Paul McMorrow (“Standing up for car-free development,” Op-ed, March 12) chastises Boston officials for declining to throw their support behind an Allston development that would bypass parking spot requirements. When my husband and I lived in Allston years ago, being in the city let us get by with one car instead of two; however, we’d have been hard pressed to do without that one.
McMorrow says that more than half of Boston residents (by which he means residents who have jobs, I assume) get to work by other means than cars. Is he saying that they walk, bike, or take the T every day or once in a while, or something in between? Is his point that they do not own cars at all, or do they have them for other uses?
When he speaks of 27,000 more car-free workers than there were 10 years ago, some readers may be misled into overlooking the greater number of workers who do use cars, as the overall population has grown by more than 10 percent.
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McMorrow does not say how the car-free status of tenants would be enforced or how to allow for the vehicles of guests and service providers without using on-street parking spaces available to current neighborhood residents. I wonder whether the developer has addressed these points.
If so many are car-free, why is parking still a problem at all? I’d say the city is right in being cautious.