February 6, 2008
Sunday Parking to Be Fully Enforced in Logan Circle
The Fenty administration has decided to begin enforcing parking rules and restrictions seven days a week in the Third Police District, making a break with former Mayor Anthony Williams' decision to put off deciding how to tackle the controversial church parking issue in the Logan Circle and Shaw neighborhoods.
Looks like we got the same email as blogger 14th and You, which was sent out to ANC commissioners from the Mayor's Office of Community Relations and Services:
From: Bjorge, Mark (EOM) Sent: Friday, February 01, 2008 11:27 AM Subject: Notice to commissioners re: parking enforcementBorge hasn't responded to our emails requesting further comment, but it's clear this new policy is designed to begin finally a crackdown on church parking. The issue first reached a boiling point in 2006, when Logan residents began making noise about the longstanding practice of city parking enforcement to ignore violations like double-parking during typical Sunday church hours, when parishioners at the neighborhood's historically black churches who live in the suburbs come into the city to attend services. A blog called Logan Circle Parking Problems even popped up at the time, but Mayor Williams postponed making a decision on the issue, instead deciding to appoint a task force to investigate solutions. The task force recommended enforcement be tailored neighborhood-by-neighborhood, but Williams did not fully implement their recommendations before leaving office. He did, however, add angled parking to one area of Logan in order to increase the number of legal spaces available.Dear Commissioners:
This message is to inform you that MPD 3D has begun full enforcement of posted parking regulations 7 days per week. We ask for your help in ensuring that residents are informed of this increased attention to parking compliance and safety issues, which will begin immediately.
Thank you very much for your assistance,
Mark Bjorge
Executive Office of the Mayor
Mayor's Office of Community Relations and Services
Outreach and Services Specialist - Ward 2
1350 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Ste 211
Washington, DC 20004-3003
Photo courtesy Logan Circle Parking Problems
Here's what ANC 2F06 Commissioner Michael Benardo sent to his constituents on Tuesday:
Neighbors--Considering how heated the church parking debate became two years ago, we have a feeling this announcement won't be the last we hear on this issue.On Friday, February 1, ANC 2F Commissioners received the following e-mail form Mark Bjorge, Ward 2 Outreach and Services Specialist in the Mayor's Office of Community Relations and Services. This should go along way in our efforts to stop illegal parking (i.e., in crosswalks, in front of fire hydrants, etc.) throughout our neighborhood, especially on high traffic days like Sunday.
Thanks,
Mike
Michael Benardo
Commissioner, ANC 2F06
http://www.anc2f.org/blogs/2f06/
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Awesome! How do I get them to come over to my neighborhood too?
Unless it's 24 hours long, the phalanx of B&T bar hoppers and partiers who come to my neighborhood will still be taking up spots when I'm coming home from practice late on a weekend night. I love walking six blocks at 2 AM because some Broseph from Arlington has his Land Rover parked in front of my house.
This should go along way in our efforts to stop illegal parking (i.e., in crosswalks, in front of fire hydrants, etc.) throughout our neighborhood, especially on high traffic days like Sunday.
At first I was shocked that they would let people park in front of fire hydrants, but then I realize that they probably didnt work anyways.
Williams really couldn't afford to piss off the church leaders (even if their constituents were MD residents) because of the whole "blackness" question. With Fenty, there is no similar issue b/c he never sought to kiss up to the black church leaders when he ran for mayor (unlike Linda Cropp, and look how well that worked for her). So since the church leaders have no IOU's with Fenty, he owes them nothing and can ticket their constituents' non-DC cars for observing the Sabbath and ignoring the parking laws.
Look for lots of whining and complaining from churchgoers about how the church was there longer than the whining (read: white) residents, how much the church does for the community, how much disrespect this represents, how Fenty is the anti-Christ, etc. I'm quite happy that Fenty is enforcing existing laws and making sure actual DC residents - as opposed to those coming in on a Sabbath visa - are taken care of.
I don't know about Logan, but in SE the residents are tired of business and community leaders pandering to the churches. For the very reason that most of the congregation are no longer District residents. I don't see much political downside for Fenty
Glad to hear it!!! It was always disturbing to me that double-parking was allowed EXCLUSIVELY for church-goers.
I feel a great disturbance in the Force. As if a million suburban churchgoers cried out in terror, and were suddenly silenced.
Yeah, like that's going to happen. You know what this weekend's sermon topic is going to be: "Illegal Sunday Parking - A Chocolate City Birthright Denied." Looks like the campaign of "exerting control over the black people who they will soon oppress and push out of their neighborhood" is now reaching into P.G. county.
I'm pretty happy with this, although I was really hoping Jim Graham would just step in and shut down the churches.
Doesn't this mean there will be less parking available to residents in Logan. If the churchgoers can't double park near their churches...doesn't that mean that the parking spreads out even more. Maybe I shouldn't have just rented out my garage.
damnit, why couldn't they have actually cracked down on this when i lived in logan?!?
what's going to happen to the parking zone they set up on the inside lanes of rhode island from the circle up to about 9th street? going to take those signs down? (not that a lot of people take advantage of the ability to park in the left lane of a major thoroughfare in the middle of sunday).
i always wanted to see a car parked there get plowed into by someone speeding in the left lane and not paying attention...
GOD I LOVE FENTY! It's funny, I was at a dinner party with a bunch of people who really live in DC but also have weekend places in VA/MD/DE and pay income tax in those states instead. The conversation turned to how DC is no longer acting like a third world government, and they were going to bite the bullet and pay in DC. One guy said, I'm not paying shit until they start ticketing the church double-parkers. And here it is. Fenty is the man!!!! WHat a novel concept-- when you pay MORE attention to people who can contribute to the tax base, and LESS attention to drains on the tax base, you might start making more money.
Hallelujah!
I can only pray that enforcing the law will be expanded to include illegal parking in Adams Morgan on weekend nights, and Connecticut Ave/17th Street/NY Ave during rush hour.
I had my doubts about Fenty, but after sticking it to both the entitled cabbies and the entitled church-go'ers, he's got my vote for life.
Now, if they could only enforce the parking situation on RI Ave on weeknights and weekends. That would really piss off the The Greater Mt. Calvary Church. I can picture Dr. Bishop Alfred Owens right now... his face red and spittle running out of his mouth at Sunday's sermon.
I was at a dinner party with a bunch of people who really live in DC but also have weekend places in VA/MD/DE and pay income tax in those states instead.
What a bunch of leeching assholes! If what you say is true and isn't a load of bullshit braggadocio by smug douche-garglers (which actually seems quite likely), they're a much bigger drain on the city coffers than people who double park on Sunday morning.
ticket them, tow them..do whatever..it's not like the churches contribute to the neighborhoods. if they did, places like SE [where you can find six different churches within two blocks] might actually have something going on
Well, since I'm one of the contributors to the blog cited above--and live one block from Metropolitan Baptist--let me just add my 2¢ here.
The behavior we have witnessed from the church goers on Sundays (and other random nights during the week during which they have services) is something that the OCRS letter barely touches on. Yes, it's well known that church goers routinely block alleys, hydrants, handicapped spaces, intersections and other cars. But what many people probably don't notice/know about are the illegal "Reserved Parking" signs that the Church will frequently put out on FRIDAY evening in order to block off spaces for Sunday services.
The signs have no legal standing, and by all accounts should not be allowed to be displayed, but there they are, week in and week out. For residents of the neighborhood who know better, we just ignore the signs and park there anyway. But the problem arises when people from outside the neighborhood drive in for a night out in Logan or on U St. The signs LOOK legit, and so a good many people decide not to park there and instead go to other blocks and take up still more residential spaces there.
What makes it worse is that the spaces aren't reserved for elderly or handicapped church-goers, they're reserved for the preacher and other church leadership.
All of this is to say that the aformentioned notices from the Mayor's office is welcome--even if it did result in a parking ticket for my car last week.
Can you just take the signs down?
We've got a DC cop here on the Hill that routinely 'reserves' spaces around a church for the MD-based church members.
I'd be delighted if this means the city is finally getting serious about church parking issues. I find it very hard to have much sympathy for these churches. So many have essentially told neighbors to fuck themselves for as long as most of us can remember.
But I'll play the pessimist and say I'll believe it when I see it.
I've always assumed it would take a lawsuit to force the city to do the right thing. That is, I figured someone's house would burn down with their twin daughters inside or they couldn't get an ambulance through because of church double parking and fire hydrant blocking. Then the city would be sued for a jillion billion dollars. And the city would lose. And then and only then would we see a change in policy.
But perhaps the Fenty administration is actually trying to be proactive and set policy before the city is out millions of dollars in lawsuits. If so, that'd be great.