[Carfreeliving] Sidewalk parking in New Orleans

[Jason Henderson]

The sidewalk parking in New Orleans is outta control. After 4-5 months 
since all rules were tossed due to the flood and anarchy, the corproate 
mouthpiece newspaper has decided it has had enough. Some editor's 
personal space must have been violated for them to have printed this 
today. -jh

Editorial: Merciless . . . and necessary?
Monday, January 30, 2006
Few New Orleans motorists could have imagined before Katrina that they 
would ever -- in a million years -- miss the city's meter maids.
These parking officers decided, invariably by eyeballing it and often 
completely inaccurately, which cars were parked too close to corners. 
They wrote tickets for cars before meters expired. And they could not be 
reasoned with, even if you caught them before they finished writing up 
your parking ticket.
New Orleans didn't need arbitrary ticketing then and doesn't need it 
now. But the city badly needs some kind of parking enforcement.
If you've been in the French Quarter in recent weeks, you know: People 
are parking wherever they want for however long they want, and legal 
spaces are nowhere to be found.
In theory, locals should have little trouble finding a spot in the 
Quarter, now that that fewer tourists are visiting New Orleans and the 
city's population is down by two-thirds. Instead, the curbside parking 
areas of the city's most historic neighborhood are jammed with vehicles. 
Nonresidents are disobeying restrictions on how long vehicles without 
resident parking stickers can remain in a parking spot.
And bad behavior is encouraging more bad behavior: Because of the dearth 
of spaces, some motorists have resorted to parking on sidewalks.
If the city were ticketing and towing illegally parked vehicles, spaces 
would turn over more quickly. But that's not happening.
This isn't just an inconvenience to Quarter residents and visitors. It 
also threatens life and property in New Orleans' best-known 
neighborhood. When a fire broke out on Dauphine Street Dec. 30, 
residents say, an illegally parked car got in the way of a fire truck. 
The Fire Department got to the scene in time to keep the flames from 
spreading, but department officials say that other fires are inevitable 
and that poorly parked cars jeopardize human lives.
City officials are planning a towing campaign. It needs to start 
immediately.
In the initial weeks and months after Hurricane Katrina, parking was 
easy. You could find a spot quickly, and you wouldn't get ticketed for 
breaking some ill-defined (or nonexistent) law. But as New Orleanians 
have returned home -- and have been joined by contractors from all over 
the country -- lax parking enforcement isn't doing motorists any favors. 
Instead, it's a threat to the well-being of the French Quarter.


Sallaberry, Mike wrote:
> He was also the E.D. of DPT when the Valencia St bike lanes were being 
> discussed back in the later 90s.  He had stated that bike lanes on 
> Valencia would go in over his dead body!
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> *From:* Carfreeliving-bounces at livablecity.org 
> [mailto:Carfreeliving-bounces at livablecity.org] *On Behalf Of *Wesley Kirkman
> *Sent:* Friday, January 27, 2006 1:26 PM
> *To:* Carfreeliving at livablecity.org
> *Subject:* [Carfreeliving] Sidewalk parking and HVNA
> 
>  
> 
> Amber reminded me of the "car-walker" put into an insane asylum for 
> walking over cars parked on sidewalks.  He walked through the middle of 
> busy arterial streets as well, so he must've gone a little crazy from 
> the cacauphony of vehicle traffic or one of the other many quality of 
> life threatening ills of the auto.  See his shananagans (sp?) at:
> 
> http://nonato.vh.guad.de/fpx/car_autoschreck_engl.ram
> 
>  
> 
> Wasn't Bill Maher at one of the HVNA meetings trying to argue that it 
> wouldn't be very neighborly of us to force the UCBE development to have 
> little parking because they (our new neighbors) would all have to spend 
> countless hours looking for parking?  If that was him I'm not surprised, 
> I could tell he was the most car-oriented in the room.  Are they still 
> planning the same parking ratio or has HVNA gained some ground?
> 
>  
> 
> Wes
> 
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
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-- 
"Make wetlands not war"

Jason Henderson
Native New Orleanian
living in San Francisco
Cell: (415)-425-5844
Home: (415)-255-8136