I can't believe anyone would think this is a good idea. What happens when a resident needs a plumber,electrician, etc? Where do they park? Mom and Dad come to visit for the weekend - where do they park? A resident has a party - where do the guests park?

Look dudes, it's a public street, and NOBODY has a guaranteed parking space. Yes, we need better turnover. No, this is SO not the way to solve this problem.

DPW should just hire the teenagers who slashed all the tires on 13th Street last year and have them target out-of-state plates. The out-of-towners get the message that they're not welcome, the kids get paid, and they learn a valuable life skill that will help them in their careers as hooligans, cutthroats, brigands, and blackguards. It's win-win.

Come to think of it, they're probably all either dead or in jail by now. Forget what I said. Maybe!

sfw-

If Mom and Dad come to visit, it's plenty easy to get a visitor parking pass for residential areas. As for plumbers and cable guys, well, the enhanced parking regulations will most likely been in effect at night, giving service vehicles the two-hour window they have now to park and do what they have to do.

A public good does not mean that it has to be free and freely available to all, especially if there are costs in offering that good. On-street parking in D.C. neighborhoods should be offered first to residents of the neighborhood, then to residents of the city, then finally to out-of-towners. Free parking for all carries costs that tend to be absorbed by residents, so there's no real reason we should be subsidizing everyone's desire to park in residential neighborhoods when they go out in Adams Morgan.

Mom and Dad come to visit for the weekend - where do they park?

Martin beat me to it, but I believe Graham's e-mail also mentioned parking passes for visitors.

This is gonna be a bitch for folks who live along U Street and north Dupont at the edge of Wards 1 and 2. If Ward 1 institutes these restrictions, the spillover into Ward 2 would be awful.

Here's the thing...as this has been advertised (no one, to my knowledge has seen the actual) the legislation it would restrict RPP-only to certain streets within neighborhoods.

Well in Adams Morgan, frankly every street would deserve that...it wouldn't be fair (or right for that matter) to pit one street against another for the ability to RPP-parking only. Which leaves only two commercial streets for parking and one too small garage (thank you KCA and Jim Graham).

Shoot, Graham's proposal isn't reasonable for residents or businesses alike in Adams Morgan!

If you want to change parking in Adams Morgan (I cannot speak for the other neighborhoods in Ward One), you need to start with reversing the RPP hours from daytime enforcemt to evening/nighttime enforcement (and up to three hours instead of two)as is done in other jurisdictions.

I think we can all appreciate that the Grahamstander is trying, but once again he's plowed ahead without really consulting the people that this will affect most.

Does Metro allow free overnight parking on weekends? If out-of-town guests are staying the weekend it might be a useful alternative.

Why can't DC get some of these, or more underground pay parking lots, so both residents and visitors can bring cars if they need.

You're forgetting the Jim Graham mantra: steel wheels good, rubber wheels bad. According to him, if you want to come downtown, you have to take Metro or a bus. Out-of-town cars have no business on residential streets, they should expect to be fined heavily, and parking lots are the tools of the devil. It's induced demand: provide cheap and plentiful parking and people use it, so you end up with more cars on your streets and more gridlock.

Which is easy to say when you're a councilmember who can park his fu**ing VW Bug whereeverthehell he pleases without fear of having to pay a ticket.

To anyone who hates this idea, remember this much -- the District has no reason to offer anyone and everyone who wants to go out in Adams Morgan a chance to park easily. Simple as that. If you want to go out and not have to deal with driving around looking for parking, take the Metro, ride the bus, take a cab, walk or ride a bike.

Just because on-street parking is "public" does not mean that it should be free and available to anyone at any hour of the day. Ultimately, residents end up paying for it (through taxes, registration fees, etc.) so they should have first crack at it.

Jamie,

Sure, AM does benefit from people coming in from other neighborhoods and states. But limiting parking in surrounding residential neighborhoods won't suddenly drive people to stay home or go to their local TGIF's instead, in my opinion. It's like when anti-smoking ban activists argued that the D.C. smoking ban would drive business into Virginia -- so far, we haven't seen that trend. There simply aren't many other places around here that are like AM in terms of sheer number of bars, pizza joints and crowds. People will adapt rather than turn away.

(It's also important to note that there wasn't much parking at the new baseball stadium, and people still went. Well, until the team started sucking, anyway.)

I agree that we should make coming to the city inviting and convinient. But we also have to balance what is best for the city at large, and in this case, it's less people driving to AM because they figure they can just park in Kalorama or Woodley Park.

There is no point in arguing with you Jamie. You have your opinions which is fine and I understand where you are coming from. I know what I know about my neighborhood and what parking can and cannot be like throughout the year. I do my homework to know when I shouldn't drive my car because I know parking will be horrible.

We will agree to disagree and leave it at that.

Peace!

@Martin, people weren't lighting up their cigarettes and riding them into DC...banning them just takes away something to do once they get here. But limiting parking makes it harder to get to Adams Morgan in the first place.

And the baseball stadium hosts events that end before metro shuts down, so it's a much more viable option for Nats games than a night at the bars and one of the many late nite food options there (or one of the almost-food options like jumbo slice).

Jamie,

I talked to Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington when that survey came out, and they refused to disclose their methodology. Since they opposed the ban to begin with, a post-ban survey claiming huge losses isn't one to be trusted, especially if they don't fess up to the way they carried out the survey.

Anyhow, how many bars have had to shut down due to the smoking ban? Lay off large amount of workers? And for those that lost some business, how many have recovered as more and more people have come to accept the smoking ban?

But yes, it is off topic. The point I was trying to make is that certain places have an appeal that extends beyond their being easy to get to. AM is one of those. Making the already tough parking situation a little tougher won't drive everyone to go to Witlow's on Wilson instead.

A garage? There aren't any in Adams Morgan.

Colonial Parking has one right on 18th Street (it's listed as Champlain), next to the falafel joint. Open until 4 a.m. on weekends.

I can't wait to see what the proposal actually says and if all you prognosticators here could please share a copy, it would be of great help to this conversation. Reserving a few streets for local residents will hardly spell doom for the local businesses, will not likely lead to an increase in local car ownership. It may though actually improve quality of life in a small way for those who live in the neighborhood, which is what Jim Graham is elected to do.

How about a special, limited time only tax on liquor served in Adams Morgan until there is enough to pay for more underground parking garages. The city could work together with the business community and the drunk revelers to improve the quality of life for those in Ward 1, and give back to the community hosting their drunken debauchery. Most people won't even complain if there is a few cent increase in the cost of their drinks because, judging from the crowd on 18th St at night, they'll be too wasted to notice. And besides, the drinks are already supremely over priced, so a few extra cents won't send anyone reeling.

yatrakarna, if any lots or garages built feature pay parking, then their revenues will eventually cover their construction. The city (and perhaps ANC and AM businesses) could work with construction and parking companies to build the lots, and then distribute parking fees collected between those companies while keeping a tiny bit for other neighborhood projects. This way, the people who use and benefit from parking lots will pay for them, the neighborhood will be less congested, the lot operation and construction expenses will be covered, and the city might even make some extra funds for future projects...which makes much more sense to me than taxing everybody who drinks.

As others have noted, there is a dearth of street parking that doesn't involve parking on the residential roads surrounding AM. There is now at least the option of the garage under the condos next to Amsterdam Falafelshop, but have you checked their rates lately? The prices were quite reasonable when they opened, but as soon as Colonial Parking realized the level of demand in the neighborhood, they started raising the prices on a regular basis, and it now costs about triple what it originally cost to use the same garage. We're talking MCI Center Event Parking levels here.

I think a good chunk of the street parking problem on 18th Street itself would be solved by not allowing taxis to park there. It is a rare occasion when I'm in the neighborhood and at least half of the spaces along 18th *aren't* occupied by a vacant cab. That's still not nearly enough parking for a very active part of the city, but it would be a start.

I concur with the other poster(s) who have pointed out that Montgomery County has learned their lesson and now provide good quantities of reasonably priced parking garages. Arlington, despite its own lack of open land, has managed at least one such garage too.

It could be worse; at least AM isn't overrun with the same obnoxious valet parking groups who try their damnedest to make sure no-one can park on the street anywhere in Penn Quarter without having to pay them to do it.