Parking near Capitol Hill?

May 10, 2010 1:51 PM

Washington DC residents: Can anyone suggest Saturday night (overnight) parking near Capital Hill? My hotel is charging $50/night and I'm looking for a cheaper alternative.

Free: Is it safe to park overnight on the street? Where should I look for spots? I'd be willing to take the metro from further away but I can't tell if I can park overnight at a Metro lots.

Paid: Can anyone tell me how much garages would charge overnight? I'd be getting in on a Saturday night (at the end of May) around 7pm, leaving on Sunday around noon. Can anyone suggest a garage?

posted by exhilaration to Travel & Transportation around Washington, DC (12 answers total)

I would suggest the garage at Union Station. Not sure how much it would be, but I can't imagine it would be as much as your hotel wants. Which hotel are you staying at, also? Capitol Hill is a pretty big neighborhood.
posted by GriffX at 2:01 PM on May 10, 2010

Free: You should look around the streets slightly east of Union Station. You can park on the street and the area is pretty safe. I'd check 2nd St NE (near the SEC building) for starters.

Paid: check the parking rates at Union Station. Looks like $19 for a 24-hour period.
posted by achompas at 2:03 PM on May 10, 2010

I lived in DC for about fifteen years and never once tried to park downtown. However, I do know Metro doesn't like muli-day parking, what they will do about it probably depends on how crowed they are. Also, their lots close late at night, and your car might get locked in when you want it.

If you are planing to leave you car parked for several days, you should check at Union Station, they have long term parking for AmTrak passengers, and that perhaps would be the cheapest way
posted by Some1 at 2:04 PM on May 10, 2010

Response by poster: Sorry guys, I should've mentioned it: the hotel I'm staying at is the The Liaison Capitol Hill, 415 New Jersey Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20001
posted by exhilaration at 2:20 PM on May 10, 2010

Best answer: There should be plenty of free, safe weekend parking on the neighborhood streets to the east of the Capitol, and your car might even be under 24-hour Capitol Police surveillance, depending on where you park. Hide your GPS and you'll be fine.
posted by MrMoonPie at 2:39 PM on May 10, 2010

Hide your GPS and you'll be fine.

Also, if you use suction cups to stick the GPS to the window, hide the suction cups, and clean the marks from the suction cups.
posted by inigo2 at 2:50 PM on May 10, 2010

i think the above comments about the car being "safe" need to be tempered with the understanding (common in DC) that if you are bearing out of state (out of DC) plates, that car is ripe for pillage. it's a discernable pattern in both anecdotal accounts and crime stats. inigo2 is dead on right, hide all that's potentially interesting, particularly if your car looks like it's from out of town.
posted by garfy3 at 2:54 PM on May 10, 2010

Union Station is $19/day. I stayed at the Capitol Hill Suites hotel who charged $35/day for parking, so I just walked the 6 blocks or so to Union Station. Nice neighborhoods on the way..
posted by focus at 3:30 PM on May 10, 2010

The streets around there will be trickier for finding on-street parking, and the surrounding neighborhoods range from safe to sketchy within a pretty short distance, so it's hard for an out-of-towner to know.

Not really. Look at the houses, look at the other cars parked nearby. It's pretty easy to tell. DC is indeed a 'block-by-block' city, so don't assume safety anywhere (including private garages).

Don't make yourself an obvious target (ie. GPS), and you'll be fine.
posted by schmod at 4:09 PM on May 10, 2010

Best answer: It is safe to park on the street. You have to be diligent on the weekends in Cap Hill though so start early on your search.
posted by Hurst at 5:00 PM on May 10, 2010

If you want to park on the street, you might try.. go around Union Station to the east side of it, on F St NE, and look around the area within 3rd-7th St NE crossed with F-D St NE. Follow Massachusetts Ave around Union Station and turn left/go north on 2nd St NE, then turn right on a cross street from D-F and start looking. That's NE. Not NW. It's safe around there. Going to H St and north is not advisable, south of there is fine but increasingly crowded and hard to navigate. Cap Hill in general is kind of a headache to drive around in. Don't leave stuff out in your car, but really I wouldn't worry, it is a quiet safe residential area.

There are tons of out of state plates around there, it's the Hill, staffers don't have to change their tags, and a lot of newer DC residents try to avoid changing them as long as possible. Keep in mind the area I suggested is a good half-mile walk from your hotel, there is basically zero parking in the surrounding blocks where you are on NJ Ave, because nearly all the available space is reserved by government agencies. It may be the least-stressful option to just pay the $19/day to park in Union Station.
posted by citron at 5:58 PM on May 10, 2010

Response by poster: We found metered parking on the street, on D Street & NJ Ave - a 45 second walk from the hotel. Parking was free after 10pm on Saturday (overnight) and all of Sunday! We didn't leave anything worth taking in the car and everything was fine.

It cost us around $2 before 10pm, but that was for just 45 minutes - those meters are crazy expensive!
posted by exhilaration at 7:41 AM on May 17, 2010