Thanks, Mr. Citizen Traffic Engineer

On April 8, residents of Alabama Street between Polk and Howard avenues got approval for a shot at doubling the parking spaces on their street from 23 to 46, by turning the parallel parking on the east side by 90 degrees to “head-in” parking.

Thanks to the effort of Rick Yesh, who said he moved to the block about seven months ago, the city traffic engineering staff will formalize the project that increases parking in the heavily populated area.

"Parking has always always been a problem there," said Ron Olson, who owns property on the street. "We're doubling our spaces and I'm happy to see that."

Yesh got the idea one night when he came home and couldn't find a parking spot. "If I want to have people over, forget about it," he said.

Yesh went door-to-door with a petition to make the change and came back with 81 percent of the residents voting for the improvements. The traffic engineering department drew formal plans once they had the petition; city rules require 75 percent approval to consider a project like this.

On April 8, he presented the plan to the North Park Planning Group, which voted unanimously to approve it. At the meeting, Yesh came in with the signatures of 13 neighbors who hadn't responded earlier. Their votes were assumed to be against the idea until he produced them (per city rules).

Several people asked if the parking could be back-in instead of head-in.

"There are real safety considerations for bicycles and pedestrians; it can be very alarming when you try to cross the streets because visibility can be very poor," said Amanda Moss. She noted that when similar improvements happened on Kansas Street, a few blocks from her home, parking on the surrounding blocks got better, too.

The Kansas Street project, two blocks of head-in parking on one side of the street, was a planning group pilot project launched four years ago. Although people expressed a lot of concerns about visibility and risks to drivers and bicyclists, reputedly, there haven't been any accidents there.

The planning group asked the city to explore back-in parking as part of the final process.

Chairwoman Dionné Carlson praised Yesh's efforts and said she hopes he remains involved with the group.

"Many people complain about things but few step up and do the work that Mr. Yesh put into this," Carlson said. "His idea will have a positive impact not just on his block but on the surrounding streets as well."