OPINION: City being too aggressive with “No Parking” near Hathaway School and not utilizing space for the public

“Diagonally across from Ellen Hathaway school on the Union Street side is a vacant lot that parents have used to park to pick up their kids at least since my grandsons have been going to the school (5 years). I am not sure when it happened, but this morning I noticed signs put up by the city that say “City Property – No Parking” across the entrance to the lot.

I would love to know the reasoning behind putting up these signs. There is parking on only one side of the street, and most of those spaces are taken up by teachers (who have no parking lot), and residents. Parents making pickups have to park a block and a half away if they can’t use the ‘VACANT’ lot.

The lot is only used twice a day: to drop kids off in the morning and to pick them up in the afternoon. If anything; the city should level and pave it so that the parking and traffic congestion in the area is eased. If the city doesn’t want people in there at other times, put a chain across it when school is not in session.

Also, a paved parking lot would help a lot when there is a parking ban in the area; having it could eliminate the need for local residents to park in Hathaway School’s lot on school grounds.

Ian Abreu, can you get to the bottom of this, please?” Douglas Miller.