Mayor Brian Arrigo must have a high pain threshold if he is interested in diving into the decades-old debate over residential parking in Revere.
Arrigo has set the lofty goal of putting a residential parking permit plan in place by 2018. Revere, like any community, has its own gripes and concerns about parking and about how parking demands create inconvenience and irritation in neighborhoods.
In Revere’s case, Arrigo has taken the correct first step by forming a Resident Parking Working Group to study and make recommendations on a parking plan. This noble band of parking researchers will endure baptisms of fire on Sept. 12 and 28 in the City Council Chamber when residents will be invited to attend 6 p.m. meetings to discuss parking and, in the mayor’s words, offer “feedback.”
That is a polite word to describe the heated discussions that are sure to be ignited by a discussion on residential parking. Tempers are likely to flare and fingers will be pointed if the discussion becomes a free-for-all for neighbors to air their simmering grievances about parking scofflaws and lack of available parking.
Arrigo is quick to observe that residential parking is one of those local topics that is always on residents’ minds. People living in Revere’s neighborhoods are not shy about raising parking concerns with elected officials.
The Police Department, Chamber of Commerce and ward councilors — the people who hear the majority of resident parking gripes — will have an opportunity to offer their perspectives on a parking program when the Working Group meets on Oct. 11. Richard Wagner, the city’s new parking director, will also weigh in.
The simplest residential parking plan is one that lets residents park on neighborhood streets and bans or limits other drivers from parking. But simple plans don’t always encompass reality and the challenge for the Working Group will be to balance business parking concerns, police enforcement worries, and a host of other challenges involved in addressing what Arrigo described as “an important quality-of-life issue for our residents.”
He is taking a deliberative approach in working to craft a resident parking program. But Arrigo, in a statement announcing the planning process, made it clear the residential parking status quo isn’t acceptable.
Arrigo described the existing parking system as “inconsistent” with some streets posted permit parking only and enforcement applying to those streets. “There is,” the mayor declared, “no comprehensive approach.”
One of the questions the Working Group will attempt to answer is, “Can the city take a comprehensive approach to policing resident parking citywide in a fair and reasonable manner?”
It may take more than three meetings to answer that question but Arrigo has made it clear that residents and councilors want answers.
