Transportation

Temporary Parking Changes: Pickup Zones for Restaurants, No Tickets/Towing for Street Cleaning, and More

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The city is making some temporary parking enforcement changes due to the ongoing Coronavirus public health emergency, including 5-minute parking pickup zones in front of restaurants. "During this challenging time, we're doing all we can to keep our residents healthy and safe," said Mayor Marty Walsh via press release. "We understand transportation is a need and concern for residents and medical professionals, and these updated policies will help everyone during this ongoing public health crisis." Temporary pick up zones are being created in front of restaurants that are offering takeout and delivery only. Takeout food pickup zones will restrict parking to five minutes to increase convenience for the quick pickup and delivery of takeout food from restaurants while providing adequate room for social distancing of six feet or more.

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Neighborhood Life

What Do You Think Is Most Important to Centre/South Street Redesign?

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Businesses are being asked to offer their opinions on what they'd want to see if Centre/South Street were redesigned. The Boston Cyclists Union and JP Centre/South Main Streets are conducting a survey of businesses in the district, and will be sharing the survey's results with the Boston Transportation Department. The city's plans for the Centre/South redesign are on hold, but are expected to restart soon, according to the JPCSMS newsletter. It is part of the already completed redesign of Jackson Square and Hyde Square. The city has allocated more than $700,000 for the design alone, which would go from Hyde Square down Centre and South streets to the Arborway, said Ginger Brown, director of JPCSMS.

The survey asks business owners to rank seven options on what they feel is most important in a redesign: increased pedestrian/sidewalk space; improved bike infrastructure and bike parking; improved bus service; improved streetscape (like benches, lighting, greenery, public art); better signage for the business district; and increased parking for cars.

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Overall site plan
Real Estate

Where Will 300 Car Commuters Go as Forest Hills Parking Lot Becomes Apartments?

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Forest Hills residents peppered a would-be developer with questions about where hundreds of car commuters will go if the LAZ Parking lot becomes a mixed-use development. There were other issues raised during a community meeting Wednesday about "The Residences at Forest Hills," but much of the discussion revolved around parking. The three-building, six-story development would add 252 apartments and townhouses plus 5,500 square feet of retail to Forest Hills' burgeoning stock of mid-rise transit-oriented developments. The meeting was held in the fellowship hall at St. Andrew Church, just up Orchardhill Road from the proposed development.

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Resident parking sign in Moss Hill
Opinion

Letter to the Editor: ‘Resident-permit only signs are completely unnecessary here’

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Thanks for the article on this subject [Permit Parking Comes to Moss Hill]. I am a resident here, too. I oppose the restriction on street parking. There was no street parking problem of any sort here before the signs went up and I don't see why restrictive and exclusive legislation was suddenly imposed. It seemed like one day someone was walking around with a petition, which my husband and I declined to sign, and within a few weeks the signs went up.

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As of Monday, March 2, 2015, city crews are picking up space savers on trash day. (File photo of a Pondside space saver)
Neighborhood Life

Twilight of the Space Savers?

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Starting Monday, if there's trash pickup on your street, city crews are also chucking space savers. Mayor Marty Walsh last week earned cheers from space saver supporters by temporarily lifting the "Menino" rule. That's the decree that space savers not be used longer than 48 hours after the end of a snow emergency. But that was last week. Starting Monday, any space savers still in use are subject to being put in the trash.

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Pondside space saver, February 2015
Transportation

Mayor Lifts 48-Hour Space Saver Rule

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Mayor Marty Walsh says go ahead and use space savers past the "Menino rule" of 48 hours from the end of a snow emergency, according to an interview with the Herald and a slight wording change on the city's Website. “There’s no parking out there in the city,” he told the Herald. “There are snowbanks in the city that just haven’t melted at all.”

The city's Web site, which used to advise to use space savers for no more than 48 hours after the end of a snow emergency, as of Monday instead says, "Space savers are meant to be used on a short term basis, with 48 hours as a guideline." Space savers have become flash points on some of Jamaica Plain's crowded streets, with tires reportedly being slashed and passive-aggressive sign wars erupting.

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Parking

Passive-Aggressive Signs Sprout in Space Saver Wars

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Space saver in #jamaicaplain "Be decent... Try not being an asshole (for once)" @universalhub pic.twitter.com/HWBAmXcbY6

— Bobbie (@girlinjp) February 19, 2015

The message on this space saver, found at the corner of Myrtle and Pond, starts out politely enough. But read to the end. "Please do not move this space saver. It is valid for 48 hours following the end of the snow emergency — so until 6 p.m. on Friday.

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Major arteries where parking is banned as of 6 p.m. Monday, Jan. 26, 2015.
Weather

Mayor to Lift Parking Ban at 6 p.m. Wednesday

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The latest cycle in a series of declaring and ending parking bans comes to a close at 6 p.m. Wednesday. After that, it will be legal to park again on major arteries in Jamaica Plain. Parking ban will remain in effect until 6pm TOMORROW (2/18). For garages with discounted rates, visit http://t.co/PisJGBGezV #BOSnow— City of Boston (@NotifyBoston) February 17, 2015

Here at Jamaica Plain News, we're reinstating the space-saver countdown clock (visible to the right or by scrolling down, depending on what device you're using.) The city gives up to 48 hours for people to keep using space savers after the end of a snow emergency. The neighborhood (and city as a whole) has been on edge about the endless snow, sparking conflicts over space savers.

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Space saver signs on Dalrymple Street, Feb. 15, 2015.
Weather

‘The Snow is Making People Crazy’

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A resident sent us this photo report on an escalating word-battle over space savers on Dalrymple Street in Egleston. It begins:

The sign above gives the URL for the city's policy on space savers: They should be removed no later than 48 hours after the end of snow emergency. At left is a pile of space savers the sign writer removed from shoveled spaces on the street, according to a neighbor:

That prompted this response:

And this rebuttal. In case you can't read the right-most sign, it says:
It does, however, reflect the view of many others. Look, shoveling sucks but everyone has to do it.

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Weather

Snow Emergency/Parking Ban Begins at 10 p.m. Saturday

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Major arteries where parking is banned as of 10 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 14, 2015. Credit: City of Boston

Here we go again. Mayor Marty Walsh announced a snow emergency and parking ban will begin at 10 p.m. Saturday, with tagging and towing to begin at midnight. That means you can't park your car on main arteries like Centre Street.

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