-important principle of civilian oversight of police when you reflexively jump to the defense of the police; summon up outrage over what was, at worst, an eye-rolling offense; and demand “respect” for the police as a default position. That does not lead to healthy civilian/police relations. That’s alarming.
First Sean Wrote a Clickbait Title for His Snarky Post About Free Holiday Parking – You Won’t Believe What Happened Next!
Tricia just won the internet.
Tricia FTW.
For the record, I thought Po-Po came from the bike cops that used to ride tandem along the beaches where I grew up. Their uniforms said P.O. of police officer. Hence, two cops, PO-PO.
And again, I’ve yet to know a cop offended by the phrase Po-Po. Or donut jokes. Heck, I’ve made a living about making donut jokes to one of my portly cop friends (until he lost a ton of weight and started doing races and such). Then the jokes were no funny because he was super shape. But I digress.
Maybe it is a New England thing. But where I grew up, Po-Po wasn’t an insult.
Maybe Village14 should invite some of our police to post on the site. Generally the cops I’ve known are some of the funniest folks around and have thick skins. But maybe I’m self-selecting such cops.
Happy holidays to all. May the clickbait be light and the joy bright.
I think we all can agree that the content of this post has merit. We could be discussing it, but instead we are discussing the title. If we avoid clickbait titles, or “hyperbolic titles,” we can avoid this all together and go back to meaningful conversation.