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Brookline encouraging US Open parking in Boston by banning non-resident parking on dozens of its streets near the Country Club
By adamg on Thu, 06/09/2022 - 9:48pm
The town of Brookline today released its plans for dealing with Grey Poupon-loving US Open fans starting Saturday. One key component: Marking 53 other streets near the golf course - and the Boston line - as "resident only" parking.
Now, that part of Brookline doesn't have resident parking permits - who needs them when everybody has a driveway? - so police will be relying on residents of those streets to let them know when people in Lacoste shirts suspiciously park and start walking towards the golf course or one of the designated shuttle-bus stops.
Brookline says it spent a year developing plans to deal with the Open that included consulting with Boston Police. The city of Boston reports it is banning parking - and stopping - on three streets: Allandale Street from Centre Street to the Brookline line, Pond Street between the Arborway and Brookline and Avon Street from Pond Street to Brookline.
Still Boston residents should brace for impact, even aside from golf fans clogging up Centre Street near JP Licks in search of free parking:
The Jamaicaway and Parkman Drive to Centre Street and VFW Parkway are "primary alternate" routes for golf fans (hence the signs that have sprung up there), so that should make getting around the Arborway/Murray Circle rotary even more fun than it's been the last few months. And maybe forget about a visit to Jamaica Pond, unless you can walk there, since all the spaces will be taken up by expensive out-of-state vehicles.
Allandale Road is a "secondary alternate" route, and Allandale Farm will serve as a shuttle-bus stop for the Open (on the Newton Street side, not the Allandale Road farm-stand side, though), so maybe leave early for that visit to Faulkner Hospital.
Boston Police say they will have officers on streets neighboring South Brookline to direct traffic.
The plans also call for running shuttle buses to and from Forest Hills and Cleveland Circle T stops between 6 a.m. and "the late evening," Brookline reports, without specifying how often the buses will run. Boston reports there will also be shuttle stops at Reservoir and BC stops - and that the T is selling US Open passes for use on the subway.
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Comments
Like nothing ever happened.
Like nothing ever happened.
Privilege FTW - WTF!!
Amazing (and, yes, infuriating) to me that the lives of tens of thousands of Brookline and Boston residents are upended - FOR 8 DAYS - for a golf tournament attended by out-of-town and out-of-state toffs and toff wannabes. To whom do I send my invoice for my extra time waiting in traffic and gas $ going the long way around?
I suppose one could make the same argument for the Marathon, but that at least brings entire communities together and lasts roughly 8 hours not 8 DAYS.
The term "privilege" gets tossed around a lot, but here's a textbook example of it.
Then don’t drive, genius. You
Then don’t drive, genius. You will be creating traffic, pollution and noise just like any other driver in that area. Take some personal responsibility for your life choices instead of expecting a handout.
Solid troll job
Of course, people are going to drive into this traffic mess just because they feel like it. Smh.
They're changing the traffic patterns on the streets surrounding the course which is going to make the drive to pickup and dropoff for daycare a nightmare. But, they tell us it's going to bring in loads of money (for whom?) so easy come, easy go?
Pro Tip
When faced with picking up kids from childcare or at school using the car, I used to park outside of the mayhem zone, walk in, get the kids, walk them out to the car.
PARENTING PRO TIP: take a map, mark off an exclusion zone, park outside of it, bring your stroller or kid pack, do a little walking. By age two my kids could (slowly) manage the mile walk to the commuter rail and I could carry a baby that far, so that's a capacity limit benchmark.
Give it a try if you are physically able to do so. You might find it vastly less aggravating and stressful, and the kids will sleep real good from the extra walk.
Depends on the kid. And on
Depends on the kid. And on the parking situation. If there is no nonresident parking outside the correct side of the zone, this doesn’t work.
And some parents don’t have the luxury of taking extra time for this. It can be hard enough getting kids out in time for drop off to get to work on time without adding a long walk.
However, I think the post you’re replying to was about road closures making the drive inconvenient, not an exclusion from the daycare’s street itself.
Yes, hie thee away, feckless
Yes, hie thee away, feckless troll!
How quickly people NIMBY
Folks do realize that Fenway Park seats 37,000 people. A seven game homestand against the Rays & Yankees in July could mean 264,000 people coming into the Fenway neighborhood.
The amount of people attending the golf tournament is projected at 175,000 fans over 7 days which equals 29,166 fans per day and less than an average Red Sox game.
The Birkenstock Driving Beamer Crowd of JP/Brookline can survive a week of fellow well-heeled people coming into their neighborhood if Fenway can do it for six months out of the year.
Perhaps you're unfamiliar with S. Brookline and nearby JP
Kenmore Square is, and has been for more than a century, an urban transit hub that is designed to handle large numbers of people coming and going via public transit.
Putterham in South Brookline? It's a series of rotaries with a couple of golf courses in the middle, oh, and an actual working farm. Not exactly the same thing.
Adam coming in hot with the sarcasm
and defending the part of Boston that thinks they "are" Brookline, looking at you pond-side JP, and then actual Brookline, who still has one of the ultimate NIMBY moves on the books, not allowing overnight street parking.
Personally I take a little delight in all this incoming traffic because the folks that move next to "the" country club are those that want the convenience of city-living but not being accountable to addressing the challenges of urban living. And don't forget all the private schools that litter that part of town are out for the summer, so all that #TahoeTraffic will just be replaced with #grampagolfers. And the residents will "escape" to Chatham or the Berkshires for the weekend to avoid the raucous riff-raff found at a golf tournament.
Thousands of Boston Marathon
Thousands of Boston Marathon runners raise big money for many worthy charities. Do these golfers do the same for this particular golf match? Not that I’ve heard. I’m sure you can handle a little inconvenience for the marathon… this golf game, not so much.
Free Parking
"Free parking for me, but not for thee."
This has it ever been.
Brookline permits
They're kind of silly, since you can only get one if you live in town, but you're not allowed to park a car overnight in town, so basically everyone has to have an off-street parking space for their car, so the permit just allows you to overstay the two hour parking limit at other times of day. I'm sure there are people for whom the permits are useful, but it's not like a Boston/Cambridge/Somerville stickers which allow overnight parking (and, in Cambridge, allow you to park in any residential space in town; Boston and Somerville are zoned).
Anyway, there will probably be some white people ratting out some other white people this weekend and I am here for it.
Lots of uses
The most common use for the on-street permit? It solves tandem parking. You pull the car nearest the street onto the street to get the one behind it out -- and you don't have to pull it back in until the evening.
But also, if you've got a guest (friend or tradesman), you pull your car onto the street so your guest can stay for more than two hours without a violation.
They're inexpensive and occasionally useful.
Slight correction
Somerville visitor passes are zoned, but stickers are good for the whole city...at least, my Winter Hill sticker has always been fine around Davis or Union
Home of The Warriors
Brookline has always struck me as a weird place in comparison to Cambridge and Somerville but I have to admit that they've done a great job of maintaining their individuality vs Boston with whom they share the majority of their borders with, whether they be as urban as The Fenway, Mission Hill and Allston get or as suburban as the manses of the Chestnut Hill area, something the aforementioned cities don't have to contend with as they have physical borders in place.
That being said, if you're going to host a major spectator event, do something in the way of accommodating the people bringing money into your town instead of getting all NIMBY like some unmentionable Boston neighborhoods.
Just goes to underscore what I’ve
always said: golf fans are *terrible* people.
(Disclaimer: many people I love are golf fans. But even I cannot help but wonder about their shifty parking habits.)
I am a little surprised that
I am a little surprised that Boston isn't doing with Brookline does in other circumstances. Take the streets in Boston nearest the town line and the Country Club, and install 10 hour parking meters. Just the same as Brookline has on the streets nearest the Medical Area and Fenway Park.
I don't think Boston residents want that....
Just like the Brookline residents probably don't want 10 hour meters in their residential neighborhoods.
Not that hard to put up signs
Pay to Park
Jamaica Plain Resident Permits Exempted (or other adjacent neighborhood).
Again....
I don't think anyone wants that.
Why?
Resident parking permits are (still) free. For visitors, it's no different than what several other neighborhoods (i.e. Back Bay, South End, North End, Fenway/Kenmore, Bay Village, Chinatown, etc.) have to deal with.
I'm shocked, shocked to find
I'm shocked, shocked to find this kind of parking chicanery going on.
Another failure of Boston city government
to do the bare minimum for its residents.
uhhhh
What, in this case, is the bare minimum?
Resident parking signs like in Brookline
did you read the post??
A basic minimum
First, declare all of Boston within one mile of the Country Club to be resident parking only. Then, on the first day of the event, track the most egregious violators using satellite/drone surveillance. Bring in heavy-lift helicopters and remove the offending vehicles, depositing them on the fairways and greens of the Country Club. Not on top of the holes; give the golfers a fair chance. The cars could be obstacles, making the play more interesting, more like miniature golf, which is the best kind of golf.
It seems to me that this is the least that can be expected from a responsible city government.
Not much of a golf fan, I guess.....
...
Some streets are closed to
Some streets are closed to traffic entirely for the whole week: Clyde Street, Lee Street from Warren Street to Clyde Street, and Newton Street from Grove Street to Goddard Avenue. Residents got permits so they can get in. I don't know what this means for deliveries, rideshare pickups, guests, etc.
Murray Circle
Is defunct. They should just get out of their cars there because they won’t be moving for a while since the state decided to render it useless for parts of the day through allowing traffic controlled by arboretum pedestrians to back up into the the rotary.
Now there are massive amounts of idling cars surrounding the arboretum for hours every single day. I wonder who thinks this is a good idea? The installed bike lane is rarely used and could have been placed on the incredibly wide sidewalk as they do in Europe. They’ve created massive amounts of idling, fuel burning traffic surrounding a park built for trees for a bike lane that is not used.
Typical driver blaming
Typical driver blaming cyclists for traffic and pollution created by drivers. Zero self awareness or logic. You want pedestrians to risk getting hit by a bike just so you can hog more space in your disgustingly big vehicle. Nope. Enjoy paying for gas, chump.
Rarely used?
Please show the data for that.
Yes, DOT and the City of Boston count bike traffic. Look it up or zip it up.
Which traffic light is
Which traffic light is causing the backup?
You should contact your state rep about this. They’re the only one who can get someone to listen.