By Scott Etkin
Early last week, drivers on a portion of the Upper West Side awoke to find new parking rules in effect, including a new way to pay for parking.
The regulations affect parking on some parts of the side streets immediately adjacent to Columbus Avenue between West 73rd and 86th streets, a New York City Department of Transportation (DOT) spokesperson wrote to the Rag.
Some spots that were previously unmetered now have three-hour metered parking from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., except Sundays, though “most parking spaces on the side streets remain unpaid,” the spokesperson wrote.
For spots that are now metered for the first time, payments must be made using ParkNYC, an app that can be downloaded to a driver’s smartphone.
These changes are part of the DOT’s Smart Curbs pilot program, which covers the area between West 73rd and 86th streets from Broadway to Central Park West.
Since last fall, the DOT has implemented several updates intended to improve the flow of cars, trucks, bikes, and pedestrians on this section of the Upper West Side – one of the most densely populated neighborhoods in the city. So far, the program has added loading zones for trucks, seating areas, bike corrals, a delivery hub, and new signage for bus waiting times.
Under the previous rules for some parking spots, drivers only had to move their cars twice per week for street cleaning. The new three-hour time limit could create more turnover in these spots, which furthers the DOT’s goal of providing more access to parking spaces close to the businesses along Columbus Avenue.
Using the ParkNYC app might be a first for many Upper West Side drivers, but the app itself is not new; it was originally launched in 2016 and updated in 2022. At that time, mobile transactions accounted for 42% of all parking meter payments in the city.
Within the app, drivers pay by entering their license plate number and the zone number associated with their parking space (along with their billing information and address).
An FAQ about how to use ParkNYC, including how drivers can pay by phone call if they can’t access the app, is available – HERE.
“Given the success of ParkNYC mobile parking payments, the city’s parking meters will be converted to a unified pay-by-plate parking system, replacing the existing paper-based ‘pay-and-display’ operations,” DOT wrote in its 2023 Curb Management Action Plan. “In a pay-by-plate system, users simply enter their license plate at the meter without the need to return to the vehicle to place a receipt, improving convenience and making enforcement more efficient.”
The recent ParkNYC implementation covers some spots on side streets adjacent to Columbus Avenue; it does not affect physical meters elsewhere. “Physical meters remain at all other metered parking locations in the neighborhood,” according to signage posted by the DOT.
Read More: Smart Curbs Implementation Launches on the UWS: New Bike Corrals, Truck-Loading and Drop-Off Areas
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Keep pushing people who need cars to take care of family and earn a living out of the city……great job DOT…..why the DOT has any “community” meetings for “feedback” is beyond me – having attended a few I know for a fact every comment and alternative solution falls on deaf ears….
The people who park on the street aren’t families and people with jobs. It’s people who don’t have families and jobs who have the time to play the alternate side parking musical chairs game. They block street sweepers from cleaning the streets and they are squatting on parking spaces that should be available to others who need them for day to day activity.
You mean the people who are earning a living while sitting in their double parked cars for 90 minutes two times a week with the engine running while eating a sandwich?
There are plenty of parking garages if you have an issue with the eight or so parking spots that are now metered on each block in a small portion of the neighborhood.
You’ll also probably appreciate the 8 or more spots that will be eliminated when daylighting regulations are instituted.
Sounds like a great plan. We should have instituted daylighting a decade ago.
I’m assuming you know the cost of parking garages???
Don’t pay attention to him. He just likes to argue about everything. A real contrarian.
If you can afford a car in NYC, you can afford the garage, too. Otherwise, get rid of the car. There are plenty of other ways to get around, no matter how inconvenient they may be.
What a rude reply. As if we are all rich and can pay anything to parl, like 75$!!
Not everybody who owns a car is wealthy. Not everyone who owns a car has other transportation options. As an adjunct instructor, I made a meager salary, and now retired on Social Secuity, I am so grateful for my rent stabilized apartment. I am also thankful that my trusty 15 year old car enables me to visit my 91-year-old mother in an upstate nursing home. No, there are no buses or trains to anywhere near the nursing home. Renting a car for the frequent trip would be prohibitively expensive compared to maintaining my old beater, which yes, is parked on the street and moved back and forth on alternate side days. What is the old saying — do not judge others without walking in their mocassins.
Getting ready for Mamdani telling people what they CAN and CANT afford based on zero knowledge?
Then UWS residents had no right to complain about the M104 being cut back in 2010.
This is a ridiculous comment. If you can afford X that doesn’t mean you can afford X+Y.
Those of us who weren’t old enough to snag an apartment here in the 1970s or 1980s are constantly told that we aren’t entitled to live here and should move if we can’t afford it. Why should it be any different for car owners? Times change, prices change.
Car owners are important to the UWS. Not all of them live on the UWS. Also not all of NYC is the UWS.
Think about the fact that this change will discourage a few of those NJ cars who park here every day and then take the subway downtown. They are the REAL problem. I’m an Upoer West Sider for 45 years, parked on the street for 20 years, had a garage, for 20 years while I had a business. Now I take the train and only drive in 2-3 times a year to drop off my Costco paper goods run. I’ve been in favor of residential parking permits for years. We are the only major city in the US that does not have them. Why do a few thousand people think the streets should be free just for them?
If continuing to park on one of these UWS side streets is important for a car owner, that person will either find a way to pay for it or go someplace else. Just like I have to either find a way to pay for my rent increases or go someplace else.
UWS renters got good cause eviction!
Well put.
Moving is always an option.
I do. Paying for a metered spot isn’t such a big deal in comparison.
Owning a car in Manhattan (and certainly on the UWS) and depending on street parking as your primary means of storing your vehicle is just silly. The median household income in the 10023 zip code is roughly $158K as of the last census. That’s about $77/hour. At that rate, it doesn’t take too many hours of driving around and looking for a legal spot before it becomes more time-effective to just bite the bullet and pay for a spot in a garage. Take into account the inevitable occasional ticket (or booting or towing) and this is even more true. Add in the additional wear and tear to your car from street parking and it becomes a no-brainer. When I moved to Manhattan (26 years ago), I did that for about two weeks before deciding that my time and mental health were worth way more than the monthly parking fee.
This sounds more like a 10024 issue than a 10023 issue. Far fewer 10023 residents depend on street parking because it’s much less available than in 10024.
The day that I finally got a spot in the garage in my building was one of the top 5 best days of my life.
It begs the question, the other 4 ?
Wanted to add but hit submit too soon – What about people who don’t have a smart phone, bad cell service, etc? Yes, “everyone has phones!”, but no, not everyone. And lastly, these are not “smart” curbs they are Cash Curbs
I don’t. And even before I abandoned T-Mobile, what I had — and still have, FWIW — was a feature phone using an exotic operating system almost certainly unable to run this DoT app. (Chorus: “Yeah, yeah, but ecm is just an eccentric crank and doesn’t count.” Given that I lack a car, there might be some tiny merit to this view.)
I’m not exactly looking forward to the day when a smart phone, running one of a duopoly of operating systems, will be required to eat, breathe, exist … but I suspect our devout corporatists will be untroubled by this scenario.
You have to have a phone to park on the street because otherwise how would you browse Instagram (sometimes porn) while sitting in your car during alternate side parking?
I think every person I see living on the street has a smart phone. You can get one for $30. Having a cell phone is not an unreasonable requirement.
You can get a cheap or free smartphone, but decent data plans are NOT cheap or free.
This is just another forced use of a tracking device.
If everyone can get a smart phone, then there would be no need for LinkNYC kiosks
Nobody uses the link NYC kiosks. But the owners still get to have their obnoxious screens for ads. Remove them and replace them with trees already.
They need to institute residential parking and direct all out-of-state registrations to garages. We already pay for these spots with our taxes.
No. We want out of state parking but they should pay the meter. Having residential permits won’t solve anything.
Weird. All the other cities that have residential permit programs seem to find them quite successful. Maybe they’re stupid and we’re smart for turning our parking into a lunchroom food fight. Also how do you know permits won’t solve anything if NYC has never tried them? How about a pilot program in one neighborhood to see if residents like them. The UWS should be that neighborhood.
Problem with that is that garages are closing and parking minimums are being reduced around the city.
Exactly. Charge a nominal fee and have parking permits. If I had a nickel for every Vermont license plate I see parked for weeks, I could balance the city’s budget.
They should also make permits available to those who can prove they work in the neighborhood. There are a lot of people who commute in by car (many of whom are doormen and others without big incomes) who should be included. And no, many of these people cannot easily use public transit – there are many suburbs, particularly the more affordable ones, that do not have adequate public transit, and it is even worse if your commute is not at rush hour, which is the case for many of these people. And no, it is not in the budget of mass transit agencies to add stops in all of these places.
I’m trying to find a happy compromise. But the car haters will continue to insist that no one should have a car.
If you give permits to people who live here, and people who work here, then who is going to pay? People don’t just park here for no reason, they are here either to live, work, or shop.
If this is a way to root out insurance fraud by people who illegally register their car out of state, why not increase enforcement and penalties against the people committing these crimes instead of offering them a carrot if they please stop breaking the law? It’s like giving shoplifters a coupon if they promise to stop stealing.
Um. There are lots of people who come into the city to eat, see friends, shop, go to the theater, go to a museum, etc. Have you never had a friend or family member from the suburbs (or even another borough!) visit? If not, you should broaden your social network.
I (and many other posters) am trying to build a logical compromise solution. But no one can ever be happy.
Exactly. And it’s impossible for them to park anywhere because of everyone here is squatting on the parking spaces. We have to get real and realize that it makes no sense to have free parking in a crowded city.
So imagine there are two UWSers with families in the suburbs that are not accessible by public transit. One UWSer owns a car and parks it here on the street for free then drives out to their family. The other doesn’t own a car and their family drives in to visit them instead. They both pay taxes, but one gets free parking and the other doesn’t? And the one that doesn’t have to pay is the one that is taking up valuable Manhattan real estate?
Since when is a street – specifically the gutter – considered valuable Manhattan real estate?
This isn’t a way to root out insurance fraud, resident permits are a version of NIMBYism.
oh god. Every other major city in this country – and these are placed like LA, Houston, Boston that are FAR more automotive than NYC – does residential permits for street parking.
Get used to it. Times will change
Depending on the city, there are people who game the system while other cities with permits have more parking garages and the parking garage rates are way cheaper than NYC.
The reality of what will happen with resident permits in NYC and specifically the UWS, is that first you will get resident permits for $20 a year, then a few years from now it will be $200 a year and groups like Transportation Alternatives and Open Plans will eventually argue that only about 24% of UWS households own cars and are privileged and should not be able to park on the street at all. To be honest, if UWS residents turned against the area workers and business owners, they have no standing against Transportation Alternatives and Open Plans and do not have the bargaining power that including those from outside the area will bring.
Also what if other areas said that you cannot park in their community without a permit, then what is the whole point of owning a car?
Great plan. Every other major city does this
So right! Like every other big city! I couldn’t get it going. Give it a try!
Right now Mark Levine wants resident permits. But let’s face it, permits are a transalt and open plans wet dream. You get to park in your community but no one else’s which brings me to a) then what’s the point of having a car and b) the price will escalate and eventually more parking gets taken and transalt and open plans say that entitled residents are the only ones who park on the street and that is unfair so no one should park on the street at all.
Honestly if there was a hypothetical city council primary and it was Renee Baruch running against Sara Lind, I would much rather have Sara Lind. That is how off putting the whole resident permit idea is. I saw Renee’s presentation to CB7, that is how off putting it is.
Great news, glad to see the city starting to charge for use of the curb. For those that really need a parking spot it should be a lot easier to find one instead having the curb jammed up by cars that are driven like once a month
Lets start charging for the use of sidewalk space for restaurants. Charge rent. On weekends on many blocks you have to wait to be able to walk down the street.
1. We DO charge for sidewalk cafes.
2. Sidewalk cafes don’t prevent everyone else from using the sidewalk. A row of parked cars from end to end does prevent anyone else from parking at the curb.
Sidewalk seating is already subjected to a fee. It should be enforced since so many restaurants have put out chairs etc with no permits, but that’s the Adams admin for you
I don’t have a car, but couldn’t the people who leave their cars parked at the curb just pay for it, which doesn’t really free up the spot?
The article notes there is a 3 hour time limit.
Even if that wasn’t the case, now that there is a cost for the parking space that incentives people to use it only when needed instead of all the time
Got it, thanks!
Happy to help!
Another money grab by the DOT. Free spots are now paid.
Free parking is a bigger money grab. People who need to park have to circle around for hours or illegally double park because squatters who have you much free time to sit in their cars during alternate side parking are hogging all the spaces.
New York making it impossible for cars to get around, killing tourism, visitors, commuters.
Midtown hasn’t exactly been bereft of automobile traffic since congestion pricing went it. And I doubt many of the thousands of tourists who continue to visit the city (tried walking around Times Square lately?) bring their cars in. And the vast majority of commuters use rail. I rermember the desperate “sky is falling” hysteria that accompanied the closing off of Broadway in Times Square to automobile traffic.
How would a visitor park anywhere if all the parking spaces are occupied by squatters? Charging a small fee makes it easier for cars to get around. No more circling hours to find a spot. No more double parking.
LOOOOOOOL
When are the car haters on this feed going to understand that those of us who park on the street cannot afford the garages? I am a college professor who drives to one of my employers one day a week. That school is not off a train line. Believe me, if I could take the train, I’d much prefer that. I also help care for my aging parents who live in a Pennsylvania town also not off a train line. I’m one of many in our neighborhood with this type of full or partial reverse commuting and my income does not afford $900+ a month for a garage, sorry.
Parking meters is the best thing for cars because then you could actually find a spot without circling around for hours. In your case, you’re not using the parking space except once a week or on occasion, but the rest of the time you’re preventing someone else who needs their car daily from having access to a parking space.
Seems to me that working one day a week may be why a garage is unaffordable.
I work six days a week, thank you. One of them is upstate involving my car.
He said one of his employers Adam.
Reading comprehension! OP explicitly wrote “employers”—plural. They likely have to teach at several colleges to cobble a living wage. Not an unheard of situation for adjuncts.
Charge for parking on every spot and offer people like you a free or reduced rate. It frees up parking for people who actually need it. The current system is an unregulated free for all that wastes everyone’s time, generates pollution because of people cruising, and doesn’t actually benefit the people who everyone agrees should have priority access to parking.
Same here. I wish i could take the train to my teaching job. As a school teacher, i cant afford a parking garage.
Believe it or not I know a teacher who lives on the UWS and teaches in the Bronx in an area that is hard to reach by public transportation!
And so the city should be forced to subsidize your reverse commuting arrangement with free car storage? Absolutely not!
No one is subsidizing anyone’s “reverse commuting arrangement”. I’m a tax paying New Yorker of 21 years who doesn’t have children and yet I’m not complaining about the tax dollars I pay that go into the programs that benefit your children, UWS Dad. The streets and curbs we all pay for have many uses, and if a limited number are available for residents who chose to put up with the hassle of street parking so that they can afford to keep a car here, I think that’s a fine arrangement. These cuts to available street parking are only making the city more of an elite home for the wealthy.
Educating the public’s children is a societal benefit for all of that live here. Subsidizing your place to park your personal property on public land benefits only you.
Your comment is nasty and selfish. Are you G-d?
Nasty and selfish is demanding something for free for no reason.
Actually parking helps teachers who must drive to many schools, helping our kids.
This makes no sense – I am the person thay educates the public’s children. So I’m doing the work to benefit society but I can’t park the car I use to do said work?
Subsidizing one’s place to park one’s personal property benefits everyone because resources for public transit are limited and cannot accommodate everyone.
No sympathies for cars. I care about my lungs. On poor air quality days, people with asthma etc are told to stay home. Maybe car people should stay home instead. Wish there was enough traffic enforcement to ticket idling engines. Say bye to cars and replace them with trees!
Follow and an air quality site regularly and you’ll find NYC has good air the majority of days.
https://www.airnow.gov/?city=New%20York&state=NY&country=USA
Relatively good air. The UWS was rated highest in air pollution.
If you care about good air quality there are many places that qualify, no need to live on the UWS.
I’d worry more about the construction dust that contractors continually pump into the air—illegally—and which the EPA and buildings department don’t care about. People in my neighborhood have chronic coughs, chronic sinusitis and one poor fool thinks her husband keeps getting pneumonia thanks to pigeons not the pointing dust that fills the air
None of this is going to result in fewer cars or less traffic.
I bet you never order off Amazon or any other delivery service who utilize high emission delivery trucks that idle on our streets every day.
I don’t, actually. We live in a neighborhood with stores, I walk to them like an adult.
Hopefully you feel that way about delivery drivers. I wish the empty car lobby also cared about the takeover of the streets by Amazon, fresh direct and others.
It is not that hard to cut down on delivery vehicles. No need for loading zones on residential blocks. It would not be that hard for UPS or Fedex to open more stores. It would also not be that hard to have local stores get paid to be Amazon receiving points where people can visit a store to pick up their packages or to send packages back to Amazon. This would help businesses make their monthly rent and even entice them to shop local.
Absurd comment so I will match it. Move to a forest, plenty of trees for you.
Move to the countryside and you’ll have plenty of space to park your cars.
Agree. Hopefully now we will also see increased parking enforcement! Might even start ticketing all these fake/covered license plates and illegal blacked out windows. But now I’m just dreaming…
Is there any reason not to charge for every spot, use the revenue to improve our locals parks and infrastructure, and use a portion of the revenue to give rebates/subsidies to low income local car owners? The current system gives free parking to a Porsche from Connecticut who has time to drive around looking for a spot, but a working family who doesn’t have time to hunt for a free parking spot every night is forced to pay for a garage? I agree there are people who need a car and can’t afford a garage – but the current system does not benefit those people!
Charge restaurants for sidewalk space first.
Um… that’s exactly what the city does.
Do you really believe that that is where the money will go?
Yes. If you can pass a law creating residential parking permits, you can also pass a law that says charge everyone and give discounts to the people who deserve it.
The person who drives from Connecticut is more likely to drive a Honda than a Porsche and either works in the area, owns a business in the area, has family in the area or is visiting and spending money here that they wouldn’t have if they had to drive to a train station and then take 3 or 4 trains to get to the UWS.
I don’ t have a car and don’t live within these parameters any longer, but if I did, I’d be fuming mad. Where/how do they expect people who live on those side streets to go to work if they have to move their cars every 3 hours? Residential streets should remain free parking for residents, with alternate side rules in the usual effect.
Every parking space on the UWS should be metered. It could be a low fee, but it can no longer be free. It’s a mess. Squatters blocking the street sweepers. People can’t find a spot when you need one.
This is simply a way of DOT trying to make money for those people who want to avoid congestion pricing on the West Side. Shameful.
How many people are paying almost $6 per person for the subway to avoid a $9 per vehicle per day fee and deal with alternate side on top of that? Not many. I see literally zero difference in parking space availability before and after congestion pricing.
I don’t understand your math. Paying $5.80 to commute into the congestion zone saves a lot more than the $3.20 difference to the $9.00. If you drive into the congestion zone, you’re paying an exorbitant parking fee plus gas and depreciation. And the lack of all-day parking spaces on the UWS hasn’t changed, which is why there hasn’t been an influx of congestion-zone-avoiding drivers trying to dump their cars here. They’re apparently happy to pay the $9.00. Which is why midtown still has lots of traffic and lots of revenue is being generated.
Not all of the congestion zone is Midtown. There are neighborhoods such as Chelsea, West Village, East Village, LES, Stuytown that do have free curbside parking just like the UWS. Not only that, people drive cars for convenience, the people who would be inclined to leave their cars somewhere then take public transit are more likely to do it further uptown, not come ALMOST to 60th Street to take a subway. Furthermore, Midtown garages can be cheaper than UWS garages, especially since congestion pricings implementation. The gas and depreciation driving to the UWS versus driving to somewhere else in Manhattan is negligible.
Congestion pricing has been a smashing success, so pricing curb congestion instead of allowing free parking is a great idea too
Why on earth do you think congestion pricing is a success? Don’t you know tourism is down. It’s a disaster. It was just another way for the state to rip off New York City to support. It’s bad policies, graft, and incompetence.
How does congestion pricing (which doesn’t appear to have reduced midtown traffic by much) possibly impact tourism? What tourists drive into Manhattan?And if they wanted to, what possible difference would $9.00 a day make when you consider the cost of hotels, restaurants, theater tickets, etc.? Even theatregoers coming in for one evening are already paying $500 or more for parking, eating and theater tickets. Does an additonal $9.00 really matter?
If tourism is down its because people don’t want to be arrested and sent to El Salvador –
Sue, tourism is down from international visitors — no one from, say, China or Europe is deciding not to come here because of congestion pricing.
They aren’t bringing cars with them on the plane, and the toll is trivial relative to the cost of flights + hotels anyway.
Congestion pricing isn’t about congestion instead it is a money grab and part of a culture war
If congestion pricing is a “money grab,” so is the sales tax, income tax, gas tax, auto registration fee, subway and bus fare, and anything else you have to pay to the government.
That’s right – and New York City won that war. Deal with it
I get it, you do not want an NYC where there is a place for people like me. That will not happen. Deal with it.
Does the requirement to use a smart phone app to park in the new spaces violate the NYC, and now NYS, law that requires retail establishments to accept cash? The question is whether the NYC DOT is considered a “retail establishment.” A retail establishment is an establishment (is the DOT an establishment?) where, inter alia, “services are provided at retail” (is parking a service provided at retail?). I would argue that both requirements are satisfied (with respect to the retail service requirement, how is this different from a parking lot; I’m not clear on the establishment requirement, as there does not seem to be a definition in the law of the term), and that the DOT must provide a cash option — the purpose of the law is to be inclusive of people who are “unbanked.”
I’ve previously reported to 311 a situation where I tried to pay cash to park at the Citifield parking lot, and was told they accept only credit cards. In typical NYC bureaucratic fashion, I eventually received a letter saying that my complaint had been resolved, but the letter did not say how it was resolved.
I believe the government is exempt from restrictions like that.
Yes, it does. Next time you park in these streets, drive around for 20 minutes, find a spot, park the car, then drive away to find one of the ticketing agents who surely accept cash, hand them a tenner, get $3.26 back, drive back to the spot which is now occupied, then keep driving to find a new spot, recalculating the above cost in real time?
What other mind-numbing bureaucratic nonsense “question” do you want to concoct because you insist on being the last person on Earth without a credit card (or phone)?
I wish they would do this on every block on the upper westside. This could fund our sanctuary city programs!
How about using the money for asthma medications, etc., that people need to take for their poor lungs — people who can’t afford medications — or maybe some good food for them to support their lungs — cars are part of the problem for their diseased lungs…..
The least of your worries his car exhaust. The endless construction in the city emits, tremendous amount of particulate into the air and nobody is regulating it or cares that it’s illegal.
That will encourage non upper west siders not to patronize the upper west side.
The DOT seems to be on a mission to eliminate automobiles.
How would someone visiting the UWS find a parking space if they are all occupied by squatters because the parking is free? Meters actually DO encourage visitors.
My friends from Long Island leave their cars at the station, take the train to Penn and the subway to the UWS. They prefer it to the futile search for a space or the expense of an hourly garage for a couple of hours in the city.
If you know anything about Long Island, you will know that the LIRR is the worst run of the MTA agencies where much of the staff from the front line staff to the executive level staff have an us versus them relationship with the riding public. Not only that, when Grand Central opened, it was not really a service increase for much of Long Island, actually many parts of Long Island saw service to Penn Station reduced in favor of Grand Central with timed connections to Penn Station trains eliminated. So you have people now either waiting longer and taking train trips to the west side that are longer than before, especially now having to take an extra train from Grand Central to reach the UWS. The Grand Central platforms take a while to get to as well. On top of that, you have groups like Riders Alliance who call the LIRR “a luxury service” on twitter when it really is not one.
Also many Manhattan residents drive to Long Island and can’t be bothered with the trains but do not want Long Islanders to drive to them.
The service patterns were modified a few months after Grand Central opened for the LIRR – many runs were re-directed to Penn Station to reflect the lower ridership to GC that materialized. In fact, the GC services partially reflect redirected Brooklyn runs (Hempstead, Far Rockaway), so service to Penn Station has not been substantially reduced, except during rush hours when there are trains to GC to accomodate people who want to go there.. In fact, overall service levels have increased on the railroad, specifically half-hourly trains to Huntington and Ronkonkoma, plus hourly service to Manhattan on the West Hempstead branch. Like all major rail enhancements, Grand Central ridership will increase over time because of its convenience, despite the extra few minutes it takes to get to the street. By the way, there are a number of direct entrances just off Madison Avenue that are fairly quick to take advantage of. I frequently use the LIRR and have very rarely encountered delays. I find it exceptionally well-run.
99% of the time, non-UWSers don’t drive to the neighborhood. And those that do have a couple extra bucks for parking. We’ll be fine – with cleaner air and less traffic.
If non-UWSers don’t drive here, why do we need more metered spaces?
Interesting! Where did you get that info from?
99% is certainly an embellishment. The UWS is not midtown.
So many cities, smaller than New York, with worse transit, lower density, and more car dependence, implement parking regulations (resident permits, more paid parking). New York is bizarre that it has so much unrestricted free parking in some of the densest neighborhoods in the United States.
Even discounting the cost of a parking spot in a garage a bit, it’s still effectively a subsidy of thousands of dollars a year to car owners to let them use 180 square feet of real estate for free. The fact that folks feel entitled to free parking comes from the fact that they’ve had it for so long, not because it makes any sense.
I think that free parking is a safety valve because the MTA knows it cannot accommodate everyone and keep them satisfied. The MTA’s job is to make hard politically unpopular decisions no elected wants to be directly accountable for.
Well said! John gets it.
I’m really surprised that the leftist City Council would let the administration require a phone for any public service.
I don’t m ow why everyone’s upset? When Mamdani wins everything will be FREE!
I wish we would first address the off-street subsidies.
Why are NYCHA residents allowed to off street park for $100 year?
Residents should have a permit to park, they can pay a fee, non-residents can pay a bigger fee for a time limit (3 hours).
The three hour limit is silly, but glad we’re finally learning from other cities and charging for parking. It’s good for drivers too, as it makes more parking spots available. I would gladly pay a few bucks to not hunt for parking when I have a car in town!
Every single inch of every street should be metered parking! If a person cannot afford to pay for parking then they shouldn’t have a car! NYC has the best mass transit system, use it… Or here’s a suggestion: Move To The Suburbs Where You And Your Car Belong! I’m so tired of all the complaining of car owners.
Actually native New Yorkers get to stay in NYC – whether they have cars or not.
Expect seeing more scofflaw tire boots and window stickers. This city keeps making it more difficult to live here.
City keeps making money one way or another …where does it go? No improvement in public transportation! last read here was on talk about permit parking to UWS residents and then straight 3 hour meter parking came. City imposed, congestion toll, made money, initially traffic got curbed but now it has gone out of control, city is still making money though! Uws is suffering with the traffic because of the congestion toll. You don’t want people to drive car, fare enough but at the same time like other countries, public transportation has to be top notch and permit parking is must! then whoever is not part of NYC is forced to park in the garage or meter parking!
The city has very little to do with public transportation. And congestion pricing revenue does not flow to the city.
Not only they do not want people to drive cars, but they want to force those in transit deserts to use transportation modes that are absolute garbage while those with the privilege of living on the UWS and having their entire lives in NYC revolve around the same 15 or so neighborhoods use uber and lyft and citibike on the regular.
Major work to discourage vehicles, such as CP and major elimination of parking….
Yet at the same time….
Incredibly City DOT is now allowing a Waymo driverless car pilot.
And per WSR article, a new meal delivery service is starting up – which will use vans for delivery.
City is implementing ecommerce loading-delivery to help ecommerce (yet no City help for small shops and retail)
Curtis Sliwa one more reason to vote for him and stop the attacks on New York residence. He should post a campaign ad on every one of these parking post stating he will get rid of it.
[…] Adams administration is choosing to roll back the changes made to parking earlier this month as part of the Smart Curbs Pilot Program from West 73rd to 86th streets adjacent to Columbus […]
The NYC Department of Transportation (DOT) has agreed to roll back the plan and it plans to formally re-introduce it to the UWS Residence shortly . DOT will seek more public input before making any further changes to the parking system in the area within the next month.