No free parking here
by Lori Barrett | May 1, 2008 at 5:59 am
Posted in Baltimore
WBAL had a report yesterday (not exactly breaking news) about the parking shortage in certain Baltimore City neighborhoods — Fells Point specifically and one resident in particular.
The president of the Fells Point Development Corporation reportedly gets around 36 (!) tickets a year while parked in front of her home. Although she says that she pays the tickets online, her car still gets booted and towed. She is asking the city to fix this “injustice” by re-evaluating the neighborhood’s parking zones and allowing residents to briefly double-park in front of their homes.
I am troubled by the use of the word “injustice” in her description of the situation. She is not contesting the illegality of her parking or the number of tickets she’s received, just challenging an inefficient system that is allegedly not crediting her payments. That’s not injustice — just ordinary bureaucracy.
The parking situation is one you should be prepared to deal with when choosing to live in a city — particularly in a neighborhood as crowded as Fells Point. After all, there are alternatives to tickets, like maybe paying for a private space or parking a bit further away in a legal space. Or even not having a car at all.
What do you think — does she deserve sympathy? Any pointers on how to deal with the lack of parking in our more popular ‘hoods?
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May 1st, 2008 at 3:35 pm | Please log in to reply. | Log in to rate this comment | report this comment
Parking scofflaws should not be tolerated. It's unfair to those of us that play by the rules. Double parked cars are one of the biggest annoyances about driving in this city. I've seen people "briefly double-park" for several hours. I once waited for 20 minutes on a one lane street for a double parker to move, while 10 vehicles waited...all honking their horns. Why is that one person's time more valuable than the 10 people behind her? I park my car where I can find a spot, and then hoof it! It's part of living in the city.
May 1st, 2008 at 4:14 pm | Please log in to reply. | Log in to rate this comment | report this comment
No sympathy from me. We used to live in Charles Village. After we had our child we found it problematic to park far from our house and bring in groceries and leave our child in the house (if we were alone). So we moved. Not out of the City, but to a part that has single family homes and driveways. Our house is approximately the same value as a house in Fells Point.
She knew what she was getting into when she moved there. Too bad. Now she wants to move a bus stop that perhaps some handicapped person will have to walk an extra hundred yards to get too.
May 1st, 2008 at 4:27 pm | Please log in to reply. | Log in to rate this comment | report this comment
Gee a person on a committee somewhere wants things changed to fit their irresponsibility, never heard that before. This woman deserves absolutely no sympathy whatsoever. And she must have a helluva lot of money to blow paying that many tickets online (which carries a hefty "convenience fee") with regard to a bad habit like being a crappy parker.