Parking Permit Forum Tonight

By on February 4, 2008 8:09 am in Uncategorized

We know how much the average Brooklyn Heights resident loves to talk about parking and tonight you'll have the chance to jibba jabba all you want about it:

Brownstoner: This Monday, several City Council Members and a number of neighborhood groups are holding a forum for Brooklynites to chew on the idea of residential parking permits. The town hall-style meeting will focus on whether the permits, which would probably cost a small annual fee, could help alleviate curbside parking problems and traffic in Downtown. Council Members David Yassky, Letitia James and Bill de Blasio have organized the event, which is expected to draw several hundred residents, and DOT comish Janette Sadik-Khan is scheduled to attend. Councilman de Blasio sees the forum as the first step in developing parking strategies for all of Brooklyn. 

The forum is tonight at 7pm, St. Francis College Auditorium 180 Remsen Street.

Update: Streetsblog has a blow by blow from Monday's meeting.

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  • ABC

    I went to the meeting. The community proposal and DOT proposal are quite a bit different, but it seem the DOT (who is really in charge) hopes to go “live” on a trial basis by Spring 2009.

    Proposals are online (look at DOT) and yes, studies show that nearly 40% of daily parking in Brooklyn Heights are “park and riders”. That’s now, without congestion pricing. That’s how I understood it. Have some paperwork at home — but I’m busy at work at the moment.

    I’m for it. The audience seemed for it too — for the most part.

  • RN

    To the pro-permit people…do you really think that there are enough parking spaces even for residents?

  • ABC

    There are not enough parking spots for all residents. That’s for sure. Residential Parking Permits doesn’t guarantee residents a spot — just makes sure you have a shot at finding parking in your neighborhood and cuts out people hoping to park and ride entirely. All that circling is a major part of Brooklyn Heights traffic.

    Should point out, there are more permits than spots in many cities with RPP including Chicago, DC, Boston, London, etc…

  • Teddy

    RN, it’s not a perfect solution, but then what is ? There doesn’t seem to be a viable alternative at the moment and can we really keep it the way it is now ? No. There’s just too much congestion right now thanks to people just using the area as a “park and ride”.

    It will be an inconvenience to some Heights residents who get visitors. Maybe special visitor permits can be handed out to a limited # of people depending on various factors like medical needs. But in the long-term it might improve our quality of life, one of the main reasons people moved to the Heights in the first place…and stayed. Let’s give it a try just like other cities have.

  • http://www.yahoo.com thoughts?

    RN, the question was never about whether there would be enough spots for residents. the underlying question is fairness. the residential parking passes will ensure that people will pay taxes/fees one way or another. if they choose to keep the car registered out of the city and opt not get a residential permit then they will have to garage the car, and pay sales tax to NYC through the garage. otherwise you have to sack up and pay NYC insurance rates and registration fees. maybe the additional drivers paying NYC insurance prices will help bring down the cost for everyone else.

  • Luna

    And in my dreams, I’ll slash your tires
    And in my dreams, I’ll set these fires
    In all your fears, there’s nothing new
    And all your tears, they won’t help you.

  • elvis III

    “the residential parking passes will ensure that people will pay taxes/fees one way or another. ”

    So the focus is on paying NY taxes and fees? So anyone who lives anywhere in NYC and pays the taxes and fees can get a residential parking pass for BH?

    This is just an attempt to keep more outsiders out of the heights and keep it….(fill in your own word here).

  • Count Blah

    Elvis, do you live in the Heights or just park your pick up here?

  • Jo Ann

    Anon 10:05 – as far as I know his girlfriend lives with him in Manhattan, but he does talk about Noodle Pudding incessantly. I was just contributing a fact. Why the sleazy insinuation?

  • T.K. Small

    Thank you Anonymous (8:00 p.m.)! I also have 2 personal-care Attendants that occasionally drive to work. These individuals work long hard hours doing a job that allows me to maintain my independence. Unfortunately they are not paid very well and I am getting tired of snobby Brooklyn Heights people making them feel unwelcome in the neighborhood. It takes a special type of individual to dedicate themselves to this type of work. The average Brooklyn Heights resident should try to live one week in their shoes. I would venture you could not do it!

    However, my objections to residential parking permits does not stop there. What happens when BH people want to drive to other neighborhoods within New York City? The logical next step would be for other neighborhoods to request permits for their areas as well. Unlike people traveling off to the Hamptons, I actually drive to other parts of the city.

    Residential parking permits will be a disaster.

  • anon

    you are welcome to pay people more, you know

  • anon

    I think when you discuss this sort of thing it brings out a very hard-core hater type who relishes making other people’s lives harder and more expensive. It astonishes me the glee people express at the thought that working men and women will get expensive parking tickets. It really taps into a dark, sadistic part of certain people’s character. Maybe it is the new Puritanism. The self-righteous punishing outside heathens for their alleged sloth and greed. In my opinion it’s nutty Brooklyn Heights at its worst.

  • T.K. Small

    To anon 8:34 the salary is set by my insurance company.

    Furthermore, I think too many people use the kind of wimpy option of not using their real name. I use my real name because I do not have a problem with people coming up to me and asking me to defend anything I have written. Although I guess if I was going to spew sanctimonious, vitriolic hate filled rhetoric, I would not use my real name either.

    This last comment is not directed towards anon 8:58 who is obviously a thoughtful person

  • Elvis III

    “Elvis, do you live in the Heights or just park your pick up here?”

    We call them trucks, and, yes, I come to the heights with all three of my trucks and park them just to piss off the rich white city folk that inhabit BH.

  • Eric

    T.K., I think you are missing the point of the parking permits. You state, “I also have 2 personal-care Attendants that occasionally drive to work,” and, “What happens when BH people want to drive to other neighborhoods within New York City? The logical next step would be for other neighborhoods to request permits for their areas as well,” in an attempt to make us realize parking permits will cause less people to drive to (and from) BH. What I think you fail to realize is: that is exactly what we want.

  • anon

    Yes to residential parking…there are already meters for the visitors looking to take advantage of the fabulous shopping and dinning on Montague

  • ABC

    If people really care about this issue, they should look on any number of websites or attend a forum and get educated as to what the proposal are instead of just guessing.

    For example: the issue of local workers, home healthcare workers, etc have been addressed.

    For example: RPP is not about Brooklyn Heights but extends to many brooklyn neighborhoods. The DOT wants RPP available to any neighborhood who wants it.

    And yes, it means discouraging driving within new york since there are cabs, car services and public transportation available. And meters and short-term visitors are allowed in every proposal.

    Anyone who has a car in NY has it for a reason. I didn’t have one for 15 years. I got one because I need it for a specific reason. We all have specific reasons and concerns, but to think ONLY of your specific issues is, in my opinion, a little narrowminded.

  • http://www.stablebrooklyn.com Mandy Harris

    I’m glad to see such an open discussion on this blog. I also attended that meeting and a contingent of anti-RPP people (from Windsor Terrace) tried to raise many of these same concerns (and several of us did attend the DOT workshops, so we are really well informed about what RPP is and isn’t). However, the forum was not a forum. It was a presentation. Anti-RPP questions were not even read. Seriously. They were culled from the questions and discarded. No discussion. Not “will RPP work?” but “What flavor of RPP do you want?”

    Interestingly, a “straw poll” was conducted and it was overwhelmingly in favor of the most restrictive plan (i.e. the most “stay out of my neighborhood” plan). Which tells me that people aren’t aware of the facts. They just want to park their cars in front of their houses, no matter what.

    Even when the DOT guy said that there were twice as many locally registered cars (even without the insurance cheaters) in their study area as there are spaces on the street, people still didn’t seem to process this information; they chose to believe, instead that getting rid of “commuters” would make their lives better. One woman even admitted that she only drove her car on street cleaning days…gotta wonder, why own a car?

    But the point about extending RPP to any neighborhood that wants it (opt-in) would definitely make your lives more difficult. I mean, what if just across the road, you can’t park because you don’t have a permit for it. So, you have to fight it out amongst your own kind (as do they) and pay for the privilege.

    I say pass the congestion pricing plan (by the way everyone should read the PlanNYC transportation proposal–lots of good ideas, no mention of RPP) and use the cash to improve transit. Raise the price of metered parking. If warehousing cars is a problem, maybe there is an out-of-area solution (like cheap garage parking with good mass transit access so you can get your car easily when you need it…). So many possible solutions. But RPP is the worst idea. I can’t believe so much time / money / energy is being wasted on it.

    Try also to imagine how $75/per year per car will pay for the bureacracy necessary plus the army of traffic enforcement agents to patrol the neighborhood. Seems like a ridiculous waste of money for a dubious cause (on-street parking for residents) with no proven success.

    You anti-RPP people who live in BH need to step up and say something or they will bulldoze right over you.

  • http://www.stablebrooklyn.com Mandy Harris

    FYI, it is also worth reading the 97 page report; it does not show clear support for RPP. (http://download.brooklynchamber.com/DBC/Brooklyn_Residential_Permit_Parking.pdf )

    From the introduction:
    “Downtown Brooklyn, however, is a far more complex environment than most other neighborhoods that have successfully introduced RPP programs. Most fundamentally, local residents own more vehicles than the number of curb parking spaces. Despite low vehicle ownership rates, the combination of limited residential off-street parking and high population densities means that excluding commuters and visitors through RPP will, on its own, do little to make parking readily available. There are also special considerations to
    ensure equity for the 65 percent of residents who do not own a vehicle (who occasionally require parking for visitors or rental cars), and for shoppers and other short-term visitors.

  • Andrew Porter

    Point of information: there was no on street parking in NYC before 1947. This shows how many more cars there are now. You can see this in old photographs of the city, which show carless curbs. And no, I neither drive nor own a car. But I do care about all those who park in the “No Standing – Fire Zone” areas. If fire engines can’t get through our narrow streets, lives may be lost.

  • lifer

    “fabulous shopping and dinning on Montague”….you’re kidding , right?

  • http://www.sharewarecheap.com Jennifer

    Improvements to mass transit promised with last fare increase are on hold.
    And people really believe that with congestion pricing – that those monies will end up improving transit?

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