Free parking at Station Place

Free parking at Station Place
Originally uploaded by rllayman.

In June I wrote a few blog entries about free parking on the 1000 block of 2nd Street NE and the 1100 block of 2nd Street/Delaware Avenue NE.

Meters have since been installed on the 1100 block. Because they are two hour meters instead of 8-9 hour meters, the utilization percentage seems pretty low, at least at the times I've looked. (DPW should still install meters on the east side of the 1000 block until construction begins on that square, which, given the current market, might take awhile.)

Today I bring this up in another place, the 600 block of 2nd Street NE (and the 700 block too, but I didn't survey that block).

Today on the west side of that block, from F to G, there were 26 parked cars:

Maryland -- 12
DC -- 5
VA -- 2
and one each from Georgia, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Iowa, and Texas (with a Howard University alumnus sticker on the back window).

On the east side of the block, there are three zones of parking. One is a Ward 6 residential zone. The two others are "No parking school days" zones.

However, Logan School is not a functioning school. True, it is used as a flex school when DCPS renovates other schools. Strong John Thompson has been meeting there for a few years. But the kids are bussed there, the school has a massive parking lot, and there is no compelling reason to restrict parking in these spaces on school days. Especially if the school board moves to the building.

In the summers, people park there for free. So today, in one section it meant that 1 Maryland and 2 Virginia vehicles parked at no charge, while in the other section there were 1 DC, 6 Maryland, and 3 Virginia vehicles.

There is no reason for these spaces to not be metered.