There is very little parking for staff around our schools, and sadly too many can't afford to live in Cambridge.

If that problem exists, the schools should work toward expanding the parking areas, not simply allow staff to park anywhere.

City Hall – DR assigned this issue to Cambridge Public Schools

Thank you for reporting your concern to City of Cambridge via Commonwealth Connect. We have reviewed the information you provided our staff and will be investigating this issue further.

After having listened to last night's meeting about "safety improvements" on Mass Ave around Porter Square and the priority given to single-occupancy private vehicles (a probably-unfair summary might be that, if it is slow and inconvenient to park or drive, maybe they will stop doing that), I hope the schools, and the city more generally, will consider incentives to increased car pooling, shared van arrangements, shuttles from the Alewife or Porter T if the 83 bus is not sufficient, etc., as well as just reducing green space in favor of parking. To be clear, I do agree it is a problem and that staff should have a way to get to their jobs. But I also agree that allowing parking anywhere is not a good answer.

We contacted the school again and they checked the list of vehicles their staff owns. This vehicle is not on the list and it doesn't belong to any of our staff. They also provided following feedback:
"I do think it's the cleaning crew for the house across the street. I remember seeing them park there and get out with supplies and go across the street."
Thank you.

The schools could help alleviate such problems by placing barrels or similar objects to make the former lawn off limits until the City or the school district reseeds the area.

I suggested reseeding of this formerly grassy area by the Schools or the City, but there has been no commitment. Will this happem?

@DRGA: I don't know if the problem of people --presumably unrelated to the school per the above-- parking there has been resolved, but, if not, barrels or even bollards or a minimal fence, should be part of any reseeding project. The last think any newly-planted or reseeded grass area needs is people parking cars or trucks on it.

We have forwarded your request for barrels and reseeding to the DPW. Thank you.

The DPW will reseed the area and block off the access in the next 2-3 weeks.

Again, thanks.

Indeed, thanks.

It’s been nearly a month and reseeding has not occurred. Will this happen?

DPW is contemplating planting trees instead of grass. It needs to be coordinated with an arborist.
Cambridge Public Schools have placed the caution tape and traffic barrels to prevent others from parking there. CPS has been checking the area and has seen no violators so far. Thank you.

Trees, if feasible, would seem to me to be a much more satisfactory long-term solution than [re]seeding grass, so thanks about thinking about this creatively (and for getting a temporary solution in place for the interim)

I spoke with CPS and they did not remove the barrels/tape but will be placing them back there to discourage the parking until DPW is able to seed and/or plant trees.