Mayor Kyriacou robo-called the community today (Friday) to let everyone know that the milling on Main Street is complete, and that parking on Main Street is open until Monday, May 2, 2022, which is when the paving phase will start. At that point, parking on Main Street will be prohibited 24 hrs/day until Thursday, May 5, 2022. That pavement has got to dry.

For people not refreshing their City of Beacon website pages who are driving in the wild, relying on the bright orange No Parking signs on the lampposts, drivers will now see - on some of the signs - a new date written on blue painters tape covering the original. For those folks not on the robo-call signup (you can sign up here!) and who are visitors, they will be relying on the bright orange No Parking signs only. From afar, it looks intimidating, but pull over and squint to learn that you can park this weekend.

During the milling period, several businesses expressed appreciation for the enormous milling and paving project that was delayed from last fall. But several businesses did notice a dramatic drop in customers who avoided Main Street for the rough road and no parking.

Even after the Mayor’s robo-call and the limited amount No Parking signs that have been taped over, people from out of town are confused on where to park. While seated in one establishment, this blogger observed a couple asking the management about if they could park on Main Street today (Friday), and a very confusing conversation ensued, resulting in the couple being told they could not park. Bright orange signs that say No Parking are hard to not obey.

Many citizens expressed how quiet the street was when hardly any cars were driving on it (see video here) even though they could. Cars were generally avoiding Main Street for the no parking limitation, and the ripped up asphalt under their tires.

Today into this weekend, parking is back until Monday.

Readers have already written in to ask if parklets are possible once Main Street is paved. So far there has been no more discussion about parklets, but every day is different!