Another Way to Start a Parking Argument
Yesterday City Desk pointed us to the YouTube video above concerning something that always fires up District residents -- parking. The video in question creatively makes a point that's long been a reality for residents of Adams Morgan and its surrounding neighborhoods -- people who go out in Adams Morgan tend to park pretty much anywhere they want.
As a resident of one of the nearby neighborhoods, I can attest to the fact that Adams Morgan bar-goers will park in every free space within a two-mile radius of their favorite 18th Street haunt. And though parking in the neighborhood is often tricky as it is, if you're foolish enough to seek parking any time after 7 p.m. on a Friday or Saturday night, well, you may as well just up and park at the National Zoo -- it's about as close as you'll get to home.
Despite its questionable use of music, the video does bring up a point that is becoming central to many debates about on-street parking in the District -- the need for tighter regulations. We District residents have long been spoiled by the fact that compared to other cities, on-street parking is relatively easy to come by. Sure, you need a zone sticker to park for more than two hours in many places, but enforcement is limited to daytime hours on weekdays.
In recent months and years, new on-street parking initiatives have started appearing in various neighborhoods. Georgetown and Adams Morgan have had successful runs with multi-space electronic parking meters, while D.C. Council member Tommy Wells (D-Ward 6) was more recently able to push through stricter parking regulations on Capitol Hill both to prevent baseball fans from parking in neighborhoods around Nationals Park and to promote faster turnaround in busy commercial areas like Eastern Market. Generally, though, the rest of the city remains relatively lax when it comes to on-street parking.
Of course, there is no need for a citywide, one-size-fits-all solution. (Unless, as some have proposed, the city were to raise the price for residential parking permits or limit the number each household could receive.) For every neighborhood that suffers from a lack of on-street parking, there are plenty that have more than enough of it to go around. If there is one place that needs stricter parking rules, it's the area around Adams Morgan. Whether the two-hour rule should be extended to weekends or enforcement of illegal parking made more vigorous -- there's gold to be had in every illegal parking job on Saturday nights, after all -- the video makes clear that the current situation just doesn't cut it for residents.
But how far are the District's elected officials willing to go, and who's going to start the conversation? Now is probably the best time, given that on-street parking should be part of the larger conversation on sustainable transportation practices in the District. Or is the resident who made the video just complaining too much about the urban reality that if you live in a popular neighborhood, you should expect tough parking? Leave us your thoughts.