Politics & Government

More Parking Meters Coming to Washington Avenue

Paid parking to affect some side streets as well.

Next year, more parking meters will be coming to Washington Avenue.

The additional paid parking will also be added to some side streets, and all of the meters will be converted to muni-meters within a year (see exact locations below). 

The date of installation hasn’t been set but will happen sometime next year said Montgomery Dean, a DOT spokesman.

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While the meters are new, the two-hour parking rule is not. Mayday Hardware owner Jerry Walsh said at least twice a month he sees cops come by and slap drivers parked past the deadline with $60 tickets.

However the meters will make it more likely that customers will obey the time limits.

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The change is part of that also includes bike lanes, landscaped medians, more crosswalks and traffic islands, and no-parking loading zones (8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.) in front seven stores to prevent trucks from blocking the street. 

The idea behind the new meters is to help avenue business by giving customer spots to park, said the DOT spokesman. He pointed out that residents will still be able to park in the spots overnight.

Reaction to the new meters has been mixed.

“I’ve been on this block at least two decades. It’s a mixed-use block. You’ve got private people (living here). It puts them out of the way,” said Franklin Jaggernauth. Jaggernauth owns a 99-cent shop on the avenue between Prospect and St. Marks and lives above the store. He said most of his customers walk to his store.

Gloria Mtomboti a hospital worker who drives over from Kensington to have her hair done at said she doesn’t have trouble finding parking and doesn’t want to have to start paying for it.

“We pay so much in other areas. … It’s just going to create more problems for people who are try to make it – you miss one minute and you get a ticket,” she said.

"There seems to be plenty of spots," she added.

Storeowners are mixed on the issue, said Sharon Williams, vice president of WAPHA, the avenue’s merchant association and owner of Shaz Gallery, with the majority of storeowners for it, but a large minority against. 

“In commercial areas I think meters are a great thing … so that residents don’t monopolize the parking spots,” said Bill Greenwood, owner of Away We Go Postal.

Chris Yanatiba, who owns Yanatiba, a gift/antique shop on the corner of Washington and Prospect said for businesses, the change was “perfect.”  

Right now, he said, “I lose customers. … My customers drive around and once or twice (around the block) and they’re gone.”

 

Currently there are meters on the following blocks:

  • Eastern Parkway to St. Johns Place (East side of Washington Avenue)
  • Eastern Parkway to Prospect Place (West side of Washington Avenue)

 

Meters will be added to the following Washington Avenue blocks*:

  • St. Johns to Park Place on the East side
  • Prospect Place to St. Marks Avenue on the West side

 

Two metered spots will be added to the following side streets*:

  • Lincoln Place (southeast and northwest corners)
  • St. Johns Place (northwest and southwest corners)
  • Sterling Place (southwest and northwest corners)
  • Park Place (northwest corner)
  • Prospect Place (northwest and southwest corners)

 

*according to the DOT


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