A residential street in Sunnyside (Google Maps)
April 25, 2018 By Nathaly Pesantez
A new bill by a Manhattan Councilmember seeking to create a citywide residential parking permit system was introduced today.
The bill, put forth by Councilmember Ydanis Rodriguez (D-Washington Heights), calls for the city to implement residential parking zones in areas across the city, including posted times of day and days of the week the system is in effect.
Furthermore, up to 80 percent of parking spaces in a given permit area must be reserved for paying permit holders, with the remaining spaces available for non-residents for up to 90 minutes.
The bill would not allow for residential parking permits on commercial streets.
Rodriguez said in a midday press conference today that the residential parking permit system can help address congestion and encourage mass transit use.
“By paying a small fee every year, those local residents will not have to compete with anybody else that comes from out of state, idling in the street,” Rodriguez said. “We will work to make sure those residents—and our mom and pop stores—will have an opportunity to find parking.”
Rodriguez added that several cities across the United States, including Boston, San Francisco, and Chicago, have already implemented a residential parking permit system.
Rodriguez’s bill is not the only one introduced that seeks a residential parking permit system in the city. A bill also put forth today by Councilmember Mark Levine (D-Morningside Heights) seeks to implement a residential parking permit system for all areas north of 60th Street in Manhattan.
Transportation Alternatives, the non-profit that vouches for a car-free transportation, supports Rodriguez’s bill.
“Making better use of curbside space besides free, unlimited long-term private car storage will dis-incentivize uneceessary driving and reduce congestion,” the group said on Twitter.
In a statement, Councilmember Jimmy Van Bramer (D-Sunnyside), who is co-sponsoring Rodriguez’s bill, said he has long been a strong supporter of residential parking permits.
“Local parking should be for local residents, not for commuters on their way from Long Island to Manhattan,” Van Bramer said. “I look forward to working with the sponsors of this legislation to make sure it works for residents of Queens.”
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46 Comments
Boston has many public parking garages but Queens does not. Big difference. And getting really tired of the anti-car postings.
It is just plain rude!
Parking on our streets is getting more difficult because the homes on the streets are becoming more expensive, and the homes’ residents can afford more cars. In addition, I can do some simple math to show that most parked-over spaces are more valuable than the cars standing on them. Why should the city give away all this space for free? Therefore, Rodriguez’ certainly goes in the right direction.
However, in order to become a bill that truly cuts down on parking problems, it needs to find Albany’s approval first. Also, the fees need to be high enough to entice enough people to park elsewhere or give up owning their cars altogether. To become Albany-approved law, I believe it has to go beyond being this one-sided in benefiting residents only while leaving everyone else fighting over a limited supply of 90min metered spots. Certainly, Albany would be very critical of such discrimination against commuters or visitors from outside of the city. After all, residents own or rent their homes, but the streets are public. Therefore, I believe that parking regulations should treat every car-owner’s parking interest equally. Van Bramer and Rodriguez certainly want to please the voters in their districts, but Albany will look out for commuters, visitors, and businesses, and in this instance I am glady they do!
Second, $100 per year is just not going to make a dent in parking volume if non-residents are being charged this little, as well. And what’s the point of having permits, regulations, and enforcements with all the associated overhead costs if you still can’t find a spot? Parking permits must be expensive enough to convince some residents to not own a car anymore and some commuters and visitors to take public transportation, taxis, or the bike instead. Finding the right price will be tricky, but I would start at 50% of what the long-term rates for private parking spots are – so some $150 per month in Sunnyside – and see what happens. That kind of permit should then allow you to park in any zone throughout the city with the same or lower rate, just for your convenience. Visitors would be able to park legally and not limited to just 90 minutes by paying their fee via phone and/or muni-meters.
So, a system like this would be fair to residents and visitors alike and should be able to find approval in Albany, not just City Hall. It would also make sure that people interested in parking find a spot without circling around foolishly. In addition to this, it would generate revenue far beyond what’s needed to cover enforcement and administration. Perhaps enough to lower our taxes? (I think yes, and by giving away parking space for free I think the city is currently subsidizing car owners at the expense of citizens that don’t use street parking.) But what else would happen? Car owners could spend all that time wasted on the hunt for parking with their families instead, and some property owners might give up their driveways and/or convert parking spaces into something more useful, valuable, and/or beautiful. If you can find, at $150/month, a parking spot near your home, would you still be interested in a $300/month spot in a garage three blocks away? Probably not! (Not just for fairness, I think driveway owners should pay a residential parking permit corresponding to the blocked street-parking space, and longer cars should pay more than shorter cars.)
Why don’t we just give all our income to the city and let them give us an allowance for what you think everyone needs in life?
I do believe you’re trying too hard here. The point is to benefir the residents.
As an city ordinance I’m pretty sure Albany has nothing to do with it.
The fee of $100 is still too high for residences – its a tax at this point on top of the $180 state car registration, the $500-1000 yearly insurance and the $30 inspection(not including gas and possible additional maintenance).
It brings down traffic by incentivizing the outsiders to use mass transit.
BAM! “Parking dysfunction in residential neighborhoods isn’t caused by the lack of a permit system, it’s caused by giving away finite curb space for free.”
https://nyc.streetsblog.org/2018/04/26/parking-permits-wont-solve-new-yorks-parking-crunch-if-theyre-dirt-cheap/
The biggest problem is Ubers and taxis. Next time you walk down your block look at the plates and see how many have T&LC on them. Sunnyside and Woodside are the dumping ground for thousands of these cars. I hope it passes so the people paying property taxes in the neighborhood can benefit as it should be. We are not leaving our cars in their driveway in Long Island or out in front of their houses
your obviously not from the area and if you are your new to it. Sunnyside and woodside is a working class neighborhood and a lot of the taxi drivers live in this community. Not everyone likes to spend all their money on rent and some choose to become taxi drivers cover the inflated rents in the neighborhood instead of being gentrified out. Uber in NY originally allowed anyone to use their personal vehicle but now TLC requires you to register a vehicle as a TLC to do uber. This is why you see all the TLC cars in the area. I need and love my car and will almost never take a train or bus unless absolutely necessary. P.S. I’m not a taxi driver and don’t have to be but it is a great option for those to make ends meet.
Realnyer- I’m old enough to remember when commercial vehicles had to be housed in a garage and was not allowed to be parked on the street. TLC plate makes the car a commercial vehicle.
Regardless of where taxi & über drivers choose to live, if their vehicles are used primarily for commercial purposes they should not be parked on our residential streets. Sunnyside/Woodside is a working-class neighborhood where most of the residents do NOT own or need a car, yet a huge chunk of the area has been turned over to vehicular traffic. TLC vehicles should be renting space in commercial/industrial areas and staying away from residential streets.
Thank you! This point needs to be hammered into people’s heads. The vast majority of residents here do not own cars. Why is so much public space handed over to the minority. Just so they can maintain this unsustainable lifestyle of driving around NYC like it’s Hicksville.
Exactly. A TLC vehicle is a commercial vehicle. It should be stored in a commercial lot. End of discussion.
Judging from your grammar and the fact that you so dearly love your car, I’m going to guess your IQ at about 50? Give or take.
Sorry for you that you do not understand Internet etiquette. Typos dont matter on forums and text messages.
Nah, ubers not that old. People have been moaning about parking far longer. The problem is too much cars
It’s not too much cars, it’s too much people. That’s why people are accepting to allow nice one bedroom apartments to be converted to 2 or 3 bedroom shoeboxes. An apartment used to have a living room and a dining room now your lucky if you have space to have a coat closet. Stop blaming people with cars. There simply isn’t enough space and people keep cramming in. This is why new developments have to include a garage space in the plan. If the DOT wants to do something about the cars they should build underground lots like they have in Paris and I’m sure other places in Europe. Instead they think building bike lanes and initiating permit parking will solve the problem. It won’t. NYS knows this that’s why they are giving incentives for businesses to develop outside the city (Upstate). Give people an alternative to live elsewhere with the same opportunities and you will alleviate the cramped over congested 5 boroughs. IF YOU BUILD IT THEY WILL COME.
I sold my car, and budget the money I previously spent on it every year to take taxis and rent as needed guilt-free. I’ve never looked back, nor spent an hour circling the block for parking in years.
Many of the cars on the street are hardly used. I see them there day after day, only moved for ASP.
Many neighbors with 2 cars they rarely use. I see them unloading their car with costco hauls. Why not just have one car, and shop local. All these calls for “they” should build garages. Who is “they” no one wants to build a garage because the market does not sufficiently demand it.
Much, much, much too controlling.
You’re low-class garbage. Why are my taxes paying for you to store your car for free? It’s infuriating.
Same reason I’m paying taxes so your kids can go to school for free. You don’t have a car? I don’t have any kids.
I disagree here. In my view, good roads are a public good worth spending on.
Subsidizing a car owner’s private object taking up public space is not.
This is not an issue only in Woodside or Sunnyside. This is an issue citywide. My particular block in the Bronx has been inundated by Uber and Taxi license plates. Lots of these vehicles come from all over the neighborhood (some, probably not even local), making it difficult for tax paying homeowners. Some even have the ghaul to block private driveways, or, park bumper to bumper with total disregard for personal property.
The town complains that we (teachers of the local public schools) park in the neighborhood. And yet the city refuses to give the staff permits to park around the school. We can never win.
This city has the best public transit system in the country. Also, bikes.
What if you don’t have a car, but rent a car to use for the weekend? Then what? Where do you park?
Why rent a car just to park it? You can park mine any time for free
i see a lot of people here are not liking this new system that is being discussed. honestly, my issue is with Long Islanders taking up our spots in Sunnyside. My family used to own a car, but parking in Sunnyside/Woodside is HORRIBLE. But in the end, with all the changes they want to do, if your living in Sunnyside/Woodside….AND you have a car, this is what you signed up for. Personally, Sunnyside is not Astoria, is not Jamaica, and it’s definitely not Long Island, why do you have a car in Sunnyside? Our neighborhood is SO small compared to Woodside and LIC. What purpose is it to have a car in Sunnyside? You own a home? Great! Kudos for being able to afford a home in the neighborhood. But once again, you’re not living in Long Island or a bigger neighborhood to warrant a huge ass car. Most people in the area have either 2 cars, which is stupid and a huge space killer OR they have these large SUV type cars. I know of one resident that has this nice red car that all he does is move it around for parking and barely drives it. Why is he occupying our space? There are people in our neighborhood that DON’T KNOW how to park, so they take up so much space. Quite honestly, I’d prefer if people just stop and think, do they really need a car while living in Sunnyside? Sure, there will be some that say “Oh, but I have family in Jersey/Long Island/Staten Island! Why shouldn’t I have a car?”. Or those who like to commute long distance on the weekends to do whatever, go to a mall, or maybe hang with friends elsewhere. I don’t know. I know there are reasons to want your car, but really, in our area, after all these decades of having so much difficulty trying to find a spot to park, god help you if you come back after 7pm. Good luck trying to find a parking spot! I just think, most of the Sunnysidians living here, don’t actually need a car. If they can, they should sell their car. We live by EVERY possible means of transportation. And, if you really need a car, hell, rent one! Zipcar is in our area, as well as other rentals, smart car rentals at that. But the problem with parking I feel can be fixed if less people have cars in our small neighborhood. The movie company’s filming here are not the problem, because they don’t come here EVERYDAY. Our neighborhood needs more bike lanes, since well, we are a small area and bike lanes are needed. The parking on queens blvd, should ONLY be for the businesses there so they can comfortably get their deliveries. There’s hourly parking under the 7 that others can use, but that blvd is jam packed as it is and needs less cars there. That way, the buses can easily go down the road and cause less congestion for the other drivers. Sunnyside needs less cars.
Bla bla bla get a character limit
Ya ain’t gotta read it.
How did people like Shawn get in this neighborhood? Why do you get to decide that people in Sunnyside need to get rid of their cars?
Next time you feel the need to write that much, call your therapist instead. Thank you
You.
Don’t.
Have.
To.
Read.
It.
so no more need to move your car for street cleaning anymore? hah, yeah right. do you really think someone will monitor and police your spot? hah! yeah, that’ll happen. and what then? you call the cops? like 911 isnt already congested. yeah, help is on the way. we’ll stop by in a few days or weeks and check up on your spot.
Why doesn’t Van Beamer support a bill that restricts the number of permits given out to movie companoes that constantly take up blocks of parking on the same streets in Sunnyside? Maybe he should start with that if he wants to help residents park in their community.
I posted this on the sunnyside post several weeks ago. It’s been ongoing for decades in towns in Italy, Florence and in Neighborhoods in Rome. Why not here in LIC and Sunnyside. It would prevent the outsiders from Long Island who drive in park on our local streets. Ubers, TLC license plate holders and Taxi’s should also pay much, much more if they want to take space and park on the street
I think EVERYBODY should pay to park on the street–including residents.
Just because you can afford a car shouldn’t entitle you to plop it on public land.
Car owners paid for a large object. They should also be responsible for paying to put it some where.
You couldn’t just put your stuff from storage on the street. Why is it any different just because they move it from spot to spot sometimes? They’re still taking up public space.
Bad idea!
1) This bill means we now have to pay a permit fee for the privilege to park.
2) Imagine if you live close to the border of two zones… ie. you have a Sunnyside permit its late at night and you can’t find parking, 2 blocks over you find a free spot but its requires a Woodside permit. $%@#$^!!!
3) You drive your car to anywhere else in the city, you now have to pay a garage or circle for over-packed meter spots despite free spots right around the corner . Want to stop by Astoria to see a friend/family? pay to park, visit Brooklyn botanical gardens on the weekend.. pay to park, etc etc.
No wonder Transportation Alternatives loves the bill, its meant to piss off drivers by making it more expensive to own a cars, harder to park, and encourage you to give it up. Cars are a near necessity in many areas of Queens that isn’t well served by public transit.
If paying gets me a faster parking spot I’m all for it. Hell make it $200 a month or more and maybe we’ll even get some people to give up their cars.
This is a great idea and I don’t think it goes far enough. Give the Gardens it’s own permit. Tired of all the people that park over here and then walk towards Queens Blvd or park their commercial vehicles every night. I think half the streets would be empty if not for those people.
This would also curb all the people committing fraud by having out of plate license plates.
Also if you actually bothered to read the article rather than reading the headline and storming down here to comment. You’d see there would still be parking reserved for visitors that’s 90 minutes. On top of that you’d have set times for the restrictions and the community would have to request the permits. Not everywhere would automatically be involved.
If you’re having such a hard time finding parking in Astoria from Sunnyside maybe you should learn how to walk, bike, take a cab, etc.
Then don’t own a car. Your arguments are so dumb. You even call it out, “privilege to park.” That’s correct. It’s not a right. It’s a privilege. And one you should pay for.
This will not benefit much. The parking is mostly used by residents anyway. Who would want to park his or her car miles away from home? The aricle mentioned that this will deyer the commuters from Long Island parking in the boroughs but somehow I have hard time imagining that this will impact a great number of New Yorkers. The only way I see it work is if the fee is high enough that it may deter some people from owning car unnecessarily because of the added cost of keeping it on the street but the fee has to be north of $100. Otherwise who would mind paying less than $100 for almost a guaranteed parking spot in NYC?
I don’t think it’s long islanders as much as people from flushing maspeth , middle village, Glendale ect
Maybe the residents of that street can buy the road and pay to maintain it. Then charge what they want
The MTA? You are joking, right? Or insane?
Jimmy Van Bramer is all talk and can not do the walk. Dozens of photos of illegally parked cars on sidewalks, bike lanes, fire lanes and fire hydrants and when residents complained to him on twitter, he blocked them. That’s right, he blocks us. This is someone we elected. Didn’t the courts just rule that Donald Trump can not block anyone, but can just ignore them? What makes old Jimmy Van Bramer special. He is blocking residents and we are pissed.
Isn’t it the cops that enforce the parking regs? I mean, sure, have a go at JVB, but it seems like your beef is more with policing.
Which, by the way, I agree with you. Cops should be much more aggressive about aggressive and bad driving & parking.
Can you share more, why were you blocked? Why don’t you just call and talk to him instead. There is no reason you need to publicly push him that gets blocked in the end.
As for this resident permit pipe dream, not going to happen. Who is going to enforce it? Cops? Who is issuing tickets? They are too busy meter maiding all day they don’t care about side streets of there is no meter. People park in all sort of ways. Blocking entrances, blocking handicap ramps, garages, or cross walks. Trucks make a mess on narrow streets every day. Super markets and restaurants use streets as their private delivery roads, making trucks double park or park facing opposite direction. There is no enforcement.
It’s better if you allow commuters to park during day, so they move when it’s time to go home and that creates circulation and more spots.
if JVB doesn’t like a tweet that suits him he blocks people and that is the truth — he only wants positive things on his tweets like going to the opera, planting a tree, etc. taking a picture so called riding on the subway