By Dalia Diaz
Let’s get this straight. Parking is not an emergency! On Tuesday afternoon on May 21, 2019, the Museum Square Garage, a city-owned and operated garage was closed, after public works officials were alerted to structural issues. As a result of that and in an effort to ensure safety to patrons the facility closed immediately.
During the City Council meeting that Tuesday night, a few residents of Museum Square apartments made forceful comments to city council members during the public participation portion of the council meeting demanding that the City take action to reopen the garage. Some of the City Councilors were being soft-hearted; including the City Council President who decided to call for a member of the council for a motion to make the parking an emergency issue and take discussions immediately especially while Mayor Rivera was present for the budget submission.
What has caused me so much anger is that a few individuals from Museum Square think that they are entitled to have that parking space because they pay for it. They angrily made comments such as the “high crime rate” and “walking alone on the streets of Lawrence” to get to their apartments and other comments that made it seem like they will die if they don’t park inside the museum garage.
To those individuals, from Museum Square who sent a representative to speak on their behalf, let me just say that you are not entitled to the garage and to all the council members – parking is not an emergency and so you should have not taken this measure to discuss and make motions for public participation without knowing or having documents, bids, contracts, to repair such parking. Council does not even know if the taxpayers want the city to pay for the repairs to this place.
The assessment made last year, at a cost of $100,000, stated that it would cost around $4 million dollars to repair the Museum Square Garage. There is no funding yet, no bids, no bond, nothing and yet the council voted to go ahead with repairing the garage. The return on investment (ROI) for $4 million dollars in not justifiable and therefore the City of Lawrence taxpayers should not have to front a gigantic bill just for 100 residents to park.
I would rather see the City knock it down and build rented office space that would yield a higher return on investment; legal office space in front of the courthouse would be a very good investment. A structured parking space costs more than the car it is going to serve. We seem to be giving away parking. We generally don’t give away cars so why parking? City Council should recognize that parking in dense areas is very expensive and that subsidizing it is both economically inefficient and unfair. And unfair because it forces people who don’t drive to subsidize the parking costs of their neighbors.
It’s also, no surprise that the Boston Land Company, who signed a contract with then Mayor Sullivan, has yet to make a profit because that will ensure that on paper they don’t make a profit. Even though the Boston land Company charges their tenants for parking in the Museum Square Garage, the Boston Land Company pays absolutely zero dollars to Lawrence. Yes, ever since the darn place was built. So while the tenants should complain about the current parking issues, they should do so to the company that takes their parking fee – The Boston Land Company Management Services. Otherwise, you should do just like other residents of the City with regards to parking. Park on the streets and walk your butts across the street to your apartments. You are not entitled to having a reserved City parking spot. You want to park close because of the distance and so-called convenience. That’s not an emergency!
There are broad benefits of better parking management and ways to increase awareness of them. So my message to Museum Square residents is: you may be paying your measly $25 dollars a month to park in the garage, but is the taxpayers who will end up paying nearly $25,000 for each tenant parking spot.
The message to the City Council is to stop being so stupid just because you want election votes and want to be seen as caring and compassionate. Running the city is a business. Act like business people!
