April 1, 2008
Parking Errors Mar Nats Opening Day
DCist fanboy-in-chief Charles Gray tells us that Ryan Zimmerman found the zone for the Nats' stadium opener, swatting a tie-breaking walk-off home run for the win in the ninth. Woo! But Nationals fans — as well as residents and other visitors to the new stadium area — were less thrilled to find themselves in the Nats' new parking zone.
According to WJLA, 103 cars were towed over the weekend from the area around Nationals Stadium. The news report quotes residents and visitors who parked in the neighborhood under the assumption that the old parking rules still applied. Under the new dispensation, residents and guests need to display a special permit sticker or else feed the meter. City officials admitted to WJLA that some number of cars were improperly ticketed.
In February, Mayor Fenty was quoted in a D.C. government press release saying, "Metro is going to be — by far — the best way to get to the game. . . . But some fans will choose to drive, so we've worked closely with neighborhood leaders, the Washington Nationals and members of the DC Council to devise a fair and predictable parking plan that ensures fans have a great experience at the ballpark while at the same time avoiding traffic and parking issues for nearby residents."
Capitol Hill Voice cottoned on to the new regulations before the game, reporting complaints from nearby Ebenezer United Methodist Church that the new regulations would burden congregants.
Seems to this 'ist that the "enhanced Residential Parking Program (RPP) zone," designed to "protect the adjoining neighborhoods from being inundated with fans looking for street parking on game days" might have caused more problems than it prevented this weekend. President Bush, at least, may take comfort, as his opening pitch wasn't the only part of opening-day weekend that was booed. Anyone out there find a ticket or worse on his car after the game?
Photo by Whime
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New system has kinks.. stop the presses.
Yeah, that really sucks for churchies to have to obey the law and everything. Excuse me while I bury my head in my mother's wedding gown and cry my little eyes out.
All I have to say to the Ebeneezer Church crowd is: WHERE'S YOUR MESSIAH NOW?
Where are the quotes from the illegal parkers that were legitimately towed? That sounds like the most fun reading of all!
Hope all those tickets and towings'll be a wake-up call for the unfortunate. Parking in DC is already hard as is, but who in the right mind, would think they'll find a LEGAL spot on gameday? It's like finding a parking spot on the street in Chinatown the same night Hannah Montana's in town.
A lot of the bitching from churches could be solved if the city would change the Sunday 'no parking' hours to start at, say, 1 pm.
That'd let the suburbanite churchies get in, work their voodoo magic on each other, and be out before ballgames start.
And it would mean a lot less parking passes going to these churches. As we all know, these passes will promptly be sold to the highest bidder.
All I have to say to the Ebeneezer Church crowd is: WHERE'S YOUR MESSIAH NOW?
I love these backdoor Simpson's references.
I'm always dumbfounded when the Council (yes you, Jim Graham), the mayor, etc. go out of their way to figure out parking for stadiums and new stores when some neighborhoods have faced a parking crises for years...week in and week out.
You try getting a tow truck to tow in Adams Morgan, G-town, etc. on a Sunday night, ain't gonna happen ever on a city street and if it's on private property, you can get a company to come tow it, but first you gotta get MPD to ticket it.
Woah, wait a minute:
"The city has given affected churches parking passes so their members would not get ticketed during services."
WTF? That's total BS. So you got a church, which pays no taxes, with congregants, who pay no taxes (I'm assuming, I think fairly, that the majority of the driving congregants are MD residents) and they get a resident parking pass for free, just because they're a church?! That's unacceptable.
And check this out:
"“We don’t want special treatment,” he said, adding that he is simply proposing reasonable solutions that allow the church to operate normally without overly inconveniencing its members."
Oh, they don't want special treatment, so they're turning those free passes back in, right? Oh, I guess not. I love how he's balancing the church's ability to operate against the conveniences of his congregants. Ummm rev, those two concerns are on the same side of the balance sheet. You're trying to cast the church and its congregants as having similar interests as the residents. However, in reality, your interests are more in-line with the baseball fans, not the residents. You want to be able to drive and park wherever you want, and not be bothered by the concerns of the local tax-paying residents.
Ever read the Bible, Kriston? Ezekiel 25:17? "The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who, in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of the darkness. For he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to ticket and tow my brothers. And you will KNOW I am the LORD when I lay my vengeance upon thee."
On way down I saw dozens of tow trucks making the rounds. It was a tow-truck-apocalypse.
But I fail to see how it "caused more problems than it solved". It inconvenienced one church whose members refuse to take Metro. Some people may have wrongly gotten tickets or been towed. Others who can't seem to read signs or the paper or any thing else that warned us of the changing rules got rightfully ticketed or towed.
But 41,000+ fans made it to the stadium and out with a minimum of traffic problems. Sounds to me like a success.
I borrowed a friend's Zone 6 Visitors pass, put it on my dashboard, and did not get towed. I even have Maryland tags.
yeah, gotta agree with washcycle. the "caused more problems than it solved" line is bunk. a few people got towed incorrectly, and a few more got towed because they deserved it. it's the first time a new system has gone into effect. did the food vendors at the park cause more problems than they solved because lines were a little long? your logic is lacking here.
You can always get the fur flying up in this piece with a post about parking tickets!!!
Moving the start time for the regulations to 1 pm seems to be the easiest solution to the issue.
I'm still waiting to hear back from my ANC Chair about what the process is going to be for getting more temporary guest passes. As it stands now, each household gets one year-long pass, and that's it, so forget about housewarmings, parties, dinners, family events, orgies, or whatever might bring more than one person who drives to your home if you live in ANC 6D. Not exactly what we were looking for when it came to the 80+ days each year that the stadium's going to be in use.