OPINION: Mystic paid parking sinks like a leaking ship

Oct. 5—I will give Stonington First Selectwoman Danielle Chesebrough credit for adroitly accepting defeat and apparently pivoting, as her plan to impose a complicated paid parking system in downtown Mystic blew up in her face Thursday night.

Like the captain of a sinking ship, Chesebrough wisely headed toward the nearest shore and hit the throttle hard, eventually safely beaching the wreck of her paid parking plan.

The plan was only officially unveiled on the town website a week ago Thursday, after the newspaper began asking about it. Details of a public hearing the following Thursday at the Mystic fire house were announced then.

So for a week, the misguided plan to charge everyone, even residents, $3 an hour to park on Mystic's main streets, turning the town's precious commodity, parking, over to a private business, stewed and drew opposition.

It was standing room only at the firehouse ― I counted well more than 100 people ― as everyone vied to give their own reason for hating the first selectwoman's parking plan.

From the outset, I agreed with Selectman Ben Tamsky, who referred to the plan as a solution in search of a problem.

The parking meeting attendees never found out what the third selectperson in town, Deborah Downie, might think, because she never spoke up from her front row seat.

By the end of the session, after downtown residents, business owners, business employees and just interested folks all delivered their good reasons against the plan, Chesebrough wisely called for a straw poll, to prove she was listening.

I think maybe one or two hands went up in support of the plan. Dozens flew up, almost everyone, in fact, when asked if they would prefer the town do nothing or do nothing but keep studying the issue.

There was also a round of applause when people were asked if they think the current system, with two hour-limits on the main commercial streets, should be enforced.

Indeed, my big takeaway from the meeting was a consensus from the town residents and businesspeople that the existing time limits, for which there is currently no enforcement at all, need to be respected.

Once the word is out that tickets are being written, the much-needed turnover on those critical spaces will occur.

Chesebrough said her main reason for proposing the use of a paid commercial contractor ― she's never said how much that would cost ― is that police say they don't have sufficient resources to enforce the existing system.

The first selectwoman then said it is hard to find part-time community officers who could be hired for seasonal parking enforcement.

A very short time later, the first selectwoman was contradicted by Lisa Konicki, president of the Ocean Community Chamber of Commerce, who reported from the back of the hall that she was texting the Westerly police chief and asking him about community officers who do summer traffic control in Watch Hill.

Westerly this summer made $147,000 from parking fines, much more than what it cost to pay the seasonal ticket writers, Konicki quoted the police chief as texting her.

There are plenty of applicants, she said that he told her.

Konicki told me later the police chief was driving when she texted him and she had to wait for him to pull over and answer.

I'm sure many would agree with me that Stonington police do a great job with limited existing resources. And no one wants those well-trained officers to spend a lot of time with ticket books in downtown Mystic.

But traffic enforcement is a police function, and the Board of Selectmen need to make sure police carry it out and have the resources to do so.

Sounds like maybe the town should have a conversation with the Westerly police chief to learn how it can be done with part timers.

My other big takeaway is that the parking problems in Mystic are hardly as dire as the suggested paid parking plan might indicate.

One woman who lives in the heart of things, near the post office, said she never has a problem parking on her street. She said she doesn't see a lot of problems in her frequent walks around town.

A new parking twist that will also provide a lot of relief in coming seasons are plans by big churches to open their lots, either charging or asking for donations.

That's a lot of new spaces to come on line.

A lot of attendees Thursday also said they'd like to see plans developed to create parking lots, with shuttles looping to hotels, out at Interstate 95, which would lessen traffic throughout town.

I was glad to hear the first selectwoman, by the conclusion of Thursday's meeting, suggest she's ready to move on from the plan for hired guns to create a paid parking system and turn her attention to other things, presumably real problems that need solutions.

This is the opinion of David Collins