To the Editor,
I was surprised to see an article advocating allowing added parking on Beach Street with a town By Law change. Parking past Tappan Street was recently and decisively voted down at Town Meeting and the result was put in the By Laws by citizen partition.
This stretch of Beach Street is one of the most beautiful in town with no utility poles, with Masconomo Park on one side where the Friends of Manchester Trees planted new trees, and a forest of 200-year-old Oaks on the other side. It is also one of the most traveled due to beach parking lots and people just "spinning the beach." It is also a major walking route. Why spoil if with more parked cars?
You can be sure, at least during the warmer weather, that they will be filled up with out-of-town beach goers and dog walkers. In the past scramble for free parking, there were U-Turns at Old Neck Road and even vehicles going the wrong way on Sea Street. There was no room for two-way traffic with bicycles allowing space to avoid a sudden opening of car doors.
For the rest of the year, those spaces will be mostly vacant since all of the nearby businesses have ample parking. 40 Beach Street and Cape Ann Savings Bank mini malls, Crosby's and Manchester Hardware have their own parking. Even the Post Office has two 15-foot spaces where at least one of them is usually vacant.
If this 88-year-old can still bike or walk for village errands, surely there are a few folks younger and closer to the village than me who could do the same. (Electric vehicles excepted).
Granted we are only talking about two spaces, but I fear this is only the beginning once we have overcome the By Law hurdle. Special events in Masconomo Park would be exempted.
George P. Smith
Manchester
