[OldNorth] Car Problems Green Curbs Alone Do Not Solve

[John Lofland]

There are two autos problems in the ON that the green curb scheme 
does not address but that we might be able to solve by adding one 
additional element to it.

First the two problems.

One, like all of us, I pay to have my street swept up to the curb 
once a week. This rarely happens because of all the overnight parking 
and early morning parkers. This appears to be true all over the ON. 
Our gutters are a mess. I suppose we should all ask for our money 
back.

Two, our streets are increasingly used for the long-term storage of 
student and other cars. You may be aware that Linden Lane people have 
asked and are apparently going to get a ban on overnight parking on 
their street to kick out all the students living in dorms who store 
their cars on that street. The area to their south already has such a 
ban, which is why the cars are on Linden lane. This change will 
likely bring ever more stored cars to our streets.

A few cars are even parked as quasi-living quarters that collect 
garbage around them. (Check the volvos in front of 405 Seventh and 
600 Sixth, and the VW bus on sixth street by 536 G. [Street-dwellers 
have good tastes in auto brands.])

The upshot is not only are we a park-and-ride lot, we are a auto 
storage facility.

One possible, at least partial, solution to these two problems is to 
add no overnight parking on the streets for people not parked legally 
by a green curb. This would especially help street sweeping by 
greatly reducing the number of cars on the street in the early 
morning (when the sweeper typically comes).

I am going to advocate this with city officials and I hope that 
others, including the ON Board, will join with me.

John Lofland