
A Peaks Island resident reported this morning she is using the Ocean Gateway Parking Garage on Fore Street with no problems so far. Last Thursday twenty Islanders received notification by email they could no longer use the garage, owned by developer Jonathan Cohen. United Parking Partners, “UPP”s who manages the lot, blamed the city for the evictions. City manager Jon Jennings said to blame the city was “cowardly.”
District 1 City Councilor Belinda Ray emailed Peaks tenants of the garage they would get a reprieve until Tuesday, yesterday, while negotiations were underway. No word whatsoever has been received by these Islanders about their current parking status at the garage from Councilor Ray or anyone else either. In fact, city officials appear to be going out of their way to lay low on the subject – claiming no knowledge of the issue or just not returning emails and telephone calls. Maybe it’s just an embarrassing episode for the city to acknowledge – messing up.
City spokeswoman Jessica Grondin yesterday emailed mhn.com that she knew nothing at all about the evictions. News to her! Likewise, there has been no “sorry for the inconvenience’ and “please don’t hesitate to let us know if there are future issues” coming from the city either. That would be an admission of an error that big egos won’t permit. Not much transparency at city hall.
Parking is always a source of concern for Islanders coming to the city because it is scarce with all of the new construction in that area. A source from Casco Bay Lines parking garage told mhn.com earlier this week they received about a dozen or more inquiries from people who were evicted to see if they could get in there. He told them “no.” That garage has a waiting list of many years he told me.
Please see previous post herein for more background information on the evictions of Peaks tenants from the Fore Street garage.