On Blue Shorts, Orange Envelopes and Parking Plans
Thoughts and comments on parking in downtown Salem from a former meter maid.
Three years ago I accepted a seasonal full-time position with the Salem Parking Department.
Two summers and the better part of one winter were spent patrolling city streets enforcing the municipal parking code.
The walking involved was tremendous in both volume and its effect on my body. On an average day I would walk 24,000 steps, which is about 12 miles. There were some days that I walked over 30,000 steps.
The tickets were there to write every day. Expired meters, crosswalks and corners were always calling for attention. It did not matter how fast or slow I walked, the tickets were there to be written.
Residential parking permits were a large part of my day, every day. Those who live in the resident parking areas are very vigilant when it comes to those who park on their streets.
There would frequently be an angry person on the receiving end of an orange envelope. Only one person ever actually got ugly with me, but there were a few others who came close. It is difficult to for me to understand anger over a $15 parking ticket. If you earned it, pay it. It is not worth getting angry about. If it is a mistake or there were extenuating circumstances, appeal it. The appeals process is simple and quick.
There was a single incident where I was truly angered by someone. A business owner parked in a fire lane and objected strongly enough to his ticket to run across a busy street to berate me, threaten me and then tell the parking director that I spent far too much time goofing off instead of writing tickets. He made enough of an impression on me that I will not spend my money at his place of business nor will I recommend it to anyone else, ever.
My efforts daily were an honest effort to be fair to all. I wrote tickets for strangers, tickets for acquaintances, tickets for friends and even tickets for family members. There are more than a few elected or appointed city officials and police officers who were issued an orange envelope by my hand. The odds are fairly good that I wrote you a ticket.
It was a good job and I liked it, but to everything there is a season.
While the new parking plan was being developed, I was in a good position to observe and evaluate the chronic and not so chronic issues that the plan is designed to correct.
The primary problem would be those who park in the Washington Street and Essex Street area. This would include Lynde, Federal, Sewall Streets, and the parking lots along Klop Alley and Front Street. Every day a large number of prime spaces are taken up by owners and employees of local restaurants and other businesses. Court employees are also a part of this situation. Many of those people "feed the meter" and risk the ticket rather than park elsewhere. As a result of this behavior, the folks who want to shop or dine in downtown Salem cannot find a place to park.
If an owner or an employee of a downtown business employs that practice then they have no business complaining either about the "lack of parking" or about the plan soon to be implemented. You know who you are. I know who are, and you have been a part of the problem all along. The new plan is an attempt to correct a problem that you helped to create.
There are problems with the new plan that need to be worked out. Businesses on Gedney Street and Hawthorne Boulevard have made that very clear. That is to be expected; perfection is ever elusive. Let the process work, voice your concerns and let's see how things develop.
It was a pleasure serving you, Salem. Please be sure to treat the remaining meter maids and the person who replaces me with respect, but also be sure to demand that respect in return.
Don Nadeau
8:07 am on Monday, May 14, 2012
Thank you for helping keep crosswalks safer! (And, no, you never wrote me a ticket.)
KlassySalem
8:56 am on Monday, May 14, 2012
I got my first parking ticket in years and years a month ago. Totally deserved. I spaced on the meter. It's not hard to not get tickets, people. As a property tax payer I thank the meter maids when I see them. The ticket revenue (almost always) doesn't come from my pocket.
KrisTina Petty Wheeler
9:58 am on Monday, May 14, 2012
Thank you for drawing attention to those employees near New Derby/Front Street who feed the meter during their shift. It is frustrating not to be able to find a spot to park in for 10 minutes to run an errand, because employees of that very store are hogging the spaces for up to 8 hours a day!
Maggi Smith-Dalton
11:36 am on Monday, May 14, 2012
Why doesn't a business provide parking for its employees somewhere close by or on site if they can? Wouldn't that be fair to all? I doubt many employees in stores or whatever make enough money to have to pay to be at work too. (Excepting of course the lawyers etc.)
Geesh.
Erin Cyr
1:48 pm on Monday, May 14, 2012
I have to say, what are store owners and employees supposed to do? Should they all park at the garages? What's the solution? Sure, there are some who could bike, or walk to work, which is a wonderful alternative, but not all people who work in Salem live here or live close enough to their job. IF they are paying for their space and then paying the tickets they may get, then what's the issue? I have lived here for 3 years and very occasionally I actually drive downtown due to weather or what our other plans are, I have NEVER not been able to find a space downtown. It might not be right outside of the stores I am going to, but a little walk never hurt anyone. Granted, I don't work downtown so I'm not trying to find parking everyday, but I am curious where in town the real issues are and who is complaining residents or tourists?
Matt
8:05 am on Tuesday, May 15, 2012
So small businesses (many of them retailers where margins are slim to begin with) should be responsible for where and how employees park? Let me guess, you think government should be part of the solution also!
Anita Armell
5:06 pm on Monday, May 14, 2012
What about businesses giving employees parking garage privileges! Another issue...
Residents should have parking on Hawthorne blvd. 's even side ...tourist are now flocking in , "parking for resident only" signs should be up. HELP!
Max
7:31 pm on Tuesday, May 15, 2012
A lot of the downtown residents also have not much of a choice to park in spots downtown and keep filling the meters. The city has allowed all of these condos to be built downtown without parking and if you live downtown your not allowed to get a residential parking sticker for any street. If you have a pass at the garage you are not guaranteed a spot. This is a big problem during Halloween. You also have to wait in a line of traffic to get into the garage during halloween and if you have a quick errand to run the garage is a long walk for some people. There should be a better solution for the people who live downtown. We are tax payers. If this problem isn't rectified the parking situation down town won't get better. The residents downtown support a lot of the local business. Maybe we should get discounts on the garage and guarrentied spots. There's got to be a solution.
William Legault
7:58 pm on Tuesday, May 15, 2012
Max just as information, the costs for the garages will be coming down by half at the garages which will reduce the annual fee by quite a bit.
john
2:33 pm on Thursday, May 17, 2012
Who buys a home without a parking space?
Max
10:17 pm on Tuesday, May 15, 2012
Does that mean that the yearly parking pass for downtown residents is going to change frm $500 to closer to $250 for a non guarrentied spot even though the pass went up to $500 from $300 6 years ago right after all the condos were built downtown. I hope your right but I doubt it
KlassySalem
2:40 pm on Thursday, May 17, 2012
He's right.
Also, why should the rest of us fix your poor housing decisions?
ann massey
12:23 pm on Thursday, May 17, 2012
I own rouge cosmetics, and I do pay for garage passes for my full time employees as I don't want them using up spaces that need to be available for customers, I also don't want them having to leave every two hours to pay a meter. The garage passes are going down substantially and it will be worth it to provide passes, even to part timers or offer to split the cost, it will be cheaper than paying a meter!
roger
10:54 pm on Tuesday, July 3, 2012
the problem with salem is it is too small of a city to handle the volume of people that live, work or visit here..the city keeps promoting salem and people keep coming..all year , not just halloween...there is simply not enough room for the volume of cars that are here on a daily basis...i have family that work at and visit the ymca...parking is always a problem..parking is the reason that people don't want to go to the salem "y"..they prefer to go to marblehead or peabody where there is plenty of free parking...i may be wrong but i believe the city hired an outside consulting firm when the new courthouse was being built to study the parking situation in salem and they concluded that there is enough parking in salem to handle the daily parking needs...apparently the people who did the study don't live, work or visit salem...one more thing..$15.00 for a parking ticket might not seem to be a big deal to some but with the cost of gas, a bad economy and the expense of everyday life a $15.00 parking ticket is quite expensive to a lot of people....
john
11:02 pm on Tuesday, July 3, 2012
Salem is the city of "hire a consulting firm for everything" and they are never right. Department heads can't do anything in Salem.
roger
11:26 pm on Tuesday, July 3, 2012
by the way..those $15.00 parking tickets are now $25.00...everybody knows the way to stimulate a bad economy is to raise taxes and fees....right..
Phil Fisher
10:45 pm on Tuesday, October 2, 2012
phil i would like to thank the rocket scientists running salem,we took some friends out for dinner tonight,parked at a meter after 7 :30 and found a 15.00 love note from the greedy rip off artists,i can't wait to spread the word on talk radio happy halloween