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ASPHALT JUNGLE
I support Citizens for Resident Permit Parking in its efforts to institute permit parking for all the neighborhoods in Providence. Mt. Hope in particular is a victim of the ban on overnight parking, first instituted in the city in the 1920s.
Large areas of Mt. Hope are already an asphalt jungle because of the overnight parking ban. Its effects on the environment are noticeable and likely irreversible. Thanks to global warming, we are experiencing longer, hotter summers. Asphalt makes it even hotter because, as Michael Arden points out, it increases surface temperatures.
The standard excuse for the overnight parking ban is that the streets need to be cleared for emergency vehicles. Such vehicles don't seem to have difficulty negotiating city streets during daytime hours, when parked vehicles line our streets.
The real reason for the overnight parking ban is to generate revenue by targeting those least able to pay--the city's poorest residents. The city should cut its costs instead.
Peter Cassels
Posted at November 23, 2007 01:47 PM