Snow Parking In Many Spaces Throughout Philadelphia
By Pat Loeb
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - If you're hoping to park curbside in Philadelphia any time soon, good luck. On-street parking-- always in short supply-- has been sharply reduced by snow, and there are no plans to remove it.
"A lot of the spots haven't been shoveled out or there's big mounds of snow so it's kind of difficult to find a spot in town," Scott Goldsleger tells KYW Newsradio.
Goldsleger says he lucked out in Old City. It only took a few times around the block to find a space he felt safe pulling his SUV into. But the snow that remains piled by curbs is a nuisance to SEPTA riders, who must navigate them when they get off buses, and taxis who can't pull over to pick up fares.
"So I park in the middle of the street when I pick up the customer and some people is old people, you have handicapped," says taxi driver Badoui.
He says he has resorted to parking illegally the last few days, because many taxi stands are piled high with snow, but he says ticket writers have been unsympathetic:
"Right away, he's writing the ticket and he gives me the ticket and he's leaving, that's it."
Streets Commissioner David Perri says the city simply doesn't have the resources to clear every street curb to curb and the melt expected later in the week won't necessarily help. He says he expects a lot of potholes to form and the city may have to shift from clearing streets to repairing them.
In an email, Perri repeated the statistic frequently cited in response to complaints about snow: "There are 2,450 miles of streets in the city; they can't all be plowed curb to curb."
Drivers seem resigned to the situation, even if it's taking much longer to find a space:
"I guess we've accepted it," this driver says. "Just chalk it up as a weird year."