Mount Pleasant DC Forum

[Tom Bell]

For the past few days I've had more trouble parking on the 3300 block of 18th St. Last night I parked on 1800 block of Monroe and noticed that more than half the cars parked on that block have out of state plates. Then I noticed that the block has no residential parking restriction. Is wasn't this block zoned before? Anyone else experiencing similar change in parking availability?

[jack]

[Tina]

I normally don't have problems parking on the blocks you mention UNLESS I happen to go out at night or come home late. After 10 PM, the parking situation is abominable. All that's left at that hour are illegal spaces (thanks to the no-parking signs that block off 1-2 car lengths on each curb at the intersection). I have, on occasion, had to park 4-6 blocks away from my house if I come home late. Forget daytime enforcement (I never find that daytime parking is a problem) -- what can we do to ensure that residents have a place to park at night?

[Tom Bell]

I agree that it's usually possible to park on the 3300 block of 18th St. in the early evening. That it suddenly wasn't is what prompted my question. That particular evening was unusual, and it turns out that nothing has changed on the 1800 block of Monrre.

Jack's rational view re residential parking restrictions seems sensible to me. The current situation leads to clustering of non-permitted cars on a few blocks and limits residents of those same blocks to parking there during the day. That lots of cars on those blocks bear out of state tags is interesting, but probably bears little relation to the long-term parking shortage. Forcing those residents to get residential parking permits would force them to register in DC, not make the cars vanish. It would, however, allow them to spread out more evenly through the neighborhood, and might make daytime parking on those blocks easier for residents of the blocks.

As for your interest in ensuring late night parking, I'm not optimistic. The neighborhood is becoming more densely populated as single-family houses turn into three and four-unit apartment houses, and as the population becomes richer and more likely to own cars.

I'm usually looking for parking between 6 and 6:30 pm. During that period there's lots of turnover. If my block is parked, I can drive around the block a couple of times and almost always find someone leaving. There are evening classes at Bancroft that involve parking, and when they let out, more spaces open up, but after 10, as you note, it's impossible. I think it's because by that time, people have come to rest, and there's no more turnover. That's when all the people who live here have come home. As there are more and more of us, there will be fewer and fewer street parking places per capita. We can make it costly for people to warehouse unregistered cars on the neighborhood streets, and we could make it inconvenient or illegal to leave cars there indefinitely, but ultimately, we're looking at demographic and economic changes in the the neighborhood that make street parking harder.

Living so near the middle of a major city, we'll have to get used to the idea that we're not really entitled to a guaranteed free parking space within a block of our front doors. Solutions? Paid off-street parking is what they do in New York. It's what homeowners often have here (square feet of land purchased and taxed), and what high-rise apartments offer - for a price.

[jack]

[jack]

[mha]

[jack]

[Tina]

[jack]

[mha]