So it seems the development of the South Boston Waterfront aka the Seaport District is sort of back firing. Back in the day the waterfront consisted of an abundance of affordable parking lots that catered to out of town commuters looking to drive into Boston but did not pay downtown prices (You know the same people who use L Street to cut through). Well, now that this part of the neighborhood is developing at a rapid fire pace, a major issue has reared its ugly head – lack of parking! No kidding, really?
According to an article written by Jon Chesto in The Boston Globe, potentially 2100 new parking spots will be created via two large projects subsided by Massport and Boston Planning and Development Agency. Well, isn’t that nice? So government subsided parking for commuters?
Why not through a parking bone to the residents of the neighborhood that are feeling the crunch of rapid development and a parking shortage too? Can’t we get one municipal parking garage? And before everyone starts quoting Shoup and Dante Ramos and how generating parking spots and garages does not solve a parking crisis, well, if you are doing it for the suburban commuters, why not help out the residents of the neighborhood? Tell, the suburban commuters to take public transportation.
Anyway, why is the government catering to large corporations and its employees? Aren’t they getting tax breaks? Have them build their own parking garages! All, we are saying is at least give the residents of South Boston something in terms of parking, please, we are begging you!
Hi Maureen,
Somethings never change in Southie. Parking has always been an issue and now that Southie is the place to live, that too needs to change. Maybe voices will finally be heard and a garage will be built, miracles do happen.
The old Edison plant is HUGE..they could use a portion of it for a garage..you could park 500-600 cars in a 3 story garage..RESIDENTS (with resident parking stickers ) could park there for a greatly reduced monthly fee..you could have a shuttle or uber get you home..it’s time to start thinking outside the box..
I have been saying the same thing about the ground level parking lot in Perkins Square.. if you built up a couple of levels and even charged a minimal amount it would help.. at this point, restaurant goers are taking up the spaces for hours and it is hard to get a short errand done. And then to give spaces to a rental car company on top of that..
More parking = More Traffic. 2,100 more parking spaces will only result in more highway gridlock. The average vehicle takes up twenty feet of space when sitting in traffic. That is 8 MILES of more traffic being added to our street & highway network. Sounds like people in Southie won’t be able to get on any of the highways until after 7:30pm once this garage is open.
We should be spending the money on more efficient mass transit options.