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The Cities Blog
Elizabeth Dunbar

Thaw not enough to lift Mpls winter parking rules

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As snow and ice disappeared off of roofs and sidewalks this past week, some of us wondered if the Minneapolis winter parking restrictions would go away, too.

Not yet.

Tom Crann and Sam Choo of MPR's All Things Considered did a ride-along today with Mike Kennedy, director of transportation, maintenance and repair for the city of Minneapolis. Their reporting focused on potholes, but they also asked Kennedy about the parking restrictions, which call for parking on only one side of the street on non-snow emergency routes.

"Yes, we've lost a lot of snow cover," Kennedy said. "But the windrows that restricted the streets have not really receded as much. We still have very narrow conditions."

Without the restrictions, fire trucks would still have a hard time getting through, Kennedy said, adding that crews did some measurements during the thaw to make sure.

The other issue: Winter isn't over. It could snow again as soon as Sunday.

"If we get the 4 to 6 inches that they're talking about, we'll be right back to where we were when we had to implement [the rules]," Kennedy said.

So much for that hopeful "winter is almost over" feeling many of us got during the thaw.

Last year the winter parking restrictions went away the first week of March. Kennedy said the parking restrictions will be lifted by April 1 at the latest.