Fee hikes may discourage parking at Union Station.Byline: Nick Kotsopoulos COLUMN: POLITICS AND THE CITY Few things rankle ran·kle v. ran·kled, ran·kling, ran·kles v.intr. 1. To cause persistent irritation or resentment. 2. To become sore or inflamed; fester. v.tr. Worcester residents more than parking. Many folks contend there simply isn't enough parking in this city, not downtown and especially not in three-decker neighborhoods. Some also argue that a lot of the existing parking is inconvenient in·con·ven·ient adj. Not convenient, especially: a. Not accessible; hard to reach. b. Not suited to one's comfort, purpose, or needs: inconvenient to have no phone in the kitchen. or, in some cases, too costly. Mind you, more than a few Worcesterites feel that convenient parking is a God-given right. Not only do they want to be able to park right in front of their destination, but they also want to be able to park for free. One needs to look no further than the failure of the old Worcester Center Galleria/Worcester Common Outlets mall to underscore The underscore character (_) is often used to make file, field and variable names more readable when blank spaces are not allowed. For example, NOVEL_1A.DOC, FIRST_NAME and Start_Routine. (character) underscore - _, ASCII 95. that. Some firmly believe the retail shopping complex failed twice, in part, because people had to pay to park in its garages, while the suburban malls offer acres of free parking. The latest parking brouhaha surfaced last week when it was announced that some city parking lots in the area of Union Station will be closed. Four of the city's five lots located beneath the elevated portion of Interstate in·ter·state adj. Involving, existing between, or connecting two or more states. n. One of a system of highways extending between the major cities of the 48 contiguous United States. Noun 1. 290 will be closed in an attempt to get more people to use the much-underutilized new Union Station parking garage. While 189 parking spaces will be lost, city officials said the Union Station garage has the capacity to make up for them. To add insult to injury, parking rates at the remaining city-owned commuter lots in the Washington Square/Union Station area will be going up $1 - from $2 a day to $3 a day, effective Dec. 1. Parking rates in the Union Station garage will also increase to $3 a day for those who have monthly commuter passes. Needless to say, the changes caught many rail commuters by surprise. It's no wonder, because there was no sign of this on anyone's radar. Commuters don't understand why the city is so eager to close the parking lots, especially since it has no plans to do anything with them other than to leave them dormant Latent; inactive; silent. That which is dormant is not used, asserted, or enforced. A dormant partner is a member of a partnership who has a financial interest yet is silent, in that he or she takes no control over the business. . They also question the need to increase the parking rates. As one regular rail commuter privately put it last week, "It seems they're going out of their way to discourage people from using the train by making it more expensive to park and forcing us to use the garage. A lot of people prefer to park in the lots because of their proximity to where you pick up the trains. They don't want anything to do with the garage or having to pay more to park." Robert L. Moylan Jr., commissioner of public works The Commissioner of Public Works heads one of the departments in those local governments in New Jersey that operate under the Walsh Act form of municipal governance. This is a standalone position in Walsh Act municipalities with a five-member commission. and parks, said closing the four lots will reduce maintenance costs by about $25,000. He pointed out that three lots will remain open - the MBTA MBTA Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority MBTA Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 MBTA Model-Based Tracking Algorithm and Amtrak Amtrak, the National Railroad Passenger Corp., authorized to operate virtually all intercity passenger railroad routes in the United States. Amtrak was created by Congress in 1970 in response to more than two decades of continuous operating deficits by privately run lots located off Shrewsbury Street and the city's Expressway Lot C, located at the southeast corner of Grafton and Franklin streets The following roads are named Franklin Street:
He added that even when commuter parking in Worcester goes to $3 a day in December, it will still be less expensive than at all the other stops between Worcester and Framingham - all those lots are $4 per day. But is the closing of the lots really necessary to save $25,000? Granted, to most people, $25,000 is a lot of money, but to a city that has a budget of some $500 million, $25,000 is a drop in the bucket. Councilor-at-Large Gary Rosen questioned whether it makes any sense to close lots that are now generating revenue for the city and have them sit dormant, generating no revenue at all. He said if people wanted to park in the Union Station garage, they would already be doing so. "We are forcing people into a garage they don't want to go to," Mr. Rosen said last week. "To me, that's not a good way to do business." There are also concerns among city councilors about the impact the closing of the lots will have on businesses and residents in that area. Many restaurants and club patrons in that part of the Canal District park at the lots at night, and after June 1 only the one on Grafton Street will be available . "This has caused some angst angst 1 n. A feeling of anxiety or apprehension often accompanied by depression. angst 2 abbr. angstrom among some business owners in that area because their businesses will be affected by this," said District 1 Councilor coun·cil·or also coun·cil·lor n. A member of a council, as one convened to advise a governor. See Usage Note at council. coun Joffrey A. Smith. "A lot of things need to be vetted with this, because we don't want to hurt small-business owners or people who live in that area." |
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