Check the king gas station, they are parking repair vehicles all around the neighborhood, on salem st at the bus stop, on fulton st from broadway all the way down to linden projects, in front of my house on broadway and in front of my neighbors houses. They move them around frequently hoping no one will notice. This has been going on for more than a year.

Interesting TeamToby, maybe the city can do something about it seeing that they restrict our parking in the winter to 1 side of the street for what reason, I'm not sure because it's not for emergency vehicles because the plows don't push the snow back enough. My truck got hit twice last year, once by an engine and they didn't even come back or send anyone back later to assess the hit and run. When I reported it to the police station they laughed and said they'd send a cruiser down but one never showed up.... great that I pay tax dollars and all these fees to the city and as a resident I get nothing in return but wasting more money to fix my truck....

And about Kings, maybe the city could fine them or tow their vehicles, but it takes 3 days for them to do that because a vehicle isn't abandoned unless it's been parked for 3 days.

#NoHopeForMaldenResidence

ASoroka... I have been in contact with the city councilman and parking enforcement multiple times regarding the unfairness of the king gas station parking. I had parking enforcement here yesterday discussing this issue. there were two cars parked in front of my home that belong to the gas station. I am a senior citizen that has every right to pull up to her own home grab all her packages out of the car and go into my house. But no I have to park down the street in front of my neighbor's house and do this because they are constantly in front of my house. After parking enforcement spoke with them they removed the two vehicles and replaced them with another one in front of my home. There was a car parked in front of my home over the Thanksgiving holiday and removed last week. It had been there almost one month. They removed the car after the ticket was issued and just parked it in front of the bus stop. Did you ever notice when you drive down Salem Street towards the light on Broadway that there are always cars parked just after the bus stop? Those cars belong to the gas station. Traffic has to go around them in order to get to the light.
All the cars parked on Fulton Street down to the Linden projects all belong to the king gas station. I was told via parking enforcement that all these cars parked in the neighborhoods belong to people who are coming down from New Hampshire and parking them in the Broadway area just to get on the bus so they can get to Malden station and take the T. I just looked at the guy and laughed . That was the most ridiculous excuse I have ever heard.
I have asked the king gas station owners to please stop parking in front of my house they just stare at me and say it's public parking or they feign , 'we don't speak English'.

It takes a village to raise a child they say? Well it's going to take multiple neighborhoods to fix the unfairness of the king gas parking violations in the Broadway area. Good luck

If this is an ongoing issue you could attempt to get the area turned into permit only parking.

Well, the same exact thing happens on Hunting Street which is diagonally across from King Gas. Cars from the repair shop on Hunting Street park their cars on Hunting Street all day long. Problem is all over with these repair shops. There are rules and regulations in place when they are issued their License but they are not monitored till we start complaining. Lots of the vehicles they work on have commercial plates. Let them park in their own lots.

Parking enforcement knows about all these repair shops and what they are doing. The king gas station, C&C repair and collision down on Broadway next to the CVS the repair shops at the end of Huntington Street and Salem. I truly believe that when these vehicles are ticketed the repair shops just tack on the ticket price to the final bill of sale of repair. The poor customer doesn't even know it it's being charged for a ticket along with the repair that's been done to their car. It's just so wrong on so many levels. I took my SUV down to John's in Linden and his cars are all neatly parked and stashed away properly he's very reputable and I suggest everybody go to him for any repair or inspection I will not give these repair shops in the Broadway area a dime

If resident parking stickers were in effect, perhaps it would allow the city ordinance against parking in front of a drive way to be modified to allow a car with a valid resident sticker, issued to that house, to park in front of their own driveway. This would open up more available parking space options.

Who is going to tag me for parking in front of my own driveway ?? I don’t need a sticker for that! Enough with stickers. There is no law saying you can’t block your own driveway. We don’t need more control by the city. If you voted you would know that we voted against resident parking stickers.

Resident winter parking is difficult enough without having repair shops cluttering things.

It would seem that the only reasonable solution is to do as other communities have done and have NUMBERED/BAR CODED RESIDENT and GUEST parking passes/window stickers.

This way, parking enforcement can simply scan the pass, or check the issued number and see if its legitimately parked. Duplicate (photo copied) passes would easily pop up as fraudulent. Immediate tickets/fines for fake/duplicate passes could be enforced, and there would be no questions as to a car's right to park overnight.

Here's the question: are residents ready to financially step up and support a program like this? I would. I would be ok with having a yearly $5 or $10 per car sticker registry program. Perhaps one fee for the initial resident parking sticker, and then a discounted renewal rate that could be quickly done online as well as a visit to City Hall.

This would require GUEST passes to be issued as well...im sure things would get a bet complicated there...

I am glad you are ready to pay but I am not. I pay enough property taxes. All we need is more fees. No way.

We understand the frustration with this issue and clearly we (the city) need to come up with a better way to stop this behavior. As someone pointed out, when we ticket the vehicles (which is only possible if the vehicle is actually parked illegally, ie winter parking violation, over 24 hours), it really doesn't accomplish the objective we are looking to as it punishes the vehicle owner. We have been working with the compliance officers, who have visited the offending businesses (multiple repair shops), who will often admit to one or two vehicles and move them. This topic and possible solutions will be on the agenda at an upcoming Traffic Commission meeting. In the meantime, we will work to be responsive to the individual issues that arise until we can solve this systemically.

Ronald, what is the law/rule on abandoned vehicles? How long does it take for a vehicle to be considered abandoned on a public street or access way?

I understand if a vehicle is left in the same spot for over 72 hours it can be tagged. I think the City makes an effort to find out who owns the vehicle before this happens which I think is a very good thing. Suppose your in the house with the flu and can’t move your car? Just saying.

Ronald, I don't have a driveway but am going to Disney World for a week to play with Mickey & Minnie. If I leave my Camry parked on the road for 72 hours are you saying YOU are going to consider it abandoned and ticket and tow it? What's a guy suppose to do? I can't drive to Disney it's just too far, and honestly I don't think the duct tape on the fenders would hold up that long, but I can't risk getting old Bertha towed either. Do you think I could just park my car in Medford, I live close to the line?

The rule is 72 hours as someone pointed out, but we do make an effort to figure out who owns it before anyone is towed. We aren't looking to tow people, please believe that, at the same time, that time frame allows us to start trying to identify abandoned and stolen vehicles.

Mr Hogan, thank you for participating in the conversation. Could you please clarify the city's position on a home owner parking on the street, blocking their own driveway?

Happy to. Our regulation on that issue is similar to most cities, which is simply that no vehicle is allowed to be parked in a way that blocks a driveway. The issue with blocking one's own driveway is a practical one....simply that the enforcement officer really has no way of 'connecting the dots' if you will. They just have no way in the field to know the vehicle owner is connected to the home. That said, please understand that most enforcement we do around blocked driveways is complaint driven, we aren't out proactively looking for this type of violation, so someone who did block their own driveway is likely to not have an issue. I also am comfortable telling you that something placed on the dashboard indicating that the vehicle belonged to that home would be enough for our enforcement staff to use good judgment not to issue that ticket. Our only goal is to prevent peoples driveways from being legitimately blocked.

excellent explanation to help clarify. thank you

Thanks Mr Hogan, one more quick question please, Will you be notifying all the parking enforcement people to check on the Dashboard before giving tickets because I know once the ticket is written it can’t be taken back unless appealed. Thanks

If the parking enforcement officers in the field have no way of connecting the vehicles to a particular home, as Mr. Hogan states, why is there a law on the books stating that if you have a driveway you have to use it?
How would they know? Are they going to call every license plate into dispatch? Guess that is complaint driven too, which I feel is a ridiculous law. If I pay taxes on my home I should be able to park in front of my house.

Old thread being closed.