By Tony Zeli
In a growing city, available on-street parking is a limited resource. For the past two years, the neighbors near Maine Medical Center (MMC) in downtown Portland have had a particularly tough time finding parking near their homes. The problem they say: MMC employees.
The evidence is the stickers in the front windshield that allow employees to park in the employee garage. Also, it isn’t hard to spot employee badges and scrubs as people come and go. Some cars stay parked for entire shifts. Some employees take breaks to move their cars or wipe chalk off marked tires.
MMC has about 7,500 people working at the hospital at any given time, with 2,000 to 3,000 people parking at any one time. That is a lot of pressure in a congested neighborhood. It’s not surprising to hear neighbors are also finding it to be a safety issue. Rushed employees – instead of walking half a mile up the hill from the employee garage or grabbing an employee shuttle – rush through the neighborhood, blowing past stop signs and being a “menace.” Respecting the work they do, neighborhood representatives ask hospital employees to respect their neighborhood and use the 13-story employee garage on St. John Street.
“We gave up land in the neighborhood to have that garage built,” said Moses Sabina, representing neighborhood concerns as a representative for St. John Valley on the MMC Neighborhood Advisory Committee (NAC), “We deserve to have a place to park.”
MMC parking policy prohibits parking on public streets. But enforcement is not easy, and the problem is ongoing.
NEIGHBORHOOD CONCERNS
Representatives for the surrounding neighborhoods have been raising concerns at the advisory committee meetings since at least March 2022. Even then, they noted in meeting minutes that overnight parking by MMC staff had been on the increase for the past two years. Also noted, “Staff parking on the street was seen when the employee garage was full.”
Later in September 2022, neighborhood reps reported, “Vaughn Street had been full of cars lately,” and “People in scrubs have been seen passing there.” In March of this year, “Night shift staff are taking up on-street parking spaces needed by residents without off-street parking.”
They recognized the convenience of on-street parking. They noted that most MMC employees don’t – and can’t afford – to live on the peninsula.
MMC RESPONSE
As of April, MMC said they were documenting who is parking in the neighborhoods and acting against repeat offenders, including notifying managers and MMC Human Resource Department of repeat occurrences within 12 months.
MMC said they periodically send reminders of parking policy to employees via e-newsletters. Also, there is a new plan for MMC security to provide one written notice to those violating parking policy. That notice had not been drafted as of print.
Despite the response, there are difficulties in enforcement. For instance, it’s easy not to display an employee sticker on a car. Also, violators may be undeterred by a $35 ticket.
According to an email from MMC communications director Matt Wickenheiser, “MMC Security’s role and authority on public streets is extremely limited; MMC enforces its policies to the best of its abilities but defers to the proper authorities for parking violations on city parking, that being the city parking department.”
Meanwhile, city parking has been dealing with staffing issues. John Peverada, Portland Parking Division Director said, “We try to have two officers assigned to the area every day, but sometimes there are staffing challenges. Another challenge is some people parking on the street attempt to wipe chalk off their tires, but we also use LPR (License Plate Recognition).” LPR is technology that allows parking officers to image license plates.
MORE IDEAS
Neighborhood representatives recently discussed other options to help alleviate the problem. Some want a way to report problem cars. But there needs to be a process and so far no one has shown interest in collecting the information.
Another idea is to flyer cars. Ideally, said Moses Sabina, any communication to the health care workers would thank them for the work they do and ask them to please respect the neighborhood.
