Zipcar in Salem? You can make it happen.

We all know that Salem is a very walkable city.  Where it falls flat for many residents of the down town and surrounding neighborhoods is the lack of a quality grocery store. Sure, there are a few Stop & Shops and Market Baskets near by but not really withing walking distance. And I realize you can have your groceries delivered to you via peapod but that’s not really the point.

It seems like people in Salem more than other communities try to live “green” lives. I often see people carrying reusable bags and recycling.  We host a Green Living Fair in June and who hasn’t seen those lime green vegetable oil burning Mercedes turbo diesels around town?

Zipcar

Zipcar the low down

What is zipcar?
In case you are unfamiliar with zipcar.com, it is a service that you can join which allows you to reserve and use a car kept locally within a neighborhood. Most people who use these cars do so for short trips, to the grocery or the mall, maybe a run to ikea or Home Depot. Zipcar is a Massachusetts based company and has a cult like following in cities like Cambridge, New York City, San Francisco and now internationally in places like London, and Toronto.

How does that relate to Salem?
For some time now Salem residents who don’t own a car or don’t want to own a car have been asking Zipcar to come to Salem.  Zipcar has listened and on April 5th spoke in front of the Parking Board (minutes can be found here).

Zipcar is requesting six parking spaces in Salem. Two in the Church Street lot adjacent to the cinema, two in the Sewall Street lot by the YMCA and two in Riley Plaza West lot by Steve’s market. As you would expect the Parking Board asked questions regarding liability, snow emergency concerns and what we have come to expect from them compensation. In the end nothing was resolved and the meeting was adjourned

So now what?
The next Parking Board meeting will be held on Monday May 3, 2010 at 120 Washington Street, 3rd floor conference room. If you are interested in Salem getting the Zipcar service, they want to hear from you.  Let the Parking Board know how you feel. It’s your city use your voice to enact positive change.