It’s been over ten years, and now the inevitable has come to pass. Parking meter rates in Somerville are going up by 25 cents per hour.

The city is quick to point out that the new rate of $1.25 per hour is in line with other neighboring communities, so it’s only fair.

Parking meter revenues figure as a significant amount of the city’s operating budget. So it stands to reason that the city would want to keep up with the cost of doing business – as in filling pot holes and patching sidewalks. Right?

Of course, there are quite a few who are unhappy about the rate hike and are making their opinions known.

Many point out that the timing may be extremely poor, considering all the inconvenience – if not shear torment – that residents and visitors to the city are going through due to all the bridge and road closures that are going on as a result of construction activities for the Green Line Extension, as well general renovation taking place just about everywhere you look.

It’s a fair point. There has been a lot of pain and discombobulation on our city streets in recent months, and it is clearly going to continue for quite some time yet. So perhaps the rate hike on metered parking does feel a bit like salting the wound.

Still, if you come to the dance expect to pay the piper. Even if it’s the piper who calls the tune.