Given that so many conventions and meetings are in locations where food and other necessities are not easily available to purchase near the venue, I think that logistics should get more consideration. Folk crab about delegates who are no shows – I think a reasonable focus on basic human needs [food, water, access] would lead to fewer no-shows.
There should be some level of food/water available for the post-convention work shops.
Delegates should be able to bring in simple food like peanut butter sandwiches. There has not been “enough” food at any convention I have been to – vendors who stock good food at a reasonable price will sell out even if delegates can bring in peanut butter sandwichs! I promise!!
I also ate a stale, bitter lettuce ham sandwhich which cost $6.00 and was the most disgusting bit of concession food I have ever eaten in four decades of attending events [I will be 60 in July].
Like many others, I cannot stand in line for an extended period. I won’t bore you with my health issues, but “cannot” is accurate.
Yes, we aren’t supposed to bring our own food or drinks.
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p>Presumably the purpose of this restriction is to force us to buy from the vendors inside the arena — but that purpose is defeated when there aren’t enough vendors and they run out of food part way through the event.
I guess it’s a pretty good year for the party, or a boring convention, when the biggest complaints are about the food. Or lack of.
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p>Seems to me it’s simple math to figure out how much food to have on hand. Do they run out at hockey games? It isn’t just Lowell and it isn’t just this year. Same thing has happened before and in Worcester. I assume it’s all part of the rent deal and someone at the DSC picked the menu and amount? Yes?
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p>
This type of enforced monopoly ought to be illegal. I’m not sure if a new committee is needed. It seems that input like what you have given should go to the Site Selection Committee and hopefully they will take all factors into account.
The food issue also falls under the category of disability access. Diabetics, lactose intolerant, gluten intolerant, and people with other food-allergy issues all need to be able to carry in their own food. Not to mention people who can’t stand in line for long periods (or at all).
You are so right. I have a medical condition which could become dangerous if I were to become dehydrated. With the help of my doctor, even the super-strict national Transportation Security Agency allows me to bring my own supply of water aboard airplanes! But at my own party convention I was told “Too bad. You’re out of luck — go spend your hard-earned money on multiple bottles of drinking water at $4 a pop.”
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p>That just ain’t right.
To answer David’s question, it is indeed a restriction of the venue. I know of no large venues that allow people to bring in food. The “Site Selection Committee” for the convention is more or less the logistics committee of the MDP. MDP Staff and DSC members work together with the venues in question. Many may recall the complaints last year when “box lunches” were offered. The suggestion at that time was that existing concessions would be adequate. The feedback is appreciated.
What about people with significant dietary restrictions? What about those who can’t stand in long lines? Surely the party has enough leverage that it can negotiate this kind of thing.
In business, everything is negotiable. Even contracting a venue like Tsongas Arena.
I bring a sausage with onion every single time.
so therefore the city government would have final say over this?
so they must own it. However, the management is contracted to SMG. The type of issues being described are the fault of the contract between the SDC and SMG. For one shot deals like this you must be able to forecast the need and be able to stand behind it. Apparently the SDC took the low risk road and the attendees paid the penalty.
Kate is right. Some of the arenas actually offer the DSC a break on the price for the event as long as we bring in a crowd to buy food. This is not so different from minor league sports events or movies, where much of the profit comes from the concession stand. If the DSC negotiated a different deal in order to expand access to outside food, the delegate fees would probably go up, and the rising price of that fee is also a source of complaints at the DSC each year.
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p>As for access for the disabled, it does stink that people can’t interact freely with their regional delegation and others. My dad was wheelchair dependent for 11 years, and (among other wake-up calls) our whole family grieved that he could not get to the seats he had held for Wolverine football games for forty years. The wheelchair-accessible seats were in the end zone. He ended up being glad he could still get in and enjoy being in the stadium, even though he could barely see the game.
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p>As I recall, the Americans With Disabilities Act is set up so that civil lawsuits define the requirements of the law. It puts a burden on people with disabilities and their advocacy groups to have to sue for their rights. As the interpretation of the law stands, I think the Tsongas Arena and the DSC feel they are in compliance by providing access to the convention proceedings. It won’t be convenient or easy for everyone, but it probably complies with the law in major ways. (I.E., Wheelchair users can access the proceedings but there are probably thresholds over 1/4 inch in height; door handles and faucets may not be closed-fist hardware, etc.)
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p>I don’t know how good or bad the food was this time around, as I didn’t make the trip to Lowell. It is usually the fare you would expect from a sports arena. In the past, I remember people leaving the convention when they thought they could slip out without missing something important to get food outside. I also know that some people smuggled food in.
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p>If people contacted the Tsongas Arena management ahead of time, I expect they would accommodate delegates with dietary restrictions or who cannot stand in line. There may be an organizer for your senate district who could also pair up people with special needs with someone who can solve problems – standing in line for food, for instance – during the day.
for the “What to Expect at the Convention”, I asked what it was important for first time delegates to know. ALL of the many responses I got were advice on how to sneak food into the convention.
I personally didn’t complain about the box lunches, and preferred them greatly over the arena food we got this year. The box lunches weren’t terrific, but at least everyone got one; people didn’t have to wait in line forever; and they weren’t grossly unhealthy, as I remember.
A while back on a different issue, John Walsh wrote that he wasn’t going to be convinced by arguments such as “the Republicans do it and we should, too.”
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p>But it’s often noted that Republicans do provide better food for their events, both for Republicans and the press. Some people attribute the Republicans favorable press treatment to the good logistics.
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p>Given that many Democrats actually see food as a point for political choice and activism (read Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma), it would make sense for the Mass Dems to reconsider the policy against not letting us bring small amounts of our own food.
on account of the Dunkin Donuts boycott.
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p>Tough weekend to forgo the iced coffee.
I expressly remember bringing in a Dunks and donuts to the last GOP convention at the same venue.
We can do better. We really can. There is NO reason that the food, water, and food restrictions of delegates are habitually treated as if suffering is good for us.
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p>I really do think that the decline in attendance is, in part, due to this Procrustean Policy.
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p>Who was Procrustes – look and see:
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p>Rather than “making delegates fit the food choices available at the venue” – how about treating delegates as a valued, honored set of party volunteers and making the experience pleasant?
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p>I think in Lowell they used us to clean the bottom of the bins, and get rid of every stale, unsold, unplatable bit of leftovers scraped from the bottom of the bin.
I’ve never met a politician that understood logistics, or for that matter, cause and effect. It may be frustrating when the result is a bad ham sandwich. It is deadly when leads to starvation as with the ethanol fiasco. We are fortunate that some people in DoD understand more of logistics than the Cheney/Bush administration.
Basically, the only sites that can house a state convention at the price the state party is willing to pay are the DCU Center in Worcester, the Tsongas Arena in Lowell, “sometimes” the Mullins Center in Amherst, and Springfield.
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p>Hence, it is very hard to demand even reasonable things of an arena management, as our choices are so few. I do wonder about the necessity of such large arenas; I’ve rarely seen them at even 1/3 capacity at the conventions.
What’s the going rate for the new convention center in South Boston? Seems like that might be a good choice.
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p>I also suspect that Boston-metro delegates would be willing to pay a slight premium since they wouldn’t have to hoof it all the way to Amherst. After all, Boston is far closer to the weighted average population center of Massachusetts than Lowell, Amherst, or Worcester.
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p>P.S. I can’t find the actual data. Anybody got a link to the Massachusetts center of population?
Center of Population
Since the Globe has saying no traffic since the high end stores are offending the “rubes”, why not there? Heck, don’t even have to cater, just saunter over to the food court (and for anyone who remembers the days of the Wonder Bread factory next door and drive in theatre down the street, boggles the mind that someone can be pushing the Natick Mall as Newbury St. West).
Natick MA is closer to Boston than to Worcester, Lowell, or Amherst. The number of delegates who live within 15, 30, 60, and 90 minutes driving of Boston is higher, and equally important, the number of delegates who live within 15, 30, 60, and 90 minutes by public transit is orders of magnitude higher.
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p>So… Southie? BU? NEU?
Can we fit into either Matthews Arena at Northeastern University, or Agganis Arena at Boston University?
Some would be lost to being “back stage” but the room on the floor would create more.
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p>A fine idea indeed. Parking is tough, but it’s on the green line, and not too far from a commuter rail stop, and there’s plenty of restaurants nearby.
handicap access any.
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p>Personally, I think we should try to use real convention space as often as possible (and certainly any years the party hosts it in Boston). That will go a long way to improving handicap access. For food, we could get it catered and include it as part of the sticker price (even if it has to be bumped up $10-15 more).
While we’re at it, in the age of blogs and email, do we really need a “formal” convention every year? Think about the time and resources- from caucuses to the actual convention- that could be focused elsewhere, if we scaled back on the number of conventions. On election years, yes it is critical, but off-years, not so much.
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p>Next year’s convention will most likely be a dog, just like it was four years ago. My DTC gets 8 delegate slots and, back in ’05 we had to twist arms to get three people to go.
Since last year’s convention in Amherst I am convinced we do not need conventions in odd-numbered years. We should alternate with conventions in the even years and Democratic Campaign Institutes in the odd years. Nominations, platform, and resolutions would be in order at every convention equally.
-Whenever I take leadership roles in any campaign, I have a very simple and basic mantra that I tell any candidates: “Feed your volunteers!” Of course, this was a little different, but by gosh there should have been a better food situation there. It was inexcusable.
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p>-I don’t understand why more people didn’t feel free to bend the rules and bring their own food anyway. Don’t we all, every once in a while, sneak candy into the movie theaters? Next time, pack a few granola bars or a pb&j sandwich or two.
Hey, I snuck a banana and two granola bars in there. If I’d known about the ban before I reached security, I’d have done a better job hiding my water.
One candy bar in the pocket might have worked, but not much more than that.
they weren’t that diligent with my bag…
You must look like a suspicious character, Christopher…
and this was no exception. Yet I got in 3 bananas, a half dozen snack bars, and a water in my backpack. Easy-peasy.
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p>I put ’em on the bottom, and put the DSC newspaper on top. Then, I opened the bag and approached security instead of waiting for them to ask. Open it up, they see the newspaper, and I keep moving. No prob Bob.
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p>If that doesn’t work, never forget the magic four syllables: die ah bet ick.
Should the state party really be tolerating — even quietly encouraging — people attending its annual bash to break the venue’s rules by bringing in food, to the point of strategizing how best to get a banana through security? Shouldn’t it just negotiate better rules?
and at Fenway and at airports and everywhere else. I’m here to educate! 😀
It should be “tolerating” it because it’s inevitable. What’s it going to do? Ban members caught trying to bring food in? I honestly don’t think that the Tsongas arena could have brought better food in – there menus are pretty standard. Two or three hot dog vendors and a pizza vendor. That was it. You can’t squeeze two cars into one parking space…
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p>Democrats are people. People are inevitably going to bend rules. You can’t go to jail for trying to sneak granola bars into the movie theater. It doesn’t even make you a bad person… it makes you a smart one.
A=B
B=C
therefore
A=C
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p>so…democrats are smart to bend the rules.
Got it.
I’m saying that these “no food” rules are stupid, and that by capitulating to them, the party either places delegates in the embarrassing and unbecoming position of sneaking food and water into the arena or forces them to buy overpriced crap. Since neither of those is a good option, the obvious solution is to negotiate around the rules.
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p>Also, of course they could have brought better food in. It just would have cost more.
I took my bicycle on the first morning train from Winchester to Lowell, then rode the bike from the Lowell train station to Tsongas, where I locked the bike to a temporary bike rack.
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p>This was by far the best and greenest way to get to the convention, but as far as I could see, nobody else did this. A few other people took the train, but then had to figure out how to walk to Tsongas, or take LRTA buses (whose Saturday schedule I did not know.)
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p>For the next convention, the Democratic State Committee should publicize and promote the use of both public transportation and bicycles.
That would also lead to less parking congestion.
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p>You get the GREEN award, Ron!!
but realistically, unless they hold the convention in Boston, it’s not likely to have a significant impact.
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p>A better way to dramatically reduce the amount of congestion for non-Boston conventions? Expensive parking detailed in the lit early and often, combined with extra pressure and tools for DTCs to organize car pooling. There’s plenty now, but I suspect that 100 car trips could have been eliminated with more car-pooling, which is significant.
If the convention is held in Lowell, the train is a reasonable option for anyone who lives in Boston, Cambridge, Somerville, Medford, Arlington, Winchester … that’s a lot of delegates. The State Committee should charter a shuttle bus to meet the 8 am train and take people to Tsongas, instead of people having to find their own way by foot, bicycle, LRTA bus, or taxi.
The train runs every two hours. That’s a pretty big gap.
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p>For me to take the train from my home near Kenmore Square to Lowell would take:
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p>45 mins Kenmore to Gov’t Ctr
15 mins Gov’t Ctr to North Station
45 mins North Station to Lowell
15 mins Lowell to Tsongas
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p>That’s a solid two hours. The drive was 45 minutes. That’s hardly compelling my friend.
was $20-30 or more, I wouldn’t have gone. And I was a presenter at one of the workshops… who just happens to have basically no cash right now, because I’m between jobs.
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p>At some point we need to realize that we’re trying to attract people to these things. Sure, we’d like less cars, but this society works based off cars. Before we start trying to stop people from using them, we need to have an infrastructure that can handle it. The current one doesn’t, even in cases like Lowell – where there is a train – because no one knew about it and there were few (largely unknown) means to get people from the train to the arena, which was more than a mile away. On a 90 degree + day, it’s probably a good thing that most of the people at that arena weren’t walking in that heat.
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p>Part of having a good infrastructure is providing easy tools for people to navigate and know about it. Currently, that doesn’t exist.
For the love of Pete, if you don’t know of the MBTA Rye, that’s a big freaking gap in your knowledge of Massachusetts. And I have news for you, a mile in 90 degree heat is not hazardous to most people’s health.
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p>Should the MADems have done a better job of informing delegates about the train and it’s schedule? Yip. Should they have had a shuttle bus? Sure. Would those things have happened in coordination with a high price for parking? Of course.
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p>P.S. Carpooling with others, a $20 tab is still “only” $5 a head. The high price of parking stimulates people carpooling as much [I think more] than them taking the train.
to know about the MBTA than it is to know the routes of the MBTA in Lowell, or even if there was an MBTA in Lowell. At some point around there, the MBTA ceases to exist.
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p>
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p>Really? As you begged for on another topic, where are the links that prove your point? What out of the past few DSC events has inspired such confidence?
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p>
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p>I don’t care how pie-in-the-sky high your idealism on this matter is, but idea/plan/whatever will only inspire more people to sit home on their arses. Surely, that’s not your goal?
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p>http://www.mbta.com
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p>Just let your fingers do the walking.
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p>
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p>Yes, really. If the SDC was going to go through all the trouble of coordinating a higher parking fee with the expressed purpose of encouraging more delegates to carpool or take the train to the convention, then yes, they’d also coordinate that encouragement in the form of reminding delegates about the MBTA and a shuttle bus. Am I holding my breath for this sort of coordination? Of course not. The state Democratic party isn’t anywhere near visionary enough to make the connection between cheap parking and driving alone, and wouldn’t even start the process no less coordinate it.
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p>
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p>Frankly, I disagree. We’re talking about an event with a starting time, thats 10s of miles away from people’s homes. We’re also talking about people organized enough to show up to the caucus at the right time to get themselves elected, and town committees coordinated enough to host them. Helping a few people coordinate a carpool is hardly a heavy enough burden when compared to the burdens that delegates already undergo to come to the convention, including the $75 per delegate fee, the travel time to and fro, and an entire Saturday in June.
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p>So yeah, I’d be willing to risk that a few people so insistent that they both (i) don’t pay the extra parking fee and (ii) don’t carpool or mass-trans it stay home on their arse. I think the gains [savings of money and environment, encouraging community building through carpooling, and just plain putting our money where our mouth is] would be worth it.
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p>Even if it means that you would stay home because you weren’t willing to take the train and walk a mile or weren’t willing to car pool or weren’t willing to pay the extra parking fee. I’d miss you Rye, but I’d soldier on.
The commuter train is the MBTA’s only presence in Lowell. Lowell buses are run by the url=Lowell Regional Transit Authority (LRTA)[/url] which very few people outside of Lowell would have any reason to know about.
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p>LRTA’s web site is primitive and not helpful in any way for answering questions such as “Is there a bus from the train station to Tsongas, and if so, when does it run on Saturdays?”
URL got messed up in the above comment. Should be http://www.lrta.com .
was a reference to the commuter rail, which would deliver delegates to Lowell, roughly a mile from Tsongas.
The lots around a particular venue are generally private property.
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p>Even if you get a lot to raise its prices, why wouldn’t attendees just go to some other lot, and walk for 5 minutes rather than spend hours and hours on the commuter rail?
not a prescription for Lowell in particular.
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p>Who owns the lot closest to the Tsongas arena — a multi story garage?
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p>P.S. The idea isn’t to get people to take the train… the idea is to get people to not drive. As in, ride in the passenger seat or the back seat. $20 for parking split four ways is only a fiver.
your idea is to get as many people to sit home on their asses as possible. I’m sorry if this is a brutally honest truth, but it doesn’t negate the fact that it is a truth.
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p>I’m all for limiting the amount people drive and to lower greenhouse gasses. But, I’m sorry, the once-a-year Democratic State Convention isn’t where the testing ground should be. If we want to lower greenhouse gasses, then let’s legislate it. What would be a better idea? Limit the engagement of people at the state convention, or enforce much stricter emission standards? Let’s focus our energy on the effective ideas, please…
because RyePower says so.
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p>I say it ain’t. Looks like we’re at an impasse.
why you don’t think anyone would be prevented from going to the state convention if we artificially created a much more expensive process, or forced them to carpool. Maybe carpooling’s no big deal to you, but for people outside the beltway… people don’t actually live near each other. Or near public transportation. Furthermore, it’s an additional barrier. Every barrier we put up will prevent some people from coming. The (probably necessary) high price tag of the current event already precludes many from coming. I didn’t go as a delegate because I wasn’t willing to pay the price as is, since I just don’t have a lot of free cash at the moment.
Feel free to explain your “truths”.
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p>Delegations are broken up by town, and of course then by senate district. In almost all cases, delegates live closer to the other delegates than Tsongas by 10s of miles — even the [relatively few] delegates outside the beltway. This makes carpooling (in an effort to save money on a higher parking price) not a substantial burden.
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p>Might this extra burden prevent some from coming? I doubt it. If the extra $15 is a burden, then the delegate can do the exact same thing you could have done but failed to do… apply for a reduced [free] rate due to financial hardship.
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p>The state Democratic party has made the price of the convention optional. So, given the choice between (i) driving yourself to the convention and paying $5 for parking, or (ii) carpooling to the convention and throwing in your $5 for parking, how is this about cost again?
if you can’t see that adding extra barriers to something means less people will do it, then you’re blinding yourself.
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p>Stomv, usually you’re a much more rational person. Hopefully, in the future, this won’t become a trend.
you usually read a person’s comments and respond to them, instead of digging your heels in the sand and your fingers in your ears. Hopefully, in the future, this won’t become a trend.
Maybe it is because I am an incurable hunter for cheap parking. Or because I live where I live, and (assuming I were travelling to an event in Lowell) a ride for the full length of the Worcester line followed by a ride of the full length of the Lowell line, both of which run infrequently and unreliably, would be akin to being waterboarded.
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p>If the lot closest to the Tsongas Arena is artificially expensive, then people will simply park at the second-closest lot, or circle around to find something on the street, and walk a few blocks.
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p>I suppose this is a minor dispute, in that it is a dispute over a hypothetical that is unlikely to become reality, at least with respect to local political conventions.
I don’t know the parking layout around Tsongas, and clearly this would have to be a coordinated event.
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p>But, as a searcher of cheap parking, if you knew parking was $20 or more near Tsongas, would you be more or less likely to carpool to the event?
I don’t think it has an effect.
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p>1. Even if parking is $20 near the arena, I know I can park for less than that by walking a mile. Kind of like parking at a meter by the Holiday Inn on Beacon Street for a Red Sox game. ($30 right next to Fenway, $0 for walking a mile.)
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p>2. The only thing that would make me reluctant to walk would be a third factor: 100 degree weather, driving rain, a sprained ankle. Trouble is, each of these are also a disincentive to using public transportaion.
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p>3. Tangentially relevant, because (i) this has no bearing on a car pool, and (ii) I realize that you would hold an event somewhere other than Lowell in order to maximize public transport convenience: Public transportation isn’t possible from way out here anyway. The festivities started in Lowell at 10:00 am, which means that a train rider needed to be on the 8:00 out of North Station, which means… oops, the first train out of Worcester doesn’t even leave until 8:00AM, so no soup for you.
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p>Anyway, all of this doesn’t mean I don’t support your overall objective of altering the incentives presently extant.
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p>Although sometimes I wonder why anyone would care to halt or even slow the progress of global warming, which may just be the the greatest thing ever to happen to mankind, ever.
Did I miss something here? There was a flat fee of $5.00 to park in the garage next to the Tsongas arena the other day. It was the only reasonable charge I encountered the entire weekend!
ranges from $20,000 to $60,000 per space, $5 parking is entirely unreasonable methinks. The public is subsidizing parking, and I just don’t understand why we do it.
let me make it clear that I don’t favor jacking up the parking charges in order to force people into carpools or trains or bicycles.
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p>What I DO favor is having the convention promote use of public transportation, which means:
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p> – publish the train schedule
– charter a shuttle bus to meet certain trains, and publish the schedule of those shuttle buses
– remind people that they can bring a bicycle on the train
– publish a walking and/or bicycling route between the train station and the arena
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p>Except for the shuttle bus, none of this costs anything.
Under the hypothetical $20 parking,
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p>If you want to carpool and pay $5-$10, go for it.
If you want to drive alone and pay $20, go for it.
If you want to walk/train/cycle and pay $0, go for it.
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p>Where’s the force? The elegance is that the end result is more carpooling without force.
I parked next to Lowell High. Paid $8 in a garage owned by the city.
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p>Maybe it’s the influence of living near Boston, but single-digit parking near a major arena is a steal in my book.
in the garage right next to the arena. I agree; single-digit parking fees are a bargain. I was ecstatic with the affordable parking.
Well, I am indeed on Michigan and so hard core, that I am online using the computer-room computer in the assisted living facility where my 95 year old father now lives.
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p>#! Parking was not a problem – except for the handicapped – lot A which was to be “reserved” for handicap folks was already full and closed at 8:30 AM so folks with canes, walkers, wheelchairs, etc. were on their own. Maybe having a way to collect the numbers/note the needs of delegates could lead to there being “enough” handicap parking?
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p>#2 Accessibility generally – NOT well handled.
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p>#3 Food – appalling, no accommodation for special needs, not enough for those who did attend – IMAGINE if all delegates had attended?
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p>I DO understand logistics, planning, and data analysis. I agree that thinking ahead, and truly planning DOES seem to be in short supply in the political arena and that a “Logistics Committee” would, I believe, strengthen out party.
The thing I like best about having the convention in Lowell is the $5 parking garage right next to the Arena. It costs a lot more to go to Worcester and Springfield. I don’t like to pay for parking. I own a car, but I don’t use it very much and it probably takes me 5 years to put on the mileage that most people put on in 1 year.
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p>Why should Democrats need higher cost incentives to carpool. I had a carpool. The delegates in my city had many carpools and the PDSers have always organized car pools to get to the convention. Ron we certainly could have fit you in and I think you got a notice about the Somerville carpools via email.
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p>Kate Donahue organized carpools here on BMG. Every city and town should be encouraged to organize some car pools.
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p>I don’t need the financial incentive to do it. Hey 4 people in a car dividing the $5 parking fee is $1.25. I’m perfectly happy to save the other $3.75. If the State party artificially jacked up the parking fees that would just make me mad.
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p>Public Transportation instructions would be helpful and should be included in every Call to Convention. Those who can use it…great. But the reality is that the venue locations are not in locations where the majority of STATE-WIDE delegates can get there via public transportation. Most delegates don’t live in Boston, Cambridge and Somerville where we take public transportation as an everyday alternative.
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p>Raising the parking fee would penalize those who don’t live anywhere near access to public transportation, those who are of lower income, those who are elderly or disabled and can’t park at the further away cheaper parking options.
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p>It was me who first started the food complaints about this convention…because I was starving. Luckily I was not thirsty because I have secret foolproof ways to smuggle water in. I did not smuggle food in, but I know people whose food was found in their bags and discarded. I heard of a table vendor who wanted to have a bowl of candy on their table and IT was confiscated by security too.
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p>Last year at Amherst the box lunches seemed like a great idea, but after getting them they turned out to be SO over priced. $10 for a very thin sandwich with very little filling, a 50 cent bag of potato chips and an apple. (at least that is how I remember it). The reason I opted for the box lunch last year was that I had absolutely no idea if anything else would be available. I had no idea if the University venue had food options in the building or if they would be open the day of the convention. From the offer of the box lunch option, I assumed that there wouldn’t be any other options. So it made me a little upset when I got to the lunch location and found that they had a number of food stations open and they had a healthy variety of food at lower cost than the box lunch that I had already paid for. Of course at this year’s convention I looked back fondly and nostagically at that box lunch.
I don’t know how the “let’s raise parking charges” suggestion came about, but I’m not the one who made it. I’m happy to see it stay a low $5. The advantage of the train+bike was not cost, but rather avoiding waiting in a traffic jam to get into the garage.
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p>Under most circumstances I would have been happy to carpool with PDS, but I like to exercise and the train happened to be convenient for this purpose.
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p>The one time I went to a convention in Springfield (1990) it was a lot less convenient than Lowell, because I had to stay overnight in a motel across the state line in Connecticut!
And it came because the reality is that high prices for parking* encourage people to carpool. There are roughly five kinds of people coming to the convention:
* Those who carpool already. This is not a substantial burden, as a $20 fee is only $3.75 more than a $5 fee when divided by four.
* Those who don’t carpool already but now would. If four people were going to drive alone, they’d all pay $5. Now, they still pay $5, only three fewer cars drive all the way to the convention.
* Those who don’t carpool already and can’t, but who can afford the extra $15. They pay it, and it’s a bad break, but almost no policy benefits everyone directly. They’ll have to settle for the environmental gain along with their financial loss.
* Those who don’t carpool already and can’t, and who can’t afford the extra $15. Just as the SDC has financial waivers for entrance, they could just as easily have a waiver for the parking fee. Problem solved.
* Those who don’t use an auto to get to the convention. Their status remains unchanged and they are unaffected.
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p>Nobody likes to pay high prices for parking. Nobody likes to pay $4/gallon for gas. Both schemes are harder on the poor, but both discourage driving. In cases where people are coming from the same town and driving 10s of miles to arrive at the same destination, carpooling is a natural, but some folks need a little extra financial help making the decision. I can’t think of a single class of people for whom this could result in them not coming to the convention, but I can think of a class of people who would choose to carpool instead of driving alone, and that’s exactly the point.
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p> * If it’s universal. Obviously, if a $20 lot is next to a $5 lot, this doesn’t work.