The skirmishes between the Charles Village Community Association and the Department of Public Works have come to an end, or at least a cease-fire.
The warring parties faced one another early Wednesday evening at the Images Cafe in the St. Paul Court building and hammered out an agreement under the watch of City Councilman Bernard “Jack” Young D-2).
In what the Andre Smith of the DPW calls a “tentative agreement,” the residents have given up several blocks of angled permit parking on 31st Street. For their part, the DPW will keep that street one-way, remove meters from 30th Street between St. Paul and Hargrove Streets, and keep its one-way traffic pattern.
“Hopefully the agreement will be honored,” said Councilman Young.
. This detente ends a six-month tug- of-war between the DPW and the residents of Charles Village. While the city sees the need to add metered parking for the growing commercialization in that corner of the city, the residents, largely apartment dwellers, also need parking spaces. As community activist Louis Rosenstock pointed out, without adequate parking, many of the residents would merely move to the county.
On at least three occasions, DPW crews descended onto the community with the intent on altering the traffic flow. On all three occasions, they were eventually turned away with various petitions, meetings and protests.
Finally, the president of the North Charles Business Association, Alice Brock, threw her support behind the CCVA, and another nearby merchant wrote a letter stating that he did not want metered parking in front of his store—he had to park there, after all. The deal was done. With the majority of businesses and residents in agreement, the issue should be resolved.