Parking in Glover Park, DC

February 9, 2016 2:37 PM

Should we buy the home we fell in love with in Glover Park, DC which does not have parking? Will we be doomed to hours of looking for parking every evening? How big of a deal would this be? We LOVE the house but are hesitant because of the parking situation. Any light you can shed on this matter would be greatly appreciated.

Please only answer this question if you have insight specific to the Glover Park area, or if you can point me to resources which do have information specific to this neighborhood. General musings on the state of parking in cities are not necessary.

Thanks so much!

posted by cacao to Home & Garden (7 answers total)

There are some street is DC where a permit is required to park overnight. This is to alleviate the problem you describe. Check if this is true of your street.
posted by SemiSalt at 3:37 PM on February 9, 2016

Best answer: My information is a little out of date, not having lived in DC for three years, but I did live in Glover Park at 39th and Tunlaw for several years before that. My experience, as a Jeep owner, was that I could expect to find parking within four blocks of my place on any given weekday evening, owing to the small parking spaces and crowded residential streets. So not particularly easy, but I didn't consider it a hardship, either.

I'll ask a friend who is still living in Glover Park for his thoughts and post them later.
posted by Transmissions From Vrillon at 4:26 PM on February 9, 2016

When I lived in D.C. I had no car and a parking space that came with my rental. I rented it out. Perhaps you can find a space to rent.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 4:59 PM on February 9, 2016

Parking in GP can be tough but I was never unable to find a spot (it's not even close to being as bad as Dupont, for example). Sometimes I had to walk a few blocks, but sometimes I found something right in front of my building. Our mantra was "if all else fails, park on Tunlaw/New Mexico Ave." There were almost always spots up past the community garden. Depending on where in Glover Park you live, that may be pretty far, but it was only 3-4 blocks for us.

Caveat - we moved 3 1/2 years ago, I don't know if much has changed since then.
posted by echo0720 at 5:51 PM on February 9, 2016

I moved out of Glover Park around the same time as echo0720. In general, street parking before 9PM in the winter and 10PM in the summer wasn't often a problem. (Winter is worse because students are in town). You can often find parking places for rent in the area through Craigslist - I think they go for about $150 a month. So you could try it and if you are having problems rent a spot when one comes open.
posted by procrastination at 6:25 PM on February 9, 2016

This is obvious, but two cars are way harder to park than one - you don't say how many you have. Most Glover Park homes have about a car's worth of street frontage (allotting for hydrants, curb cuts, phone poles, etc) so if it's just your neighbors, there should be room for about one car per household. Some neighbors will have guests (or 2 cars), some will have garages (or no cars) so it's rough, but two cars will exacerbate the problem for everyone on the street.
posted by nkknkk at 6:46 PM on February 9, 2016

Apparently we were neighbors, Transmissions -- I also lived at 39th and Tunlaw several years ago! Parking was generally not too painful. EPICALLY easier than my subsequent years in Adams Morgan which were so heinous I just sold the car. In GP, at that time, not a dealbreaker at all.
posted by oneaday at 2:16 PM on February 10, 2016