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Suburbanites manage to snag cheap downtown parking meant only for North End residents

WCVB gets a hold of a list of people who have heavily discounted spaces in the state-owned Haymarket garage - and a lot aren't North End residents like they're supposed to be:

One person on the list is a doctor who lives in a million-dollar home in the suburbs. Her office is downtown, but not in the North End.

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Comments

If we start making these out-of-town swells take their lives into their hands riding the miserable Orange Line or the due-for-disaster Green Line into downtown, that's a slippery slope to forcing the Beacon Hill politicians to also have to subject themselves to the horrors of public transit, and from there it's only a few steps to central-planning anarchy

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Central planarchy?

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Too bad they didn't list all of the pass holders. At least one of the mentioned (yet nameless) people has made a large number of campaign contributions.

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of yours?

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By the company who ran the parking garage, not the City.

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Another parking situation that warrants scrutiny is the Cross Street Parking Lot in the North End.

The BRA runs it. They charge $290 a month for reserved spaces, and the lot has a waiting list that's 4 years long. The fact that the waiting list is so long suggests that the BRA is undercharging for parking. The BRA is effectively making a donation from city taxpayers to the parking space renters.

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Where did you hear this?

Googling it only found your comment, plus another anon comment from 2016 which said the cost was $100. http://www.universalhub.com/2016/boston-experiment-demand-pricing-parkin...

Street View shows a sign saying it's managed by ABM. https://www.abm.com/parking-locator/ says spaces are available, but doesn't provide rates or other info besides a phone number.

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The BRA raised rates since this was published, but not by enough:

https://web.archive.org/web/20081217123821/http://www.boston.com:80/news...

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Thanks.

Google didn't find that article, maybe since the actual location/name of the lot was buried in the middle.

I have much less of a problem with an underpriced public lot with a long waiting list, than I do with a lot reserved for resident permitholders. That itself is corruption.

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The fact that the BRA/BPDA has never advertised the parking lot on its website (aside from a mention of 'parking' in its owned-property database) makes it fishy. Why be transparent when it's easier to keep the details hidden and the rules undocumented?

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That's kind of the same thing, no? The Cross st. lot is for North End residents as well. How long was the wait list for the Parcel garage?

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That is quite the investigative effort for 25 parking spots.

Waste of public moneys... what else is new?

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This is what it's for - pointing out corruption and insider abuse of public goods, etc...

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Who is shopping what story about city corruption and parking to the news channels? WFSB was out shaming drivers who are abusing handicap placards yesterday as well.

http://boston.cbslocal.com/2018/02/19/drivers-cheat-system-misuse-handic...

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25 spots at 350 a month is $100k a year. That's worth reporting.

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It's almost as if the federal government (that entity to which MA is a net payer) restricting the number of downtown garages led to higher prices, and then to this cheating of the system.

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It was Mumbles (RIP) who restricted parking in Boston.

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The downtown limits are because of federal restrictions related to air pollution.

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https://www.boston.gov/departments/environment/air-pollution-control-com...

East Boston and South Boston parking freezes where created by state and city.

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Move someplace like Atlanta - which is choking to death on its traffic and pollution.

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“Can't afford it,” said another driver, who pays a garage $40 a day, five days a week to park when he’s working downtown. That adds up to a staggering $800 a month.

“All these working-class people coming in and it's a big chunk of change out of your pocket, taken out of your kids’ mouths,” he said. “It's hard.”

If only there was some sort of transportation made for the public. Perhaps it could cost around $2 and it would get people to the area where this garage is. Maybe they could call it Haymarket Station and have it served by two different lines, one orange and one green. Oh well, I guess this guy has no choice but to drive. Its a shame his children will starve to death.

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If only there was some sort of transportation made for the public.

Unfortunately there isn't.

Unless you were trying to say it's the T, which is hardly reliable and barely (if at all) qualifies as transportation.

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You don't ride it so you parrot the horror stories.

The Orange Line works just fine most of the time dear.

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Oh honey how you settle for shitty transportation and have a job that allows you to be late every time it breaks down. I took the orange line in to state every morning for over 5 years and it breaks down wayyy too often at rush hour. Having lived in other countries it's genuinely a disgrace how bad the T is compared to public transportation internationally. Some people actually have to be on time for work every day and no, people shouldn't have to wake up an hour or two earlier every morning on top of their original schedule just to be extra sure they won't be late. I finally moved to the city and walk to work and I couldn't be happier but anyone who says to relax about the T needs to really understand how embarrassing it is.

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you haven't a clue do you?

If you think the service level of the Orange line acceptable you seriously have low expectations

and yes, I was a rider for most of high school and much of my adult employment

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And I used to take the Washington Street elevated, that’s how long I’ve been taking it. It is a fairly reliable mode of commuting. The variation in commute times door to door for me is about 10 minutes roughly 95% of the time, and that is including traffic backups while on the bus to/from Forest Hills.

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If only there was a special lane that could cut your commute time and parking costs by half.

Oh, wait - there is! HOV lanes for 2 or more occupants! Split the parking cost. Wow!

Of course, there are cheaper places than those that cost $40 - you just have to *gasp!!!* walk!

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I met an acquaintance who's now living here after living in Seattle. She raved about the T, and I looked at her like she had three heads.

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Compared to other US cities, the T isn't too bad. And to be fair, there was a brief period in the early '80's under Gov. King when it was much worse (really). People liked to make fun of Gov. Dukakis but he actually rode to the T to work and it was improved on his watch.

That said, there's huge room for improvement. Public transportation in the US is just awful compared to almost any other developed country. We cater to the folks with cars and they feel entitled to parking spaces because they might have to mingle with the dangerous unwashed heathen roaming the streets. I mean, if the EPA Administrator feels the need to fly first class to avoid insults in coach why would we expect car owners not to feel entitled to free parking wherever they go.

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Anyone who's traveled in the US beyond a few cities like NYC, Chicago, and DC thinks our public transportation system is great. In most cities they get infrequent bus service at best. The T has plenty of problems but we're still ahead of most US cities our size.

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Just because the T is better than most other cities' transport systems, doesn't mean it's good or useful.

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If they hear stuff like this, they’ll turn on you.

And of course riders in NY and DC will gripe (with reason) about their systems, too.

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I've taken the T a lot and been forced to drive for my job. I used to get stuck driving in the tunnel everyday back to Quincy for an hour to an hour and a half. Not to mention times I've had to detour or wait for a crash to clear on the highway or whatever. And the times where I had to circle for parking and sometimes had to give up because even the garages were full.

You can find all sorts of specific scenarios about the T if you look hard enough, but if you are just using it normally it's usually what, a four minute (or less) wait? 99% it doesn't have any major problems and any delays happen all the time in cars (which also cost more.)

By the way, imagine how many more cars and traffic jams there would be if even 25% of T riders took a car instead.

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The delays are more than a few minutes lately. A few weeks back, people on the Red Line were treated to hour-plus delays every single day. That's something you can shrug and suffer through if it happens once or twice a year. Once or twice a week isn't sustainable.

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Are we taking the same red line? How often are people getting delayed over an hour on the red even with unfortunate happenings that span a few days? Let's say you take it to work everyday. We will throw out weekends and the return trips because this scenario is about getting to work on time.
That's about 260 trips a year. How many days does a rider face an unexpected delay and how many days is it over an hour?
Yeah, stuff happens on the T sometimes but I really think it's mostly confirmation bias, it's not really that often, there are plenty of workarounds and it's the price of trying to get mass amounts of people from here to there.

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Well with over 1 million passengers daily, as much as its falling apart, people do rely on it to get to work. Those that cry and say paying for parking is taking food from their kids really mean their desire to drive instead of use public transit is taking food from their kids.

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It could also be served by over a dozen different special bus lines that zoom into the area from inner and outer suburbs without stopping in between using the HOV lanes, at a cost of $8 to $12 a day with a charlie card.

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Millionaires are the cheapest people to mankind!
They will do anything to save a cent.
There is no list of people , where can I find list.

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How do you think they became millionaires? Hard work? By buying stupid crap?

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Seems to be the most popular path.

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Remarkably few millionaires made their money by inheriting it. You'd probably also be surprised who many of the millionaires are.

The key is saving and investing for a longggggggg time. It works. Try it.

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The key is starting with a nice lump sum of Daddy's money and then investing ...

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Back in the 1900s, the US passed a threshold and had a million millionaires.

Also, it should be noted that in the area one can be a cash poor millionaire when real estate is what brings up your balance sheet.

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Millionaires are actually pretty common these days. About 5-7% of households in wealthier states like Mass. Most of that is in retirement accounts, so it's pretty much imposiible for it to be daddy's money (although you can have an inherited IRA - they sre not common and usually pretty small).

Keep in mind that a million dollars will generate a nonguaranteed income of about 40-50k over the course of a 30 year retirement including cost of living increases. That and social security get you a nice middle class income after age 66 or so.

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So you're claiming to be a millionaire then? Or are you just not one because you buy stupid crap.

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Young will proves his urbane sophistication by thinking that all millionaires have their money just handed to them. And it's obviously this type of thinking that will eventually prove to be Will's lot in life, jealousy and lies about people who work hard and get paid for their efforts.

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...how about the lie that equates millionaires with "people who work hard and get paid for their efforts"? A few of them do. Most don't. Most got lucky, either in the inheritance lottery or in getting something else handed to them. And a lot of people who also work hard, who are just as talented, don't get rewarded on anything like that scale. Being a millionaire isn't a badge of merit; don't imply that it is.

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Know a lot of millionaires? Most of them break their asses for their millions. Like my old client who lived in Marblehead. He was a CEO of a major concern in a Southern state.A job he took at 63 when he already had more than enough money.

So on Mondays I would pick him up at 5AM,watched him kiss his wife goodbye and go to work 1800 miles away until Friday afternoon when he flew home.

When he took over the company he overhauled the company's hiring practices placing more women and veterans in management positions and turned the company around.

That's not working for your millions? In thirty years of servicing millionaires, I very rarely drove ones who did not work for their money. Except maybe the guys from Aerosmith.

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See above

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Like others said, you are quite wrong.
The jealousy is strong with this one.

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Poor lost kid.

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Have their money handed to them? Only you could have taken that as a swipe. You were doggedly determined to go in on me for that comment, and you fabricated a reason to do so. Nice work.

It's 70 out. Have a nice day.

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Do I really need to fabricate reasons to go in on any comment you make here?

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I like ice cream and puppies.

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1. I bought a house in 1998 in an undervalued community, and it is now valued at 3x what I paid for it.
2. My parents died, and left me a house that they bought in 1988 and I later sold for 5x what they paid for it.
3. I have been maxxing out my retirement funds for years.
4. Education = high pay
5. I'm frugal and see #1

Of course, a million dollars isn't what it used to be when facing retirement. If you manage to spend $50K a year over 20 years, that about wipes it out.

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One reason why there are parking requirements on new development to prevent a shortage for locals.

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People living in new development are also locals and contributing to the tax base.

Locals, in both senses, cause their own parking shortages. Seems to me that existing residents in many areas are doing a bang up job of rampant parking consumption at public expense.

Get over yourself.

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