Not Free Parking

The City Council is considering a proposal to increase parking meters from a quarter an hour to 50 cents. The goal is to get downtown business employees out of the meter spots and into the parking garage. Of course, generating new revenue has nothing to do with it.

As Councilor Ted DeSalvatore pointed out, the better way to get employee cars off the street and into the garage is to inforce the two-hour limit. A parking ticket is a much better incentive to move rather than an extra quarter an hour. It's also prudent to try to make parking as cheap as possible to alleviate one more reason to not go downtown.

The increase might help solve the problem, but it creates an unfair fee increase for folks who come downtown for business. Should someone stopping at the library or City Hall or Espresso pizza be nailed for an extra quarter just because employees can't do the right thing? A quarter isn't much to get riled up about, granted, but sometimes it's the little things.

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We've neglected the state of affairs regarding a bike trail through Fitchburg and Leominster. Somehow, a narrow sliver of unusable land that used to be a railroad is worth $9 million? Six times what a local appraisal price tagged the land. It's possible (OK, very possible) that the $1.5 millino figure is too low, but there's no doubt the $9 million is way too high. Let the negotiating begin!

Obviously, a bike trail would be a benefit to both Fitchburg and Leominster. The trail would run from Carter Park in Leominster to Halloween World in Fitchburg. Somehow, Fitchburg needs to find a way to connect the trail to downtown in the future. That should be a no-brainer.

There is still a way to go on this, the state could step in, the land could be officially abandoned, CSX could get a little community-minded (CSX contact information), or some other turning point could present itself. The effort is being spearheaded by Twin City Trails. They have a website, and it hasn't been updated in a while, but we're sure they'd love to hear of some support.