By Renee D. Baruch
New York is the only modern Western city without a residential parking permit program. The lengthy list of cities with such programs includes London, Paris, Boston, and Philadelphia, as well as Hoboken, New Jersey, and Rye, New York.
Parking permits—for residents and those regularly working in neighborhoods—would greatly reduce traffic coming into the city and lessen the chaotic and time-consuming competition for parking spots in such congested areas as the Upper West Side.
Too many Upper West Side parking spots are occupied by cars registered elsewhere by NYC residents, because they claim primary residences outside the city or find another way to register their vehicles in another place.
So, a parking permit program might prompt a reduction in car ownership. Or it could prod these residents to register their cars in NYC and, in some cases, start paying income taxes here.
Individual permit costs might be a comparative bargain for car owners, but the annual fees and potential additional taxes could add significantly to the city’s revenues. The environmental impact alone would be positive.
In sum, permits would not only benefit residents with cars who frequently find themselves driving around for an hour or more to find a scarce parking spot, but virtually everyone living in New York City
So why does NYC not have residential parking permits—particularly when Ydanis Rodriguez, the city’s transportation commissioner, declared upon taking office earlier this year that he wants such a program?
For one thing, City Council Member Gale Brewer, when she was Manhattan Borough president, commissioned a 2019 study that concluded that the details involved with parking permits would make them very difficult to implement.
Another may be that the city transportation department says it’s up to the state legislature to authorize parking permits. While that’s true, this kind of authorization is routinely approved upon localities’ requests.
Political interest is so low that the Upper West Side’s state assembly member, Linda Rosenthal, recently declined to even comment on the issue.
A political movement for parking permits is long overdue. To begin to make that happen, a growing group of NYC car owners recently formed a new organization, NYC Resident Parking Permits, to convey to officials at all levels the need for and benefits of a parking permit program.
It’s really very simple. Parking spots in many neighborhoods are way too scarce. Income tax-paying residents and regular neighborhood workers should have greater access to this limited resource. A residential parking permit program is the way to try to insure that.
Longtime Upper West Side resident Renee D. Baruch is a founder and leader of NYC Resident Parking Permits. Find out more and join the movement by signing up at www.nycresidentparking.org.
*Weekend Column reflects the views of the writer, not WSR.
a fairly simple solution to implement right away is to ONLY ALLOW cars with NY plates to park on the street.
While this will not solve all the problems, it will eliminate all the NJ and out of state plated cars (by my completely unscientific survey, are about 15+% of the cars).
This would also eliminate the need for “neighborhood” permits since neighborhoods are difficult to define.
Or you could just have a resident parking permit program with a requirement to show a NYS vehicle registration. This also has the benefit of reducing registration fraud.
The solution proposed is to specifically get around a formal “resident permit” program which will likely take a long time to implement. By only allowing NY state tax paying registered cars, at a minimum, all the out of state cars are eliminated.
Great idea, other than the fact that it would violate the Interstate Comity provisions in the Constitution (Article IV, Section 2, Clause 1)
Interference to the below
Interstate Comity provisions in the Constitution (Article IV, Section 2, Clause 1
The clause should not be read so literally, the Court held, as to permit states to exclude out-of-state residents from benefits through the simple expediency of delegating authority to political subdivisions.
A constitutional argument can be made that there’s a restriction on the right to travel. In addition to interstate commerce.
This argument was tried a number of years ago when a Manhattan resident sued the Tribridge and Tunnel Authority for charging tolls. He said it made him a prisoner on Manhattan Island. He lost.
You have the option of paying the toll, the difference here is that if workers and business owners are excluded from a permit program and have no public parking, there is an argument. Especially since Manhattan is so dependent on interstate commuters.
The author doesn’t take into consideration the people that have jobs on the UWS and own businesses here who are NJ/CT residents or live outside NYC. Commuting from the suburbs or outer boros to the UWS isn’t easy without a car from many places. LIRR service to Grand Central later this year would result in a service cut to Penn Station which would make a UWS public transit commute harder than it already is for some.
Sorry, every individual scenario cannot be accommodated. Doesn’t matter what you do, someone will be upset. There could be some VERY limited carve outs with VERY specific requirements, but this, too, is a slippery slope.
Cars and parking are supposed to accommodate scenarios where public transit would be cumbersome. MTA needs fair competition and an Uber/Lyft/MTA oligopoly ain’t it.
they do mention that the permits would be for residents and people who regularly work here.
I hope this happens and the annual fees are meaningful. E.g over $1000.
I agree. Parking should no be free for anyone. If people have to pay rent for building space, and have to apply for and pay for licenses to take up space on a street or sidewalk, then any car owners/drivers should also pay for any space they want, to store their car.
Why?
If you have a house in the suburbs, you don’t have to pay to park on the street. Why here?
Should we also pay tolls to drive on the streets?
“Should we also pay tolls for driving on the streets?”
Yes. Its called Congestion Pricing. What happened to that anyway? I hear we will be paying it by the end of 2023.
Some suburbs ban street parking entirely. What’s your point?
Yes, there should be an out of town toll to drive on city streets. In fact, you pay it whenever you cross a bridge/tunnel into Manhattan from Jersey or take the Henry Hudson.
NYC is not the suburbs. If you want to live there, vote with your feet.
Many cities have a 2 hour time limit for cars not within their area.
YES – have been calling for this for years. I can’t imagine it’s truly a political issue with low priority among UWS car owners. The parking situation in this neighborhood is significantly degraded by people coming from across the river or upstate and parking here to walk to the subway for day trips. Resident permits, like they have in Boston and DC, are the only sensible solution. Would be happy to pay a significant fee for it too, especially considering the cost of garages.
What about the people who don’t live in the UWS who’s final destination is the UWS. I get the concerns about people who intend to go to midtown but those concerns should be taken out on people who have legitimate business here.
so a non-resident with a destination that’s not their home? sorry, for business, go to a garage and pay for it with your business funds, or pay to park on an avenue in those spots. side streets should be for residents.
There’s this amazing thing called THE SUBWAY. There are SIX lines that serve the UWS let alone buses.
Take public transit like the rest of us.
Many people do not feel comfortable on the subway. Part of this is due to rising crime, part of this is due to the perception of crime, part of this is due to overcrowding (yes some trains are back to 2019 levels of crowding). Also if you’ve been assaulted or sexually violated on the subway or have been the victim of a crime on the subway, no amount of cops will make you feel safe. Whether you add 500 more cops or 500,000 more cops. We need to meet people where they’re at and it includes express buses from the outer boros, it includes parking because the MTA cannot be trusted. But I personally get the impression that NYC wants to drive working and middle class people out of NYC for more transient transplants and expats living the Sex and the City lifestyle for whom living in NYC is a phase and that’s a real problem.
Ask the owners and workers in your local restaurants and shops where they live, what their hours are and if they live near public transportation. You’ll find almost none of them live in the neighborhood, make enough for a parking lot space or live near public transportation. So . . . they need parking if they work here.
Or the public transportation that workers live near isn’t exactly convenient. Again UWS residents have the privilege of having everything at their fingertips, being able to pay top dollar in rent and brokers fees for an old apartment so they can live in an area that’s the center of attention. Forcing workers to use inconvenient public transit is tone deaf and arrogant. That is something that is a huge problem with urban elitism and liberalism these days and it shows in the parking discussion.
But, Boston and DC aren’t NYC. Here, we need to ask what if some of those people parking here are going to museums and restaurants here? Or patronizing our other small business? And, what if these businesses that have managed to survive the virus now need to close up shop? And, what if contractors double their prices from here to account for the fact that they cannot keep their vehicles on the street? You might quickly find yourself longing for the days when you had to spend 90 minutes sitting in your car once a week.
lmao, correct, there aren’t museums or small businesses in Boston and DC. Duh, why didn’t I think of that?
Whenever we get this, nobody will be longing for the days of ASP
Or what about workers who have cumbersome commutes. Doesn’t mean the UWS has the 1/2/3 trains, that everyone else has the same or better.
There are people who live in NJ who work on the UWS. Public transit isn’t the easiest commute when you have to deal with crappy NJ transit service along with unsafe subways. People shouldn’t be forced to use transit if it isn’t convenient for them. Any parking permit program must consider non-resident workers and business owners and others who have legitimate business on the UWS. Also people from NYC suburbs work/own businesses on the UWS. If they aren’t included in such a system, then Albany should reject UWS parking permits.
I agree with @UWS doorman. And I fear that proponents will claim that they will come up for a plan which will grant permits for workers, but when push comes to shove, they will prioritize residents, because residents have the most political and financial power. I believe that we need to reduce the need for cars in NYC, but this doesn’t seem to be the way to do it. While I’ve never been a big fan of free street parking, I don’t think that going from “free parking for all” to “very cheap parking for the privileged few and no parking for everyone else” is a progressive idea.
“when push comes to shove, they will prioritize residents, because **residents live here 24×7**”
fixed that for ya
Manhattan needs the outer boros and suburbs. Especially since Manhattan residents don’t want to build more housing and have more density. Look at the opposition to the soho rezoning and how half the UWS hates Sara Lind.
No, it’s time to consider making overnight on street parking illegal, in Manhattan, again. Overnight street parking was illegal in Manhattan until approximately 1950.
And it’s time to require developers to build parking spaces into big buildings. The Broadway and West 72nd Street Trader Joe’s should have been off street parking.
And it’s time for motorcycles parked on the sidewalks to be automatically hauled away.
The most popular grocery store on the UWS should be parking instead? Those priorities are way off.
Mark:
It fact, for some years, for buildings that size, the City used to require in building (which means basement) parking.
The current Trade Joe’s space should have been a parking garage from day one.
There is no reason Trade Joe’s couldn’t have bid to occupy/rent the above ground 2 story space occupied by the giant Duane Reade in the same building.
The developers of that building contributed to congestion.
You don’t know how many people own cars in that building or, if they do, where they park. The whole idea that either of those two large popular stores that are important to the community should instead be private parking is really warped.
Right, because there isn’t any other vacant space anywhere on Broadway..
Are those stores still called Duane Reade. I thought they were Walgreens now. Did some of them not make the change?
No one complains when Amazon, Fresh direct etc gets free parking or when restaurants take over the streets. The bike lobby is very powerful but some people need cars!
Basically anyone under 45 years old sees cars as a self-indulgent remnant of Baby Boomer culture and the 20th Century in general.
I won’t even get into the environmental impact or the amount of accidents and deaths.
Anyway, this is NYC in 2022, take the subway, the bus, walk, ride a Citibike, scooter, skateboard or whatever, and in special circumstances, a taxi or a car service.
There, problem solved. You’re welcome.:)
Not everybody who works on the UWS or has to come to the UWS is privileged to have abundant transit service and can easily bike or take Ubers/Lyfts (who are big donors to anti-car groups like Transportation Alternatives). The MTA doesn’t care about the riding public one iota and it shows through their outer borough bus redesigns where they’ve proposed cuts. Having sufficient parking is a good way to force the MTA to do a good job. It’s fair competition.
Take the train or bus or access-a-ride or a cab. Your car is not your right.
A cab is a car.
And actually own a car, provided you insure it and have a license is a right.
Parking for your car on public streets is not a right.
And if you have a house in the Hudson Valley, or need to go to rural Connecticut for business regularly.
Like many, you’re really uninformed about why people keep cars in Manhattan, and the City in general.
Many who own/use cars, but live in the City, certainly don’t drive every day, or even every week. Nor do they not take public transportation to move around the City.
What do you mean by “take a scooter”? Gasoline powered scooters without plates and insurance are utterly illegal in New York STate. And where do you propose people park even legal scooters, on the sidewalks?
You have solved nothing with your comment here.
No one is suggesting that cars be banned. But if you own one, then you should pay for the cost of it yourself, not require others to fund your storage costs. Cars take up a lot of space, and they aren’t used most of the time. If you want to pay for storage space for your car, then pay for a parking garage. I don’t understand the idea that you should be able to leave it on the street for as long as you like.
You have no idea what it cost to garage a car. $1,000 a month for a parking garage in my UWS neighborhood!
You mention raising revenues…how about giving tickets to anyone who blows his car horn for anything except safety. Wow, we’d be rich..
..and maybe some of the commuters that we’re targeting will decide not to drive in the next time.
Those commuters aren’t all going to the CBD. Some of them work here on the UWS and UWS residents depend on them.
Or the City could seize/impound all of the illegal motorcycles, gasoline scooters without plates and insurance, throttle e-bikes driven the wrong way, and the bicycles belonging to adults riding the wrong way and/or on sidewalks.
The fines the owners would pay to get their machines back should help fund whatever.
The arguments here are about convenience. The reality is cars drive around and around and around, polluting our air, for a free parking spot. A free place to park your car in a very expensive city. Imagine the affect on traffic without the cars driving in circles for those free spots!!
We constantly choose cars over people, the environment and our own interests. It’s brainwashing.
Mary,
How do you propose some onewho regularly drives to the middle of Connecticut, say the Hartford area, make the trip on public transit?
How do you propose someone, even without a house up there, go skiing in Vermont for week without driving?
Sure you can use the bus, and there’s one train to Rutland Vermont (which also stops at Hartford) but those take forever and one has to get around and in the Hartford area or in Vermont.
So no, it’s not simply about convenience.
However, there are ways that public transit could be improved. That means paying for those improvements, and sustaining them, so it can’t be like when the NYC subway service declined precipitously in 2013 — it hasn’t recovered. Nor can improvements be limited to just NYC, they have to include cities and rural areas hundreds of miles away from city centers in the Northeast.
People have different needs and people drive cars because our transit system isn’t very good at or doesn’t want to meet everybody where they’re at. Bold progressive policy doesn’t take into account people being jerks and human nature. That is a fatal flaw with the anti-car rhetoric.
Quit your whining. One of the major reasons parking is hard to find is because they took away all the spots to add bike lanes, which ironically, are only mainly used by motorized vehicles er “bikes”. And that makes sense?
And the argument has gotten old and stale when people compare New York to other cities. There’s not another city in the USA like NYC. Who cares what Boston or DC are doing, they are nothing remotely like NYC. Quite trying to homogenize NYC into other cities!! If you love the way these other cities deal with on street parking, by all means, move there. Seriously. It’s obviously a better fit crybabies.
This is not a good argument – good practice and policy should be considered on their own merits. This NYC exceptionalism has been used far too often as an excuse to avoid changing a bad status quo.
But even you assume the premise, all of NYC’s peer cities abroad all, as the article notes, have far more restrictive parking regimes including resident parking permits. Not to mention congestion pricing schemes or overnight parking bans.
That is the big problem with NYC. You have people trying to homogenize NYC and turn it into something that it isn’t. The anti-car people do it and some of the pro-car people who are moderates on the UWS do it.
I generally agree with this letter. Make the fee enough that it is worth collecting but not so much that it is oppressive – maybe a few hundred dollars a year.
I agree that workers should also get permits, but I’m not sure how to manage that process.
Some percentage of spots should still be available for shorter term paid parking for those coming in to go to the theater, museums, restaurants, to visit family, etc.
Monitoring this should not be hard. A few people can walk the neighborhood looking for stickers. They will more than cover their salaries with tickets. During the Lucerne situation I heard so much about how many of the people there wanted jobs. Here is a perfect starter job. Those who are capable of working should be required to work – we don’t all get our dream jobs.
walking home from Central Park on Sunday, i noticed that the white high rise next to The Dakota was offering a parking special: one half hour for $16.99. that’s evidence of the market setting the rate and would be a legitimate starting point for future talks.
What about people who work here? UWS residents who support permit and can afford high priced garages love to tell other people to use garbage public transit or pay an arm and a leg for a garage when middle class outer boro and suburban workers find it harder to afford.
I agree. What part of my second paragraph don’t you understand? I was eager for someone to provide a suggestion as to how this would be implemented that would not be incredibly tedious to implement but wouldn’t be too easy to fake.
“What about people who work here?” Newsflash:
many people who commute to the UWS use public transit to do so, even when it would be much faster/more comfortable to drive. That is part of living in a city.
To the person that says workers should be FORCED to use transit even if driving to work on the UWS is easier. Newsflash: MTA doesn’t care about the riding public one iota. They’re trying to cut bus service in the outer boros and they will be cutting LIRR service to Penn Station later this year which would make UWS commutes more difficult. NJ Transit is also a troubling system.
Not only that, many UWS residents would be opposed to an upzoning and building more housing so more people can live here. If many people on the UWS hates CB members like Sara Lind so much, something’s got to give and that’s allowing workers to get parking without much undue burden.
Residents have cars for reasons so varied that an open-minded person couldn’t possibly dispute all of them. And why would you? This is our neighborhood, and residents deserve to have priority for street parking for a reasonable fee. City planners are experts at figuring out the details, so let this be a challenge!
Workers also have cars. Why question their reasoning. MTA tried massive express bus cuts in the Bronx in 2019 after passing congestion pricing, they’re cutting express bus service between Manhattan and Queens in the Queens bus redesign. You try to speak out and the MTA makes it very difficult to get the ear of them at their public meetings. But the UWS would go crazy once this happens when Manhattan’s bus network gets redesigned. But who cares about those outside of Manhattan, right?
Very simply put – If you do not own a business, work, or live on the UWS, you cannot park here.
First, most cities that implement a resident-sticker system allow non-sticker holders to park for a limited period (around 2 hours), which allows those who needs to come in for an errand or appointment to park temporarily. If you need to come in for longer, then you need to use parking lots, an expense you just need to build into your trip. If the expense of a lot is too much, use mass transit – which is actually plentiful from all areas in and around NYC (not necessary convenient but its there). The law can extend the sticker system to certain workers who need to be able to drive and park (tradesman, etc).
The problem of out-of-state registration is very real. I know of countless residents who own cars registered out of state, and, frankly, rarely use their car – they simply do the parking dance, moving their car from one side to another. Most are self-employed or have other nontraditional work situations allowing them the flexibility to do this.
The city should have dedicated motorcycle/scooter parking areas by the citibike kiosks – as many cities in Europe do. Currently, motorcycle parking is often done parallel to the curb, often taking up way too much space (there is one building worker on WEA and 104th who routinely takes up 2 car spaces with his motorcycle).
Why shouldn’t/can’t short-time parkers park at the meters ?
Forcing people to use public transit if they can’t afford garages isn’t the answer. UWS residents who are wealthier and can afford million dollar co-ops and condos want the streets for themselves while those who work here be damned. That’s what you’re saying. Essentially the parking concerns here will simply become another community’s problem. Riverdale in the Bronx has residents complaing that people from westchester drive there to take the 1 train as there’s no direct west side access. But the UWS residents who push for permits are saying me me me me and everyone else be damned because Manhattan is at the center of the universe.
First of all nobody likes to be forced public transit. People have their breaking points when it comes to inconvenient public transit. MTA is a monopoly that needs accountability and people having choices other than Transportation Alternatives donors Uber/Lyft doesn’t cut it. Trust me, if you need Albany approval to get resident permits done, I have no problem working with elected officials outside of Manhattan to block a permit system if workers, business owners and other non-residents with business here can’t park on streets. Saying that transit may not be convenient but is there is forcing working/middle class people to put up with a hazing ritual to be able to be welcome in Manhattan. Shouldn’t be this way. It shows that Manhattanites think they’re at the center of the universe and everyone else be damned. That’s what will cost you support if you have to go to Albany to get permits passed.
Article completely ignores fact city has removed vast amounts of street parking for bike lanes and CitiBike stations. In many areas CitiBike stations occupy 1/3 to 1/4 or even 1/2 of what was once street parking.
City does not enforce parking laws on books already. Vehicles remain parked for days, weeks or even months racking up tickets, but not moved (as in towed).
The you have every other townhouse or private home, and scores of apartment buildings placing cones, trash cans or anything else to block out parking for themselves.
ASP street cleaning has become a joke as people simply don’t bother moving their vehicles. They ignore DSNY street sweeper unless or until they see a parking enforcement agent coming, and sometimes not even then.
Long story short speaking to latter three items alone, giving already entitled drivers more privileges is not the answer.
The people telling workers to take the subway are ignorant of the fact that many people have to transfer and sometimes make multiple transfers. Try doing that on a weekend, yes there’s workers here on weekends. UWS residents are privileged they have the 1/2/3/B/C trains. Outer boros and suburbs don’t have that much concentration of subways. They’re privileged that if the subways don’t work out, Uber isn’t as expensive as it would be for someone going to an outer boro. The fact that a study on permits was done by Gale Brewer who’s pet peeve is leaving Manhattan shows the contempt manhattanites have for people outside of Manhattan and who won’t abide by the do as I say and not as I do value system.
Both Rosenthal and Brewer want to seem Progressive, in order to seem relevant. Also, both do not respond to inquiries that may question their platforms. Ms Rosenthal puts ‘Pets before People’ in the bills she sponsors, such as being allowed to bring your pet to a restaurant and outlawing declawing of cats. Both are laudable, that is her passion, but never does she respond to questions about congestion pricing and the impact on the Lincoln Square. neighborhood She only cares about the uptown part of her district. As for Ms Brewer, in a recent newsletter she referred to car owners in her district as crazy. I have never seen any picture or reference to her on a bicycle or a subway commuting to the Council. How does she get around?
Just to clarify, in case the opinion was not clear, I think regular workers in our neighborhoods, whether the Upper West Side or “No Park Slope” should also qualify for a Resident Parking Permit.
The people telling those who work here to take the subway don’t understand what it’s like to deal with the MTA as a transit advocate. Seeing what I’ve seen, cars and parking are a safety valve for bad policy and bad customer service. They’ve never dealt with arrogant and condescending planners and officials at the MTA. They’ve never dealt with government agencies that don’t like people who are going to make them do a little bit of work. They don’t know how MTA tries subtle tricks on activists to break their chops. They don’t know how the MTA looks for any excuse to label you crazy and get you blackballed. They’ve never dealt with LIRR employees and managers who tell customers that if they don’t like the LIRR service, they should go drive. This is the privilege UWS residents pushing for resident permits as well as UWS residents pushing for bike lanes, outdoor dining and parking removal don’t get.
This works wonderfully in Chicago. I can see no reason why it wouldn’t work here. Regarding “neighborhood s,” they can be called “zones” with specifically marked borders. Not rocket science.
The dob has tsaken away so many viable spots on the corners and on delivery spaces that that is little left on the upper west side for this ridiculous experiment.
A silly and simplistic plan that fails to acknowledge the needs of working people working but not living on the UWS. The inherent elitism in the concept is abhorrent. Those who own.and drive cars pay a hefty tax—albeit hidden—for the privilege of driving their vehicles. Bikers pay no registration fee, no license fee and no gas tax. Make parking easier? Rid the Upper West Side of the noxious City Bike stands and encourage real civic equity by incentives to use public transportation.
Owning a car is not a right. And, parking a car for free on NYC streets is even further from a right. You want to own a car in NYC, then pay to park it. You want to drive into the city to your job, then pay to park your car. Any street parking should either be residents only with a hefty annual fee and proof of residency or short term paid parking for visitors and those doing short term business in the area. There are plenty of garages people can pay to use if they want to own a car. Oh, and for those who need their ski and other trips outside the city, feel free to rent a car – a lot cheaper than owning a car in the city for the occasional trip. Let alone, if you can afford those trips, you don’t need free street parking.
How about a graduated system by which larger vehicles pay more. We also need to account for moving vans and delivery trucks and parking on both sides of the street renders this very difficult.
One way to get more parking spaces is to reduce the number of City Bike racks. On my street they took away 7 spaces to install a rack wich holds 47 bikes but never has more than 20.
It is not all the physicians and workers from NJ that are taking away parking,
it is the citibikes on main streets, it is the sheds from all the restaurants
it is all the movies that pay to close off all the parking spaces , it is the prices of garages and not enough of them, this plan will hurt the city and make the city lose massive income from those who need to come into the city .
No more taking care of seniors , many residents will move out, They wil not
be able to come in to take care of seniors and family.We drive to many cities and never have t o pay to park in their spaces.
We do need to get rid of the crime and drugs so more people can use public
transport, we do not need to charge those that come in for culture, events, family , dining. It will kill off whats left of this city
At least the UWS generally has some order to its streets. Try living farther north, where there are no laws and curb management is non-existent. I could show you two blocks in Inwood that have:
– used cars all over the place illegally stealing street spaces, parking at hydrants, parking on sidewalks
– a car wash van that hasn’t moved IN OVER A YEAR despite being in a regular ASP space
– an unlicensed, illegal plate food trailer and SUV that haven’t moved IN OVER A YEAR despite being in a regular ASP space
– MTA personal cars parked on the sidewalk regularly because why not
– DSNY and MTA workers using construction vests as parking placards
– trash everywhere because cars never move for street cleaning
Net effect is that not one resident can ever park on those two blocks, ever.
If you look at how cities like Hoboken do it, you must have a residential parking permit or pay at a muni-meter to park 7 days a week on their streets. The muni-meter only allows for a 2 hour pass so they either have to keep paying or move their cars. Either way, it generates revenue for the city and keeps spots from being encumbered by cars that sit for days/weeks on end.
Hoboken parking has a good implementation as mentioned above. They also allow for business permits that allow for employees. Hoboken checks that your registration, license and insurance have the same Hoboken address for resident permits. There may be an additional check with a lease or tax record for the same address as well.
That would close the illegal cars that are registered and insured out of state to save money and loss of revenue for the city.