BOSTON — New residential parking restrictions may be a welcome sign for people who live in East Boston, but local shop owners say it’s going to hurt business.
Some businesses say they depend on the long term parking for their customers and for their employees.
"I don't know what to do," business owner George Rozantes said.
It's not easy to find parking around Eagle Hill in East Boston, which is exactly why the city installed new signs this week with two hour residential parking restrictions. But Rozantes wants to know why the signs have to be right in front of his auto shop.
"People aren't going to want to come," Rozantes said. "Employees aren't going to want to work here if they're going to get tickets every day."
For 30 years, Rozantes says his customers and employees have relied on Border Street's open parking.
"We do our best and now, really, I don't know what to do," said Rozantes.
Rodrigo Mijangos runs an auto body repair shop right next door and he says he "freaked out" when he saw the signs.
"We've been moving the cars around just to avoid the tickets," Mijangos said. "I mean, I think that's one of the purposes, why they want to do it. Just you know, for the tickets."
Last year, the city issued just exactly 160,009 tickets for residential parking violations across Boston. At $25 a piece, that's quite a bit of revenue.
Boston City Councilor Salvatore LaMattina said many commuters trying to the catch the T or a plane out of Logan will park in East Boston for hours, sometimes days.
"We're not here to hurt people," LaMattina said. "We put the signs up there and use it as a tool so if we have to enforce we're able to enforce. So we're not going to hurt businesses."
Naser Awad runs a department store on Border Street, but he welcomes the new restrictions.
"I love it. I love it," Awad said. "More customers will come in with more opportunity for other people to park."
The rules for residential parking change depending on your neighborhood, but in East Boston, they don't enforce the restrictions after 8 p.m. and on the weekends.