Following angry North End residents complaining about his administration removing four prime parking spaces and replacing them with paid commercial spots, Mayor Martin Walsh quickly defended his staff for failing to hold public hearings before making the controversial move.
Many residents and neighborhood civic groups were not pleased when they learned of the change or the Mayor’s response that it would actually cut down on people having to own cars and driving cars in the long run and save cars coming into the North End.
“Cars will always come to the North End, it’s the restaurant capital of the world and a historic area that attracts thousands of tourists,” Regional Review Editor at Large Phil Orlandella said. “Four commercial spaces is not going to change this, it only takes spaces away from residents who struggle to park on a daily basis.”
Back in 2013, Walsh was critical of a deal made under former Mayor Thomas M Menino’s administration that granted another private company, the Boston Red Sox, permanent rights to city streets without public input.
The Mayor claimed his parking program is different from the Red Sox deal, according to the Herald.
A group of residents participating in a local Halloween Parade told the Review, “It was a secret deal that they didn’t have an opportunity to present an opinion and if they had, they would have opposed it.”
Apparently the city announced the 18 month pilot program in August with an online map.
“We don’t consider this a public or community announcement, there should have been much more communications with the neighborhood,” the group noted.
Currently, residents are fighting for the just over 1,500 legal parking spaces in the neighborhood, especially with about 3,200 residential parking permits issued by the city.