Pols Rallying for Residential Parking Permits
This 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….
This 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.
If you NEED to take a car why not take a car service. It is still cheaper than owning.
Gas + Insurance + Maintenance + Payments + Tickets + Parking =less than the costs of a car service. Not to mention the time saved looking for parking.
“People in other neighborhoods who own cars will drive their car to Park Slope every single time, even though there’s no reason they couldn’t have taken the subway.”
Yes, there is a reason. I live in Crown Heights, and on weekends I DRIVE to Park Slope to shop, specially if I plan to purchase lots of stuff. I’m not schlepping a bunch of bags on the subway. I’m on the G-dmned train enough during the week!
Given the damage cars do to the environment, our national security, and our waistlines, why should we do anything to make it easier to park a car in front of a residence which is at most a few blocks from some form of mass transit? The street in front of my house isn’t “my street”, it is owned and maintained by all taxpayers. If it is important enough for me to have a car (and I have one), I should either deal with the freee parking or rent myself a parking space. Once one block has residential parking, the next one needs it too, and then eventually we have reduced the usefulness and flexibility of the car in teh first place.
Yet one more reason that I’m happy to be car free!
It’s one thing for the city to establish such a plan. It’s a whole other thing for the city to enforce such a plan. What’s the city’s enforcement capabilities on this one?
And, will the city limit the # of permits issued to match the number of spaces available? In Boston some neighborhoods have six cars for every resident space. I never heard anyone say that parking easy when I lived there.
it will be abused just like city employee and fire dept. parking permits
I have lived on a street with permit parking before, in CA. If it’s like what we had, permit parking may not allow you to park long term anywhere in the entire Slope.
You’ll get one or two permanent guest passes you have to give to guests to put in their car. But one person has to stay with the car while the other gets the pass from you otherwise the car gets a ticket. If you have more than one or two guests arriving in cars, like when you have a big party, you have to go stand in line at the DMV and pick up guest passes with a specific date on them that expires. I would hope it’s all electronic now. It should be.
Permit parking will still allow 2 hours of parking during commercial business hours. So businesses that have some employees driving in for their jobs in Park Slope, will have their employees out moving their cars every two hours. Creating congestion.
Don’t misunderstand what permit parking is. Permit parking does NOT mean nobody is allowed to drive to Park Slope anymore so the streets will be free and clear. It just means more restrictions, rules and ticketing. One thing I think it could do, which would be good, is encourage more people to take public transportation when they are shopping or going to restaurants in Park Slope. People in other neighborhoods who own cars will drive their car to Park Slope every single time, even though there’s no reason they couldn’t have taken the subway.
10:54, what color is the sun in your part of Brooklyn?
There is no reason at all to own a car in Brooklyn unless you have a weekend house or a job that requires you to haul stuff to work. For other errands, you could take a car service everyplace you ever wanted to go even every day, or rent a Zip Car a few times a week, and it would be cheaper than owning a car. If owning a car is not economically wiser, then it’s a status or luxury item. Then yes that’s yuppie by definition.
I bought a commercial building in park slope back in 1992 on 5th avenue. Back then it was so easy to find parking. Half the block was empty. Now its insane! I find myself driving around for at least 30 minutes for a spot. 10:40 is lucky to have a driveway. Its a rarity in that area.