UPDATE: Tuesday, August 26 at 10:15 a.m.: A City Hall spokesperson confirmed to West Side Rag on Tuesday morning that Mayor Eric Adams’ office is “reinstating 175 parking spots on the Upper West Side, where as West Side Rag recently reported, the city Department of Transportation instituted three-hour metered parking earlier this month, transforming many meter-free stretches between Central Park West and Columbus Avenue into pay-to-park territory.”
You can read more, here — City Hall Rolls Back Upper West Side Parking Changes Following Pushback From Community
By West Side Rag
Over the past two weeks, the Upper West Side’s Community Board 7 (CB7) has received “a tsunami of complaints, concerns and questions” from local residents about recent parking rule changes and implementation of ParkNYC, a mobile app to pay for parking, on parts of the side streets adjacent to Columbus Avenue between West 73rd and 86th streets.
In a letter to the New York City Department of Transportation (DOT), CB7 Chair Beverly Donohue wrote that while the board was aware changes were coming eventually, it was “blindsided” when city officials gave only one day’s notice before the rules were put into effect.
The lack of notice meant the board had no time to help the city publicize the rollout to those affected by the parking changes, Donohue said.
“When City agencies implement hyper-local alterations that impact the public, there is an obligation to do outreach – fliers on light poles, distributed to local buildings, to block associations and BIDS, to Community Boards and elected officials – with enough time so the word gets out,” she wrote. “Community Boards can assist with that effort, if given adequate notice.”
While DOT delivered a presentation at a CB7 Transportation Committee meeting in June 2024 that mentioned the proposed parking changes, Donohue said little information was given about the timing of the changes. The presentation described the addition of 80 new metered passenger parking spaces and showed a map of the area. (To read the Rag’s coverage of the meeting, click – HERE.)
The lack of prior notice “had the sad result of contributing to public cynicism about Government,” Donohue wrote to DOT Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez. “We ask that you now work with our community to ensure that their questions and concerns get answered and that the many other worthwhile elements of the [city’s Smart Curbs] Pilot Program retain public support.”
Asked about Donohue’s letter, a DOT representative told the Rag that in May, the agency had distributed a map and community notifications about the Columbus Avenue changes through the Manhattan Borough Commissioner’s Office. Upper West Side City Councilmember Gale Brewer included this information in her newsletter in June. However, this week she also sent a letter to the DOT expressing outrage that more specific information about the rule changes was not distributed.
“Community Board 7 had a briefing from DOT on the topic of Smart Curbs earlier this year, but, again, the information was general,” Brewer wrote. “There were no dates for implementation, and no chance for input from residents or local businesses.”
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More uncontrolled lunacy from the DOT.
The DOT does whatever it wants whenever it wants. It must be held accountable. It’s become another MTA, MONEY TAKING AGENCY.
100% Joey
The EV Safety Alliance cares a lot about free parking for cars? That’s odd isn’t it?
why should parking be free? it gives away valuable public space for free for a select few to store their private property. there should be no free parking.
While at it, why should the air be free? I pay taxes so that the Central Park could oxygenate your air.
But then again, maybe DOT wants the city to serve only billionaires and people who can’t afford cars.
It is not free!!!!! Car owner’s pay registration, pay with every single fill road taxes. Pay to get dl, etc etc.
Its not like its once in lifetime. You pay it over and over. You just forgot that. All of the above are street taxes.
I think it’s more about the lack of communication and notice given. People were side swiped and taken off guard.
It’s OK for Amazon and other delivery services? Every other major city has resident parking where you pay a fee, but you can park.
That’s not parking, that’s standing.
Amazon should be taxed out of existence – and there should be no free public parking either
No free public schools, I’d argue. I take for granted that as a citizen, I have to support the community. But here on this platform, people are so rude! If you don’t believe as they do, they don’t think you have a right to live here. Iloved the post about, rent control, stabilization, City housing, where people are subsidized. perhaps they should give their subsidies back?
This is the kind of sanity I come here for.
Yes
80% of UWS residents receive deliveries at least once a week. 27% of residents own cars.
Loading bays are more useful tor residents than parking spaces.
Because UWS residents can’t be bothered to shop at an actual store or go and pick up packages so that they do not get stolen?
There a lot of people who physically can’t!
This is one of the nastiest comments I’ve seen posted here. Many are running families, businesses, raising little ones, have elderlies they help, and yet you begrudge them that they can’t go to brick and mortar stores? Shame on you.
I don’t what’s worse, this post or the people that liked it.
Free parking you now pay for. How novel.
These were already metered spaces, you went to the kiosk and got a slip. The big difference: You didn’t need a smartphone to pay.
15 min city
No these were ASP spaces. There were no kiosks here. The fact you can do this smartphone only approach enabled the stealth install. New signs and a new map in the computer.
Pretty sure some were kiosk ticketed spaces, until Skynet decided otherwise.
Needs a bit more than new signs and a map, the smartphone application needs updating, and debugging, whether or not these space were formerly kiosk controlled parking.
Are they just presuming that everyone is a slave to their phone?
Are the phone companies in on this thing, getting some kind of kick-back?
No, not the phone companies.
Yes. They’re presuming it’s not 1978.
And you have run out of charge and you are screwed
Not to mention the buggy site for getting the app. I’m not a total smartphone nincompoop but it took some fancy MacGyvering with accounts and changing passwords to get it working. At least I think it’s working. It’s going to be a mess for some of my elderly compatriots who already find smartphones less than user friendly.
You then perform a last-ditch act of genius and you plug your phone into the car you’re sitting in.
They should just meter every street and freeze property tax’s.
Your idea is actually reasonable, considering property taxes have increased faster than inflation since 2010 and parking has been free in much of the neighborhood since forever.
Who’s to gain with freeze of property taxes? The mega landlords who own most of these overpriced apartment rentals?
As a renter do you really think you don’t pay property taxes? We all pay it, it’s on average 30-40% of rent.
Tenants could gain too here – when property taxes go up, they just get passed right along to tenants.
Nothing is overpriced or underpriced. Everything is priced at what the market will bear.
Well, for a lot of folks they cannot ‘bear’ the cost of apartment rentals. That’s why they are lying in the streets, on subway platforms, bed-surfing with friends, living with children in studios. How about the rent poor? Paying 50%, 60% and 70% of their monthly wages on rent? So they cannot afford to support local businesses, so many of them have left our area because of rent gouging.
It is ignorant to say that the market is determining what rents are! It is collusion and monopoly!
When you don’t like the policy change, complain about the process. I guarantee you that even with more advance notice, Gale’s and CB7’s phones would be ringing off the hook from the small minority of residents who park on the street.
Since you have to pay to go downtown they could have thought of having resident parking like all well run cities have. A better way to insure parking and make money
One of the great myths told by the anti car advocates is that the only people concerned with car accessibility are residents with cars.
Some of the most ardent fans of street parking I know don’t have cars. They have kids with cars who visit with their grandkids. They have friends with cars who come in for visits, for poker games, etc.
Some have friends with cars who come in to pick them up to take them places like the Berkshires.
And some know that the more metered spaces we create the more free parking we’re creating for the “placard class.”
Can you relate to any of this?
All that suggests you’d be in favor of more turnover at the curb, not Uncle Ernie from Ithaca spending half his visit circling for a space.
Well, funny you should mention the placard class. All teachers, police officers, DOB and so many city agencies provide placards for there employees to park in the streets for free!
There are more residents than a “small minority” who need to own and park cars for various reasons. And if they do, they pay taxes just like everyone else in the city, so whatever they’re doing, it’s not “free.” There’s a war on resident cars in this town, but how about the preferential treatment delivery services like Amazon and Fresh Direct receive–why aren’t they paying licensing fees to the city to benefit individual neighborhoods?–and the ridiculous favoritism to bikers, most of whom don’t observe traffic laws and gaily run down pedestrians without consequence?
That may be true. But the lack of notice is still wrong and a problem. Knowing the change is coming and when allows affected residents to make informed decisions in a timely fashion. We wouldn’t accept this kind of behavior from any private entity and we shouldn’t accept it from our city.
It’s illegal to park on the street with a car cover like that.
What are the changes?
Too bad! Yeah, maybe the rollout is a bit clumsy, but free parking is ridiculous and totally outdated. It’s time for car owners to PAY!!
Believe me, we pay plenty in CFs, so you pay less for public transportation. You can pay more, according to your judgment of others!
I wish they would ticket people who idle their engines, waiting for spaces. And people use their cars as offices in the heat and cold, idling their engines to stay cool or warm. We WALK by them and suck in their exhaust. I don’t care if you say it’s MINOR, my lungs (and others’) don’t think so.
Executive order from Trump prohibiting cars in NYC coming soon.
No one cares about Trump here
They should. He is going to make this entire discussion academic.
It’s outrageous that the community who opposed this plan at the June 2024 meeting have zero control over this DOT’s rogue actions designed by lobbyists like Trans Alt.
If we live in an autocracy in NYC that continually ignores and rejects our needs then perhaps we need start a tax rebellion that reflects this. Despite some of the highest property taxes in the country we are more and more underserved. CB7 is late to the game or just doesn’t listen. What was discussed by the DOT previously was vociferously rejected by those attending the DOT’s ONE meeting with the community. Like unregulated e-bikes, and Open Streets that closes them, our ability to live safely and sanely in our city are disappearing.
When will the government require licensing and insurance coverage for bike riders that ignore traffic signals, ride outside of designated bike lanes, and have no regard for pedestrians? What is TransAlt’s position on this, if it has one?
Isabella – you are 100% correct. CBs are run by special interest groups and have been for years!
Community boards are neither powerful nor elected, so I don’t consider them truly representative.
BINGO!!!!!
They do have power because our legislators stand behind them and say “ SEE- the community votes for this in order to get what legislator wants!”Its complete lies. The cbs dont refect what community wants. They were chosen members by Mark Levine that align with his best interests- bike lobby, restaurant lobby, real estate lobby. It is high time that all of this is exposed.
DOT also received plenty of comments from people like me (working parents of young kids who don’t have time to attend community board meetings) who wholeheartedly support street parking restrictions. 73% of UWS residents do not own cars. We need safer streets, more loading bays, more bus lanes and more pedestrian spaces.
FWIW, I’d love to buy a cargo e-bike and use it to transport my kids but it is too much risk. The issue is drivers, not e-bikers. So for now I will keep hoping for fewer cars and faster buses (no, they don’t need to be free – just fast and frequent).
During Covid nobody drove their cars. But traffic carnage continued, indeed the number of fatalities increased.
Why?
About half the cars on the road are driven for work. And most of the drivers re basically doing piece work. They know that the faster they go the more jobs they get and the more they earn.
Get rid of private cars and the workers go faster. And .the large number of people who drive for a living will only go up (because taxis, ubers, etc will increase in number). And they’ll be able to drive faster and cut more corners.
You will not be safer.
(NB: If you want to know why ebikes are operated so recklessly it’s because most ebike operators are also working and know that the faster they do their jobs the more jobs they’ll get and the more money they make)
A lot of people drove cars during COVID. Especially if you had stuff to do and people to visit. There were people who worked during COVID.
“73% of UWS residents do not own cars”
So we should have a tyranny of the majority?
Better than having a tyranny of the selfish minority!
That concept applies to fundamental rights, Free street parking is far from that,
You can’t use a cargo e-bike to go too far with a family. There’s a reason why every country that is motorbike dependent embraces car ownership once it is more affordable. There’s a reason why cars replaced horse carriages. There’s a place for public transit in this city and there is also a place for cars in this city that is more than what urbanists want. When you have a city that is bike dependent and uber dependent and MTA dependent, it is a city where people do not venture far from their communities. It is a city where, as Gale Brewer herself even once said, it is a pet peeve for Manhattanites to leave Manhattan.
Frequent buses? We had more frequent bus service in Manhattan decades ago. Go on eBay and buy a Manhattan bus map from the 1970s and compare the frequencies and number of routes that existed back then with today. There’s even NYCTA and MaBSTOA timetables from the 1960s that occasionally come up for sale, compare those frequencies with what we have today. Faster buses? If you know transit workers personally, a lot of them are not big fans of what Transportation Alternatives, Riders Alliance and Open Plans are pushing. A lot of them don’t like speed cameras, a lot of them don’t like Vision Zero and feels that all these changes make their lives harder. Many of them would love to return to the streetscape that existed before Janette Sadik Khan became NYCDOT commissioner in 2007.
It is true that there used to be more frequent and extensive bus service.
Also it is egregious that the City has implemented “open streets” and increased street events (bike events, street fairs etc) that force bus detours on a regular basis.
The problem is that the app is awful. I have tried it, but kept getting a ticket even though I had already paid. The DOT has their head in the sand on this
Just look at the reviews on Google Play.
Just watch, the next step will be issuing summons by app. By the time you know you have it, your car will be taken away. Just watch it!!!!!
CB7’s uproar over ParkNYC meters is not just about poor notice—it’s part of a bigger problem. Community Boards across the city have been stacked with Transportation Alternatives loyalists, appointed by Borough Presidents who answer more to Uber, Lyft, Citibike, Doordash, and now WAYMO than to residents. These corporate-backed agendas are disguised as “smart” policy but really turn our streets into profit streams.
In fact, CB7 has repeatedly enabled ageist, elitist, and anti-democratic DOT proposals to move forward with barely an objection. Is it any surprise, then, that DOT now treats CB7 with disdain, as irrelevant? Meanwhile, working people, the elderly, and the disabled—who can’t afford garages, surge-priced app rides, or unreliable transit—are being pushed out of basic mobility.
This is why New Yorkers have lost faith. Until Boards stop serving corporate interests over community needs, residents will keep waking up to so-called “pilot programs” that benefit everyone but the people who live here.
Thank you because I could not have said this better. Totally agree. Glad community members are finally not only realizing what’s been occurring here (regardless of how obvious this is), but are also speaking up.
Community boards are filled with appointed members who are pro-bike and anti-car. Community boards are filled with people who don’t live in the community. Regular working people from the community don’t have time to participate in the community board because regular working people have to go to work! Community board members have no accountability because they are not elected. We should be electing community board members.
DOT is captured by Transportation Alternatives who are supported by NYC politicans who are on the take for political contributions from the tech companies.
This program doesnt even make sense from the anti-car zealots perspective. It is merely a retread of one of their heroes, Donald Shoup’s old ideas about dynamic pricing for parking. Why should that be a bad idea from a TA perspective? Becasue, it makes it easier for people to use their cars to come into our neighborhood! This is what they profess not to want. More cars means more traffic and Danger! Danger,! Will Robinson! Why would we want to make it harder for our neighbors and easier for people that don’t live here?
Any native New Yorker knows that having a car is an intrinsic part of NYC life becaause it enables you to get away and even the middle and lower class should be able to do that in tehir 10 yer old 150K mile car even if they cant afford $1,000/month for a garage as certain CB7 board members and Mark Gorton can.
They also want parking for those who do live here to be expensive. A very significant number of street parking users are those that do not live on the UWS but have other ties to the UWS. I also heard rumors that Mark Gorton has a Chevy Tahoe or some other large vehicle like that.
Yes he does and can afford to park it in an expensive garage.
The piece here that everyone saying “people should pay for parking” is missing, is that the UWS does not have an abundance of paid parking. There are simply not enough garages in the 70s and 80s for everyone to park – particularly without any notice. There have been discussions in the past about permit parking, but they haven’t gone anywhere. Changes happen, but as this article shares, they need to be discussed and then the changes publicized – with warning! Also, if just this neighborhood has this (unlike the UES which has significantly more parking garages), are the profits also going back to the neighborhood? Or to other needed services in the larger community? Changes should have a purpose and a plan, and for those of us paying attention, this should not have been such a surprising overnight development.
The UWS has more paid parking than parts of the outer boroughs with similarly tight street parking. In Nassau County, the City of Long Beach also has very tight street parking, even worse than the UWS with fewer than 40% of housing stock being detached single family homes and many apartment buildings with inadequate parking and there are no garages like there are on the UWS. People in Long Beach are forced to park illegally due to the lack of paid parking options.
More than 70% of the neighborhood doesn’t own a car.
If you want to drive, move to the burbs
The “love it, or leave it” mantra. How quaint!
Yes, please, all you car owners go to the suburbs. We should replace your parking spots with trees so we can breathe. All that space out there, why is it given over to CARS. Some of us would prefer to have TREES. Don’t tell me to go to the suburbs for trees. YOU take your cars to the suburbs.
You can go to Central Park or Riverside Park for trees. Oh wait, there’s trees on the street on the UWS unlike parts of midtown.
Absolutely! Go to the suburbs for a green life! Here? We have a City life!
What about the Manhattan Democrats that drive their cars to Nassau County to tell Nassau County residents to vote Democrat?
It’s their right!
Of course drivers who have previously gotten valuable street space for free are throwing a tantrum that they now have to pay a small amount for a few spaces. I hope DoT / CB7 does the right thing for the neighborhood and ignores these complaints.
Yes, wish there was some way to make parking fees RETROACTIVE!!!!!
No one is reporting that: Limousines HAVE FREE RESERVED PARKIng on many streets in Manhattan. There are also more FREE CHARGING STATIONS NOW on the UWS. Allfree for privileged classes!
Just to clarify, this isn’t now having to pay a small amount for a few spaces. These spaces have a 3hr max, so effectively are no longer an option. The alternative for the excess of cars to spaces is a garage, which runs $700-1000+ in the neighborhood. We are talking about free to $700-1k/mo with zero notice.
Well, why don’t all you car people get together and build some garages???
Because I’m not a garage builder~ So, if you believe in that antidote? Perhaps you should become a garage builder!!
Agreed, I don’t think people appreciate the quality of life improvements if we metered most spaces in the neighborhood and stopped seeing our streets as a free parking garage.
I don’t think some kind of neighborhood permit system is bad either as long as we don’t have a system where people leave unused machinery (aka cars) on streets for days on end. I’m glad DOT ripped the bandaid on this.
Yes, I’d love to have some free storage space on the street for some of my things, too.
Now that’s silly. Get a bigger apartment or throw your things away!! That’s in essence what you are telling the rest of us to do!
But e bikes all over our streets and sidewalks are ok? You dont seem to undertand how corrupt Ydanis Rodriguez and the DOT are. This is all about anti car and pro citibike rack and rat infested dining sheds and getting rid of parking spots. There are ESSENTIAL WORKERS who need these spots. There are human beings that DO need cars. Older folks who still drive but dont ride e bikes! This is ageist. It is also NOT in line with what the majority wants. It is about special interest bike lobby, restaurant lobby, real estate lobby winning.
EVSA is a cover for drivers who hate bike lanes and want free parking for themselves.
A neighborhood permit system will allow residents with the privilege of living in Manhattan access to curbside space while keeping outsiders who can’t afford the UWS out. What if UWS residents can park in their community but no one else’s?
You either park in a garage or dont need a car. Being able to own a car in NYC should not only be for the rich. Being able to leave NYC whether for a trip or to escape a pandemic should not be only available to the rich.
Bill Williams -You are of a very ageist opinion. And clearly dont understand that there are many people- especially essential workers lugging equipment- who need a car.
What you jusy said is contradictory. So only the rich can have a car in your world. They can afford to park in a garage. WOW
How dare you.
Obviously, you need to read more carefully
Re the broader issue of doing away with all free parking, I understand the rationales raised, but we have to remember there are loads of things that the city “gives away for free” that benefit certain only people. It’s just the way things work. Should there be pay meters when families pay as they enter NYC playgrounds? Should libraries charge a fee for their use? What about public schools – are people without children entitled to a refund on their tax dollars? No. We need a livable city for everyone. Many have lives where they might need to own a car, and they are not all super wealthy people (just have a look at the kind of cars parked on the street). We don’t want a city where only the rich can afford to live here, and the push by some to eliminate all free street parking seems a step in the wrong direction.
However you slice it UWS is kind of only for the “rich”— you have to be rich to just be middle class here…
You do know that CITIBIKE pays ZERO dollars for the long bike racks. Are you aware of thus?? They bring in Millions and none of that $ goes to city. Tbe MTA loses money due to citibike riding so a % if Cutibike proceeds should go to MTA.
Residents have to PAY to park but GREEDY CORPORATE Lyft/Citibike shouldnt? Very Trumpy
Every time one of these parking articles is posted, someone compares getting tax-payer subsidized storage for your car to public libraries and schools. You need to come up with a better argument.
Public libraries and schools benefit everyone. Free parking only benefits you.
Silly argument! It’s just your values talking, by disparaging anyone who doesn’t thinklike you!
Why does Citibike/Lyft pay ZERO forvthe super long bike racks while making millions? Hmmmm
I believe they do pay a nominal fee.
How does everyone benefit from libraries and schools? Spare me the esoteric argument that society is better because of them. Individuals don’t necessarily benefit from either entity in a strict sense.
I can argue that the streets also benefit everyone in one way or another. If someone drives in to visit me and is able to park in the street, that benefits me. If a contractor is able to park for free in the street, then what he charges me is inherently less if he doesn’t have to pay for parking.
Libraries serve as cooling spaces for the public. Whereas your car serves as your own private a/c-d space, idling your engines in the street. Ditto for winter/heat.
You’re really stretching now! At least comee up with a logical argument, that is less self-serving.
You don’t think an educated populace is a good thing?
How does someone driving to see you benefit me?
NYC public schools are atrocious. Most students do not perform at grade level in reading or math. I raised 3 kids in NYC and none went to public school. My parents raised 2 kids in NYC and we never went to public school. So why am I paying for this benefit for YOU?
Some NYC schools are atrocious.
You’re paying school tax directly or indirectly because you are part of the NYC community.
That’s a pretty elitist statement. My family has always gone to NYC public schools and colleges. My daughter was a bio mechanical research engineer for the HSS. One of my grandsons is studying to be a doctor, another is a “techi” and my other is studying fro be a mechanical engineer.
Streets and sidewalks are paid by taxpayers and should be free. Are you willing to pay to use the sidewalk? Where is the monies from congestion pricing going to? The monies from meter parking? From parking tickets?
Sidewalks aren’t all free anymore. The outdoor restaurants and their sheds….. Then if there’s a half inch of space, they have to put signs out on the sidewalks. So pedestrians have to trip around that chaotic mess. Yes, who cares about seniors????
Mar – where is the money from Citibike rentals going? They take a lot of parking spots. It all goes to CITIBIKE! They make millions and pay nyc NOTHING while taking PUBLIC SPACE! Nobody ever questions THIS. It is time to expose Lyft/Citibike and the delivery app companies who all donate to the bike lobby. Corruption is all around.
Streets should be free for driving not free storage.
The revenue from parking meters and tickets goes to the city. Congestion pricing revenue goes to the MTA. This is no secret.
City DOT insists that vehicle use should reduced, parking should be reduced and mass transit bus-subway should be used.
Yet the City/City DOT has/is:
Allowing a Waymo driverless car pilot.
Increased the number of Uber/Lyfts.
Implemented e-commerce loading/unloading zones and providing benefit to corporate e-commerce (but City has provided no help to local retail).
Done nothing to discourage e-commerce use which generates more vehicles/traffic.
Implemented “open streets” forcing bus rerouting and thus denying riders with access to essential bus mass transit.
Feeling pretty cynical about City DOT….
Alisa-you hit the nail on the head! It’s all about privatizing public space for profit and well under way promoted by hedge funders masquerading as non-profit bike and open streets advocates. I’m sure one day you’ll have to pay to use Central Park or send a child to public school. That’s precisely what’s happening here. And we’re allowing it.
BOO HOO TAKE THE TRAIN
Tell Assemblymember Harvey Epstein not to charter private buses and Manhattan Dems not to suggest taking private cars to swing districts in the NYC metro area (especially areas like Bayside Queens) to ask voters to vote for Democrats then!
Why do we need more 3-hour parking? I thought visitors to the UWS weren’t coming by car.
It’s a loss of about 80 alternate side spots over about 23 blocks between Amsterdam and CPW, 73-86 streets.
The initial coverage of this overstated the number of spots taken for metering, and that undoubtedly led to a lot of the complaints.
The rollout was botched, of course.
And typically.
Good to do away with alternate side of the street parking, so we’d have less idling engines.
Credentials: Pedestrian, bus, subway rider. Lifelong New Yorker and don’t know how to drive. Parent.
Completely opposed to DOT actions.
Teachers, building superintendents and various people (residents and workers) who need to drive should be able to find street parking.
Am not OK with huge use of ecommerce and huge increase in vehicles due to ecommerce.
Anyone getting ecommerce is generating vehicles – especially in an area where it is a walk of just a few blocks to buy Cheerios.
Ecommerce is also decimating local shops.
And pretty funny — ice cream trucks by schools.
Community Board 7 has been hijacked by Transportation Alternatives. Basically, lobbying groups ( bike,restaurant, real estate) run Manhattan Community Boards. It is time to fight back! CBs should reflect the community NOT wealthy special interest groups.
Not happy about this rollout! On the day they changed the signs on W85th Street, I was parked in one of the affected spots, with no warning of the coming change. I had moved there on a Tuesday after ASP, assuming I was good until Friday. My super warned me so I could move the car before getting a ticket. After spending an hour to find another space, I happened to see the DOT sign-changers on W84th next to the Gristedes. When I asked the workers why there was no notice, one of them smugly said, “This IS your notice.” I hate feeling penalized for owning a car. I’d happily pay a residential parking fee if that would satisfy critics of free parking.
I hate being penalized by being a pedestrian and inhaling car exhaust that I don’t want.
Oh, so if everyone drove an electric car and engine exhaust was a thing of the past, then free street parking for all? Thanks!
If you crave fresh air so much there’s a whole world outside of NYC, I think you’re too sensitive to live here, Jan.
Go to the park!
Each and every parking spot citywide should be paid!!!!
Better yet. Park your car OUTSIDE the city and take a PATH train to pick it up!!
Why didn’t UWS residents who went to Bayside Queens to canvass for Tom Suozzi last year in a critical swing district election take the same trains and buses that they want Bayside residents to take to come to Manhattan?
No one should be allowed to park for free in Manhattan. That is public space and there is no reason whatsoever for people to be able to claim it, when it is needed for much less expensive modes of transportation, to get trash off the sidewalks and into rat-proof bins, even perhaps to allow short-term metered parking for delivery trucks so they don’t double park. No private parking on public streets.
The problem is not the lack of notice. The problem is that NYC politicians are trying to make NYC unaffordable to the middle class.
I was in one of the “public comment” sessions when the city was promoting the rule tk take away 8 parking spaces around each intersection (studies showed that this does not improve safety). It was clear that the “public comment” was a sham as everything was decided and the audience was stacked with people who parroted every city reason to remove the parking spaces. Everything was decided and this was just a show.
No wonder people are leaving NYC.
I’d rather have the UWS of the 1970s than the sanitized unaffordable UWS of today. It was a fun city back then. Now it is a structured sanitized “fun” that is inauthentic.
This is a joke-no surprise. All over the city DOT is doing what its handlers TRANSPORTATION ALTERNATIVES WANTS-Monetize curb parking and allow the corporate for-profit bike(citibikes) and carshare companies use taxpayer maintained curb space for profit. In support of this travesty DOT is spending millions on street redesigns and bike lanes. Most of our politicians are getting money and endorsements from StreetSPAC the fund raiser for TA.
If it was possible to use a parking garage at affordable prices, there might be somewhat less of a problem with crowded public parking. But the garages gouge you. I’m temporarily driving a borrowed car to and from Jersey to take care of a cancer patient and I can’t even come home to my own apartment once in a while with the car because (a) parking rules are already so byzentine I’m afraid of getting another ticket and (b) just to park 1 night/24 hours period costs $53! It’s totally unaffordable and impossible to park a car on the UWS regardless of any new regulations.
In the City of Long Beach, you have to park illegally as you have no other option.