“Dear PoPville,
Do you have any information on why roads all around Adams Morgan near Kalorama Triangle are restricted for parking?
It’s typical for small stretches of parking to be restricted for several days or longer, but for the past several weeks, large areas of most streets all over my neighborhood (Kalorama/Columbia/Belmont and surrounding roads) have been blocked. It’s becoming very difficult to find a parking space anywhere because. On any given day, 30-40% of roads have been restricted from parking with no explanation other than city ordinance.
Here are some photos as well as a map of the neighborhood with areas that have been blocked off over the past ~2 weeks on and off marked in red.
More areas than those that are marked may have been closed; I have only paid attention to those in the immediate viscinity. The areas in the image that are not marked in red have been unavailable for parking because all spaces are always occupied due to the other areas being restricted. There’s simply not enough parking spaces. I walk and take public transportation as much as possible, but I do need a car to visit my elderly father out in Virginia, and this neighborhood also has many restaurants and other retail establishments that depend on a customer base who drive
Several streets that are currently blocked with city-issued no-parking signs list “moving truck” as the reason, but all of these areas presently block at least the length of 10 cars. When I last moved, I believe that the length of two moving trucks, or approximately four cars, was the maximum area that could be blocked. Presently, the entire length of Belmont Road between 19 and 20 is blocked for moving trucks. Parking is always competitive in this area to say the least, and usually if I move my car around dawn from a restricted parking area, there are some open spaces, but recently, the only open spaces within a half mile of my home near Kalorama Park have been on roads whose full lengths have been marked with restricted-parking signs.
Various areas also are blocked for tree maintenance equipment on various days.
All of these reasons for limiting parking are common, but I’ve lived here for eight years and I have never seen so many roads blocked simultaneously, so extensively, and so frequently that it leaves little room to park. I will be going out of town for a week within a couple of weeks and I am concerned that wherever my car is parked at the time will become blocked after I leave and it could be towed or ticketed. There just doesn’t seem to be any ‘safe’ place to park at the moment or for the past several weeks, and I have not seen any advisory from the city explaining why so many roads are restricted at this one time and how long to expect it to last.”