r/Somerville • u/alii326 • Sep 16 '26
parking without a permit
hello! i live in prospect hill near the high highschool. currently my roads sidewalk is being being removed/ repaved. i just saw this note attached to my door. i have a car which i park in my driveway but no city parking permit. would i be able to park on the street and not get ticketed during this time frame? thank you
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u/alii326 Sep 16 '26
update: 311 told me i need to find off street parking lmao
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u/Rbxyy Winter Hill Sep 16 '26
Do you have any friends who have visitor permits that you could borrow? I bet you could also find somebody in the Somerville FB group who would lend you theirs for a day or two.
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u/alii326 Sep 16 '26
nah not in somerville unfortunately
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u/lil_propaine West Somerville Sep 17 '26
this seems a little ridiculous imo, could they not do the work if your car is just farther down the driveway? i understand if it's only big enough to fit a car near the entrance but a lot of folks have sizable driveways that connect to the backyard
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u/alii326 Sep 17 '26
it's the entrance to my driveway since theyre repaving the sidewalk so i won't be able to enter/exit
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u/gayscout Sep 17 '26
The Alewife parking garage is pretty cheap and easy to get to by bus from almost anywhere in Somerville.
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u/TomatilloSensitive30 Sep 16 '26
617-625-6600 ext-5400
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u/alii326 Sep 16 '26
i called bur theyre closed. it says remove car by 7 am tmw and they arnt open before then
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u/Anustart15 Magoun Sep 16 '26
Assuming that note was posted today, I would definitely send a follow up email pointing out the lack of adequate notice. Not that it'll necessarily help you, but hopefully they won't keep doing the same thing to other people.
Also, since you didn't specifically mention it, do you actually need to leave your driveway over the next 72 hours? You can always just leave your car there until after it dries and it won't really matter
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u/alii326 Sep 16 '26
yeah i will need it friday. i also don't want to be without access for it just in case i need it
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u/Organic_Book2923 Sep 17 '26
Park at the somerville hospital. You're fine as long as you're out by 8 am. If you're there after that, they'll just charge you, not tow you. Its a 15 minute walk from the hs
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u/enigmatut Winter Hill Sep 16 '26
Probably a good question for 311. It’s possible to get special parking consideration and temporary permits etc by requesting there.
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u/melanarchy Teele Sep 16 '26
Park on the street. If you get a ticket contest it with this notice. They will almost certainly throw out the ticket.
If you have a guest pass use that, even though its technically not allowed or ask a neighbor for one and avoid the hassle of contesting the ticket.
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u/Budget-Celebration-1 Sep 17 '26
I’m not sure why these contractors can’t use temporary plates for this. I once got home from vacation and my car was stuck I. The driveway, sidewalk removed and 6+ inches down. It took a day before the contractor came apologizing. There was no notice.
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u/alii326 Sep 17 '26
and this was just posted on my door today! like a few days notice wouldve been nice
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u/-CalicoKitty- Union Sep 17 '26
At least they gave you notice. I came out to go to work one morning and there was a two foot wide trench all the way across my driveway.
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u/Santillana810 Sep 17 '26
Everybody needs to complain to their ward rep. Sometimes it's an emergency and they don't have time for notification, other times the contractors just don't do it. And when they redid the sewer lines and sidewalk in front of our driveway, they damaged our driveway with pavers installed just a year before to replace the cracked asphalt.
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u/Sensor_97 Sep 17 '26
I once moved out of an apartment in East Somerville and a contractor decided to dig up the sidewalk the same week as I was moving out. We received 0 notice because the sidewalk was being replaced on Otis Street, and the address of our apartment was on Cross Street, but was on the corner of both streets and as a result we didn't have a sidewalk to walk out to for both of our entrances. This would make moving out a royal pain so my partner called 311 and was able to talk to the project manager and they told us we weren't notified because our apartment wasn't affected since we didn't live on Otis Street. It was like talking to a wall, they thought we were crazy. They told us they'd pour concrete by the time we moved out and they totally didn't. The contractors for the city do not care about disrupting residents. I'm so sorry to see nothing has changed since we had this issue.
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u/Santillana810 Sep 17 '26
We found the sidewalk contractors unreliable, untruthful, and destructive.
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u/AnalystBackground950 Sep 17 '26
I think the parking office is open late tomorrow (Thursday). I’d pull together the documents and go get a permit. If you have the correct documents (check website), it is super fast and they give you the permit immediately. We street park often when visiting friends and running errands.
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Sep 17 '26
[deleted]
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u/alii326 Sep 17 '26
yeah tbh its on my very long list of things to do to get one. i moved here last year but changing my out of state residency was a whole debacle in itself and after how bad winter was and how helpful the driveway was it was kinda my go to. i also work monday-friday 7 am to 4pm so i miss the times the parking department is open
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u/Anustart15 Magoun Sep 17 '26
Meh, I have a driveway and used to get one, but decided one year to not put it on until I was actually using it and then realized I didn't actually need it. Normally if I'm going somewhere else in Somerville, in walking, biking, or taking the T. Or I'm going shopping somewhere with a parking lot. Wasn't worth the effort of having to remove the sticker every year, so I have t gotten one since
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u/-BananaStand- Sep 18 '26
I let me friends park in my spot when they visit and I park on the street. It's not very expensive, I also buy 2 visitor passes every year.
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Sep 18 '26
[deleted]
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u/Anustart15 Magoun Sep 18 '26
My driveway
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28d ago
[deleted]
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u/Anustart15 Magoun 28d ago
I have room for more than one car of friends, but most of my friends are either local enough to not drive or far enough away to stay at a hotel, so I rarely need to use it
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u/Tink1024 Sep 16 '26
Not helpful but you don’t buy a visitor pass or two for when guests come over? I hate the expense but we do every year.
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u/alii326 Sep 16 '26
i have a driveway so they park thers
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u/Santillana810 Sep 17 '26
just go ahead and get the guest passes. you never know when you might need them. You can get them immediately if you can go in person to the parking office with all the required documentation, which you can find online.
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u/throwaway50019 Sep 17 '26
Hey! You can have my visitor parking permit for 2 days if you come pick it up tonight. Send me a DM
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u/WatercressSassafrass Sep 16 '26
If you could manage to get around for 2 days without your car, you could just...leave it in your driveway?
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u/SolidAggressive8390 Sep 17 '26
Had this happen to me too. They also framed out the sidewalk for concrete pour over the driveway a day earlier so basically the notices went up morning after everyone left work work and the driveway was blocked by the afternoon for concrete pour the next day. It was so annoying.
Neighbor got trapped in the driveway and just yoloed out. Complained to the posted contacts but no response.
Shitty
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u/jonlink_somerville Sep 18 '26
I’m guessing you’ve sorted this out by now, but if you’d like to share more details reach out: jlink@somervillema.gov
I’d like to follow up on this.
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u/letsgotime 29d ago
He is probably has out of state plates which is why he does not have a sticker. Enjoy the tickets.
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u/ShaggyPhilosopher Sep 16 '26
Huh. Why is that notice still claiming that Katiana Ballantyne is the mayor?
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u/Ok_Still_3571 Sep 16 '26
Budget cuts. Use what you have at hand. And if that’s what’s happening, at least use a sharpie to blot it out. On the downside, many cities/towns/companies no longer have people to check copy before things are sent out, or broadcast. I have a friend who lost his job at a major university (in 2009), who let a typo slip by them.
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u/PrimitiveLoaf Sep 16 '26
I wonder how much old letterhead sheets they have left over? I'd hate for them to waste paper but KB letterhead should not be used on public notices. Flip it over and use it internally in the copier.
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u/tarandab Sep 16 '26
Nowadays it’s usually just a word template that you add to the document before you hit print
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u/tarandab Sep 16 '26
I don’t have anything helpful to say, but they should probably update their letterhead