Brother, can you spare an overnight parking space? A pilot program aims to reduce the headaches that come with keeping a car in Providence’s most congested neighborhoods BY SARAH GOLDSTEIN
	Asphalt jungle   DOWNTOWN PARKING REMAINS A WORK IN PROGRESS Even Providence Mayor David N. Cicilline, who is assured round-the-clock parking in a reserved spot adjacent to City Hall, must feel a kind of asphalt anxiety. In June, he announced the hire of parking expert Andrew Miller of Carl Walker, a Michigan-based consulting firm, "to lead the city’s efforts to develop a comprehensive parking strategy for Providence." The array of overall issues include wringing more revenue from municipal parking meters, whose numbers significantly declined over the years — and whose overdue fines sometimes went uncollected — to challenging the sense of untapped potential posed by downtown’s many surface parking lots. Miller, a self-described "bricks and mortar guy," is currently halfway through a seven-month contract as a consultant to the Providence Off-Street Parking Corporation (POPC), which was established in 1950 to develop garages. With the legal power of eminent domain, the POPC has muscle, but other than helping to facilitate the construction of the Majestic and Parkade garages on Washington Street more than 30 years ago, the POPC has more or less "been dormant," says Miller. The consultant is charged with revitalizing the entity by enticing potential garage developers to build in downtown Providence. Former mayor Joseph R. Paolino Jr., whose family owns a number a number of downtown surface lots, says, "It would be easier to understand a conversation with the prime minister of Russia than to try and build a parking garage." Some developers, though, are more enthusiastic. Developer Arnold "Buff" Chace touts his planned combination residential-retail-450-spot parking garage at Weybosset and Union streets, being done as a private-public partnership, as a model and a spur for downtown revitalization. Preliminary work is moving ahead on the project. Garages remain one of the most costly projects in urban development; Miller estimates current construction costs at $24,000 per parking space, a situation driven in part by material shortages in the steel and cement industries. Such factors put the total cost well above $10 million for a mid-sized garage, an expense that no private developer in Providence has been willing to assume without substantial government subsidies. The city nonetheless hopes to announce two more public-private partnerships, at LaSalle Square and the Garrahy Courthouse, by the end of this year. For short-term, two-hour parking, the city has replaced some 680 old meters with what Miller calls "smart meters," which are "more durable, financially secure, and electronically audited," making them less labor-intensive for enforcement and repair. The city also began introducing "pay-and-display" kiosks this year, which allow multiple cars to pay for parking at a single machine (although some motorists, with the absence of traditional meters, might not realize they’re still expected to pay for parking). The revenue-hungry Cicilline administration is energized by how the city, due to hundreds of broken meters, lost thousands during the tenure of former mayor Vincent "Buddy" A. Cianci Jr. It remains unclear, though, how much money the new meters and kiosks will make for the city. One stated goal is increased turnover, since they make it possible to pay for a precise amount of parking. In the meantime, impatient with the slow pace at which it feels the city is moving, and identifying parking as one of the main issues preventing further gains, the Downtown Merchants Association (DMA) is taking matters into its own hands. At a recent meeting of the group, DMA president Josh Miller, who owns the Hot Club and Trinity Brewhouse, introduced a parking validation plan in which parking lot customers would have tickets validated by patronizing a downtown business. Like Chace’s garage, this plan is in its early stages, and it would require the agreement of private downtown lot-owners. Still, Miller says, the group is determined to do something "in lieu of a [city] program that might come years down the line." _S.G.

Ray Dempsey stands in front of his house on marion avenue in Providence’s Washington Park, surveying the neighborhood. Though it is early evening, it remains warm, and Dempsey appears exhausted by the task at hand. Like many who live in the dense quarters of urban America, his quest is not for love, God, or even money, but something more haunting still — a parking space.

Faced with an overcrowded driveway, or worse, no driveway at all, the search for suitable parking can be, at best, a frustrating hassle. At worst, it becomes financially and environmentally debilitating, taxing the resources of tenants and causing homeowners to pave over yards. It is this question of where to park that Dempsey, 56 and currently unemployed, considers as he shows me the side of his house, the space usually designated for cars, which looks like it would be a tight fit for even a bicycle. Without a parking space on his property, Dempsey and two other residents face an undesirable choice: park on the small front lawn, or park on the street — and risk a ticket for violating Providence’s citywide ban on overnight parking. Tire marks on a squished square of grass in front of the house reveal the previous night’s choice.

The lack of suitable, affordable parking in Washington Park and throughout Providence — increasingly one of the densest cities in the country, according to the US Census Bureau — is not unusual or anything new. The ban on overnight parking was established in 1929, when Ford’s assembly line was just two decades old. About 25 to 50 $15 tickets are written overnight in most Providence police districts, although the number in Fox Point, home to many Brown University students, approaches 100, says Lieutenant Paul Campbell. This amounts to big bucks. From July 2004 through June 2005, the city issued 87,674 overnight tickets (52,117 of which were paid), bringing in slightly more than $1 million, according to City Hall.

Although there are various theories behind the original reason for the overnight ban, the most widely accepted, according to Captain James Nolette, head of the patrol administration for the Providence Police Department’s Traffic Division, is that it was created to accommodate street-sweepers, firefighters, and late-night rescue calls. But though this may have once been a legitimate concern, William Trinque, the police department’s director of communications, says the highest number of emergency calls is actually between 3 and 11 pm, when cars are allowed to park in front of houses. The quietest period, in fact, is from 11 pm to 7 am, hours encompassing the 3-6 am parking prohibition.

The current ban is not without its supporters, particularly on the generally affluent East Side. Still, given the headaches that come with the policy, it’s hardly a surprise that a number of Washington Park and Elmwood residents have embraced a pilot on-street overnight parking program targeted for introduction in November. Originally slated for a mid-September debut, the permit-based effort has been delayed as city planners continue to sort through various details, such as staffing requirements, the creation of signage, and which branch of city government will administer the program. Expressing concern about an already overburdened departmental workload, Dave Everett, a planner with the Providence Department of Planning & Development, says, "We are anticipating a good number of people will be applying for permits, so we want to make sure we have the necessary staff required."

The 18-month experiment is based largely on the approach used in Somerville, Massachusetts, where residents pay an annual fee (expected to be roughly $25 in Providence) for a sticker that enables them to park on the street overnight in their home neighborhood. In order to qualify, residents have to be up to date on back taxes and parking tickets, an approach that has generated no small amount of revenue in Somerville. The program’s most energetic advocates, city councilors David Segal of Ward 1, Luis Aponte of Ward 10, and Miguel Luna of Ward 9, say the initiative will alleviate parking problems and help the city. As Segal says, "Right now, residents are paying private landlords $80 to $100 a month for a space to park, whereas [with the pilot] they will instead be paying that money to the city."

As to what the city hopes to achieve, Everett says, "[The] draft policy overall is to allow residents a better opportunity to find overnight on-street parking in their neighborhoods, reducing the amount of residential property given over to parking." Doing away with even part of the overnight ban inspires sharp reactions for some. But critics of the status quo see the effort as nothing less than an overdue attempt to bring more rationality to parking in Providence.