Needham and Wellesley are providing free parking to encourage resident to shop local. What about Newton?
http://wellesley.wickedlocal.com/news/20181128/spreading-holiday-cheer-in-wellesley-one-parking-meter-at-time
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If it’s like last year, the free parking will be in effect from before Christmas to just past New Years. I did some shopping in Wellesley last year and it was a nice touch. It’s really another way of saying “welcome to our town. Here’s some free parking for your convenience. Now go shop.”
For me personally, Needham’s 50-cent hourly meter fee has been a real turnoff, so I usually walk or take a Lime bike to Needham Center. However, now that I’ve been alerted to this, I’m going to drive my new 6,000-pound, V12, 600HP Mercedes AMG G65 (12 mpg highway, 10 mpg city) instead. Does anyone know if the policy covers a single vehicle taking up two spaces?
@Michael–Good for you that you can do your shopping on foot or with a bike. Your choices don’t work for parents with newborns and toddlers; the elderly; people who shop on their way to or from work; people who buy heavy stuff; and people who won’t brave the weather like you. To be realistic, your choices don’t work for people who are out of shape or plain lazy. If you make it hard for those shoppers to park in the town center, they will not have an epiphany and start walking or taking the bike like you. They will drive their cars to more distant strip malls and big-box stores. You’ll put the little storefronts in town centers out of business and increase fuel consumption while Needham shoppers happily motor over Dedham and Natick.
Michael S. – you’re absolutely correct, and I was being a goof. Although just to toot my own horn here, I’ll say that last night as I always do, I honestly did walk with a 25-lb. 20-month-old in an Ergobaby for a 2-mile round-trip to Trader Joe’s, where we bought two heavy shopping bags worth of stuff including 2 gallons of milk. But I’m a strange bird in that I actually think that’s a fun way to shoot 45 minutes, even in the snow, whereas my wife usually chooses to drives there, and my parents, who live around the corner from us, usually drive too. It’s very unrealistic for me to expect others to walk, bike, or take the train everywhere. The pàrking meter initiàtive is a nice touch, I guess, although àt the end of the day I don’t expect that it would actually induce any demand.
@Michael–we need more people like you. Maybe free Ergobabies are the answer.
Michael S. – thanks! For anyone considering them, Ergobabies are so much fun and for the wearer they promote very good posture – most of the load is directed to the shoulders so after a while, if you stand up straight then you forget it’s even there.
We’ve done some great walks with it – on the weekends we often walk for about 10 miles along Washington St. from downtown Boston out through Roxbury and the arboretum, and our all-time record was an 18 mile walk on the Marvin Braude Bikeway from Marina del Rey via Venice to Santa Monica, CA. It’s been a real advantage for travel because we haven’t ever had to lug around a silly baby stroller (actually we did once, when she was 2 months old, and the airline proceeded to break it).
This summer in Prague, the woman running the Charles Bridge paddleboats Prague got extremely angry and scolded us, saying that the Ergobaby wasn’t good for our daughter, but we’ve spoken to our pediatrician who said it’s perfectly fine, so long as we give her frequent breaks to let her walk, which we do.
In summary: come shop in Needham this holiday season!
The City of Newton already gives away too much free parking… after 6pm. Just try finding a parking spot in Newton Centre between 6-9pm. This free parking policy already costs the City hundreds of thousands of dollars, and it’s ridiculous.
@Mike Striar–Did you know? Under state law, cities are only authorized to collect parking fees in amounts necessary to install and maintain parking meters and enforce their parking rules. Parking meters were invented to ensure that people use parking spaces fairly and don’t occupy them too long. They were not invented as another cash cow for spendthrift municipal governments. See M.G.L. C. 40 s. 22a.
@Michael Singer — Mike Striar did point out that Newton Center parking is in high demand between 6-9pm, so it seems like it’s fair game. And while enforcement is self-funded, I believe there always is a surplus that’s used for safety and capital improvements. Can you provide a reference to this state law?
@Adam, the statute is at the last line of my previous post.
Oh, so you did. Sorry. M.G.L. C. 40 s. 22a.
Maybe the portion in italics leaves enough room for area improvements, calming, bike/ped, etc.
By my eye… The Newton Centre parking lot operates at 70-80% capacity on most weekdays. It’s 100% filled most nights, and always has a few drivers looking for spots… But parking is free after 6pm. This makes no business sense and defies all common sense, unless you’re one of the restaurant owners reaping the benefit of free parking at night.
@Mike Striar–The City of Newton is not a business, so there is no reason that all city policies have to “make business sense”. The City is not a private corporation that should extract every last dollar, or as you say “hundreds of thousands of dollars”, from residents for using land that communally belongs to RESIDENTS in the first place. One of the City’s goals is, and ought to be, to promote local businesses (who pay taxes at double the residential rate and make Newton a nice place to live). The City should make it as easy as possible for people to patronize neighborhood restaurants and stores. Hard to find parking? That’s the sign of a vibrant economy. It’s a fact of life around Boston. When I don’t think I’ll be able to find parking I walk or take the T or an Uber.
@Michael Singer– Interesting take. By your standard parking would be free in the daytime as well. Am I correct?
@Mike Striar, yes, I think all parking on public streets and lots be free all the time, provided that time limits are enforced. If I were mayor that is one of the first changes I would make.
@Mike Striar –
If we want businesses to flourish in Newton, we should be happy to have restaurant owners reaping the benefit of free parking at night. When I go out to dinner, I don’t want to be worrying about the meter running out on me, and it would deter me from patronizing Newton Center restaurants if I don’t have that worry other places nearby.
@Meredith– It looks like you agree with Michael Singer that parking should be free all the time, since I assume you’d want to give equal support to local Newton businesses that operate in the daytime. Free parking all the time is a valid position. I just don’t happen to agree with it. In my opinion, as long as the City of Newton wants to charge for parking, common sense dictates that takes place when demand is at its peak. So I continue to believe the City should be charging meter fees in Newton Centre until 9pm.
@Mike Striar–I still don’t understand your position. Are you saying (1) that you want to disincentivize parking after 6 pm so that it will easier for you to find a parking spot; or (2) that you want to use the meters to raise more money for the City? Option 1 is economically and socially inefficient because it would under-utilize a scarce resource (parking spots). Option 2 would not be permissible unless the City can show it has parking-related expenses not covered by current meter revenue.
If option 1 is your choice–and I’m not saying that it is–another way to frame that rationale is: let’s impose a new cost on evening parking so that the people who can least afford it will stay away, and the people who can best afford it won’t care; then the people who can best afford it will find a parking spot more easily.
@Michael Singer– You really don’t understand my point? It’s pretty simple. The City should charge for parking until 9pm in Newton Centre. I’m sure they can link the revenue to the appropriate related expenses…
I totally disagree with your suggestion that parking should be free, or your theory as to how that might affect consumer behavior. Free parking would also have a deleterious impact on everyone’s property taxes, disproportionately so on commercial properties. Since most commercial leases require tenants to pay property taxes, free parking would effectively increase the rent of every business owner you’re trying to protect. Nothing in life is truly “free.”