parking-permit-sign.jpgThis Monday, several City Council Members and a number of neighborhood groups are holding a forum for Brooklynites to chew on the idea of residential parking permits. The town hall-style meeting will focus on whether the permits, which would probably cost a small annual fee, could help alleviate curbside parking problems and traffic in Downtown. Council Members David Yassky, Letitia James and Bill de Blasio have organized the event, which is expected to draw several hundred residents, and DOT comish Janette Sadik-Khan is scheduled to attend. Councilman de Blasio sees the forum as the first step in developing parking strategies for all of Brooklyn. “Lack of a coherent parking strategy has been an ongoing problem in Brooklyn, de Blasio told us. I think this forum represents a step in the right direction, and I look forward to extending this conversation to communities throughout the borough. Regardless of the fate of congestion pricing—which would almost certainly increase competition for spots—Downtown’s population is expected to swell in coming years, thus exacerbating the already great demand for curbside parking spaces. Councilman Yassky said it is long past time for New York to consider adopting the permits, especially in Downtown. Other big cities have used this strategy successfully to reduce traffic and ease parking difficulties, he said. Four years ago, when the Bloomberg Administration was seeking approval for new development around Metrotech, Deputy Mayor Doctoroff promised—in writing—that the administration would try residential parking permits in the surrounding neighborhoods. The administration needs to make good on this promise.
The forum will take place at 7 p.m. on Monday, February 4th, at the St. Francis College auditorium on Remsen Street in Brooklyn Heights.
Congestion Pricing and Resident Permit Parking [Brownstoner]
Photo by mike lowe.


What's Your Take? Leave a Comment

  1. Boston, Chicago and Washington D.C. all have neighborhood parking permit systems. Last I checked the sky has not fallen from above those cities. Residential streets are typically by permit only and the commercial streets are meetered. Visitor pay for the right to park, or they take public transportation. These systems help reduce traffic, improve air quality, and make our streets safer. What is there to debate?

  2. Residential Permit Parking is a horrible idea. Congestion Pricing and RPP are two entirely separate matters. Linking them together is false and is only for political purposes. Think about it: if you regularly commute to Manhattan, then you are already committed to garage parking in Manhattan. If the $8 fee makes you change your mind about that, then are you going to make your commute even more miserable by driving from your house to Park Slope or Brooklyn Heights, then searching for street parking, then taking the subway?! NO. You will follow the path of least resistance. You will either use public transportation if that is an option, or you will suck it up and pay the $8 if you don’t have an option. The point is that neighborhoods that have good subway access and plenty of amenities are the LEAST in need of help. True, these neighborhoods are being used to some extent by people in other neighborhoods with poor public transportation as a weigh station to Manhattan, but these same people are already NOT driving to Manhattan, so congestion pricing will have no effect on them. The answer is BETTER public transportation to poorly serviced neighborhoods. RPP is a sham!! Congestion pricing ALONE will alleviate BOTH problems if the funds are used for better outer borough public transportation. There is also a lot of commuting between outer boroughs and very poor public transportation between them.

    RPP should not PRECEDE congestion pricing; if it is determined to be useful at all (and this should be through study, not emotion or NIMBY-ism) then it should only FOLLOW congestion pricing.

    RPP will balkanize NYC and make neighborhoods who already have it all have even more of it all. The rest will be left out. And do you think another level of bureaucracy is good for NYC? It’s an EASY sell to people who live in an RPP zone, but it is very bad policy for New York City.

  3. just charge alot of money for curbside parking and use it to fund mass transit improvements and bike lanes.

    and motorcycles are REALLY easy to park. we must all learn to adapt to the realities of 21st century life.