The age old dilemma, how do you get the downtown streets taken care of, when there are so many cars in the way? Apparently, not with the cities new “no parking 8 – noon on XXXX” policy.” They will ticket, but STILL not sweeping the streets. I’m annoyed, only because with some attention to detail, the policy could have been done right and it could work for downtown. All pictures in this blog taken yesterday.
BACKGROUND – CARS VS LEAVES
It no secret, I drive a car. I also park on the downtown streets, my car doesn’t fit in our very tiny garage and I refuse to pay the ridiculous prices to park in someone’s back yard. Those parking spaces should all be outlawed and the backyards returned to yards. So, I often park anywhere from 1 – 4 blocks from my house, depending upon what is going on downtown. I surprised Alder Rummel, but telling her that I usually park in her district, which can be dicey trying to cross East Washington on foot depending upon what time of the day it is! It also means my residential parking permit for people who live here is useless and I can only park there for 2 hours during the day before I have to move. But I live with it (and occasionally complain about it!). I live downtown and that is just the deal. But it bothers me, because if we want to attract more homeowners downtown we need people willing to put up with the situation or get rid of their cars, because most downtown properties don’t have garages, or sometimes driveways. And that severely limits people who might buy downtown given the many other issues that come with living downtown.
It’s also no secret, it annoys the hell out of me that they sweep our streets all the way to the curb once a year, in May. And, as a result, the leaves that are not swept into the lake sit along the curbs all winter and become a disgusting goo that gets swept into the lakes in the spring before the city sweeps the streets when “the students leave”.
A SOLUTION?
It’s been an issue for years. I tried to work on the issue from time to time, to no avail. Streets say they don’t have the resources to do anything else. I think they think its not a priority or too much of a hassle. So, at the urging of downtown neighborhoods, Alders Mike Verveer and Bryon Eagon passed an ordinance June 1 that restricts parking on the streets so that our streets can get swept once a week. WSJ discusses it here. The ordinance was simple (deleted language, added language):
“(1) In order to facilitate the removal of all manner of debris and snow from the highways and parts of highways located within this City’s second, fifth, sixth, eleventh, and thirteenth aldermanic district, as defined by Section 15.03(6) of these ordinances the City of Madison, no person shall park, stop, or leave standing any motor vehicle on any highway or part of a highway where and when prohibited by an official traffic sign.”
I testified about the issue at the time, I requested that they consider not restricting in the parking before 10 am, so that people could have a chance to wake up and leave for daily activities before the parking is restricted and that they consider the impacts of parking restrictions and stagger them due to the fact that in my small parking area, there are 518 parking spaces, but they give out parking permits for about 600 – 800 cars, depending upon the year. And many people don’t bother to get the parking permit, because it is useless – as I demonstrate by parking in district 6 where my permit is useless. But, apparently that request was ignored, at least for my neighborhood.
IMPLEMENTATION OF THE POLICY
Some signs are up!
A few weeks ago, I got 2 letters (Pssst, city, there is only one unit at this address! Only one mailbox. Only on household.) from my alder letter me know that the parking signs had gone up and parking restrictions were going into place. And for that, I thank her! Because I honestly hadn’t noticed, and was able to avoid some parking tickets. Sure enough, in my parking area, the signs are up! I wonder how many of my neighbors read the letter? Or who got it?
But not in the 6th district . . . at least not nearest the capitol.
Longer time periods, and “early” am restrictions
The signs, unlike other areas where there are street sweeping restrictions, restrict parking 8 – noon on Thursday or Friday. In other areas of the city, like where I work, the restriction is for a shorter period of time (7:00 – 8:30am) or in other areas 8:30 – 10. I was hoping our area they could do the restrictions 10 – 11:30 or noon – 1:30. So it didn’t impact overnight parking. That didn’t happen.
All on the same day – Thursday and Friday while garbage cans are also restricting parking.
So, sure enough, on Wednesday nights when the garbage cans are all in the streets taking up parking spaces, you also can’t park on one side of the street. The other side of the street is restricted on Friday mornings.
THE RESULT = PARKING TICKETS, BUT NO STREET SWEEPING
Parking Tickets
No Street Sweeping
These pictures were taken yesterday. I glanced out my window, and this pile of leaves is still there:
This pile of sand is still perched on the edge of going into the storm drain:
And the gutters and storm drains look like this:
HOW WE COULD DO THIS RIGHT
What pains me so much is that something finally got done. The streets resistanc.e was finally worn down . . . but it got implemented in a ridiculous manner. Here’s what I would change or would have done differently:
1. Shorter time periods for the parking restrictions. 1.5 hours like in other areas in the area.
2. Move the parking restriction times to various days of the week instead of them all being Thursday and Friday.
3. Move the times of the parking restriction to later in the day, so people don’t have to remember to move their car before 8 am.
3. Better notice to the neighborhood and education about the changes.
4. If you are giving tickets, then actually clean the streets.
5. Make it a priority to get the streets cleaned BEFORE the snow, preferably before the leaves go into the drains.
WHY DOES IT MATTER?
I live downtown and I probably always will, despite some of the issues we face. But, how many other long term residents are willing to put up with all the hassles and disrespect from the city because “its just students” that live here? I want my neighborhood to continue to be eclectic and diverse and a place where everyone wants to live, especially and including students . . . but it should also include people who are willing to buy homes in the area and invest in the neighborhood, but it won’t happen if more care isn’t taken to treat these neighborhoods like the rest of the city, and not as a revenue generator to be otherwise ignored.
This is a powerful argument with the visual aids. Well done. I wish I knew what we could do to change the situation. You have pointed out in your piece that the SNOW STORM they are focusing on this year happens every day downtown. Those leaves going into the gutter show neglicience by a mayor who can only handle one issue at a time.
As I was scraping the frost off my windshield 2 blocks from my house, in Marsha Rummel’s district, it suddenly occurred to me . . . what happens when it is a snow emergency with alternate side parking AND parking restrictions are in effect on a Thursday or Friday . . . those 518 parking spaces will be reduced to 256 and all 256 cars (as opposed to the 700 or more that are actually there) will have to move between 7 am and 8 am. Can you say “Not. going. to. happen.” We’re lucky there’s a parking ramp, at Butler and Mifflin, but if we all stay and pay then where will the workers coming to work park? Hmmmmm . . . . ooops.
The parking restrictions are only in effect until May 1 – Nov 15, and the odds of a snow emergency during that timeframe are low enough that I don’t think anyone has worried about it.
The poor coordination between trash pickup and street sweeping drives me batty. I live just on the other side of Blair, where trash pickup is Thursday. The side of the street with no Thursday Parking has dumpsters and so there are never trash cans on that side of the street – instead, all of the cars and all of the trash cans are on the same side of the street, so if you want a spot, get there early before the neighbors put their trash cans in the street and take a few parking spots.
If the days were flipped, so long as the trashcans stayed up on the curb and wasn’t actually on the street, everything would be peachy. Easier parking, and trash pickup wouldn’t have to navigate between parked cars to get to the trash cans.
Oooops, I made a mistake of taking pictures of the signs on Blair (by where I parked my car, and not the ones on Mifflin/Hancock etc. The others do not have the May 1 – Nov 15th restrictions. People got tickets today and yesterday, and its December. These are intended to be year round. Streets is going to use them so they can plow to the curb once a week. But that plan won’t work if they don’t move the cars.
I wish Streets would plow our block to the curb. Every year we lose a couple of parking spots because of the mess of snow that make some spots just unusable – especially likely if someone violates the alternate side parking during the snow emergency. As it is now, they only have 6 hours to get to it, and if the timing isn’t right (say the snow stops late and they’re still working on the artierals between 1am and 7am we’re SOL. Year round sweeping would give the plows a second chance to get in and clean up what they might not have been able to get to.
I imagine people with driveways will not be pleased with plowing potentially 6 days after the snow event
There just isn’t any where to move the cars to, and with the snow emergency and parking restrictions no one will move their cars, there’s no place to put them. And, as I point out, one hour to do so . . . they need to change the times of the parking restrictions if they hope for compliance. Otherwise the [lowing won’t happen like the street sweeping but we will all get the tickets at some point.