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I lived around the corner from Midtown North police precinct and the Midtown Community Court next to it. My whole block was no parking. There is no streetsweep

I lived around the corner from Midtown North police precinct and the Midtown Community Court next to it. My whole block was no parking. There is no streetsweeping on the block. It's set up that way so that NYPD and court officials have somewhere to park their personal vehicles. This even though they have a whole gated garage that takes up 1/3 of the block. Instead, for the last (at least) 40 years, the parking scheme has been a way for NYPD officers to get paid. They'd sell their placards to tenants in the buildings on my street, effectively providing guaranteed on-street parking to the wealthy residents of my street. Something like 3-4 companies own all of the parking garages in NYC. New York should spend its time removing the grift from parking and parking enforcement. It should also adjust the zoning so that landlords don't cheat the system (all Sunnyside Queens buildings are under 8 floors so that they don't have to build in parking spaces, etc).

addicted 4y ago
Manhattan should end street parking, paid or free. Cars are not compatible with a city of its nature and parking is probably the least effective use of that space.
j0hnyl 4y ago
100% - it does feel like a massive grift. Also, there are so many useless blocks in this city, especially outside of manhattan where there might be a dense population that has cars, but they're limited to parallel parking, when in fact there's plenty of room to have angled parking if you allow the cars to park halfway on the sidewalk. This is how it's done in many European cities, and even with their sidewalks that are actually 2x narrower than ours, there's plenty of room for cars and for pedestrians. NYC should zone a bunch of these useless extra wide sidewalks that no one needs for angled parking and just solve the problem over night.
- busterarm 4y ago
  European cities typically don't have the same level of crime as NYC's outer boroughs...historically. Angled parking presents a problem when people want to lie in wait to rob you. It's also difficult for street-level cameras to track people. Guaranteed NYC will never do this.
  - klyrs 4y ago
    I must be missing something obvious... what about angled parking makes it especially friendly to robbers?
    - busterarm 4y ago
      It's extremely easy to hide, invisibly, between cars with angled parking. Angled parking also shortens the gap between your front and back tires perpendicular to the street. Less light passing through means less opportunity to see shadows that shouldn't be there.
  - TomSwirly 4y ago
    I lived there for thirty years. The idea that slanted parking would lead to a wave of mugging is simply silly. In reality, crime in New York City is at record lows: https://www.disastercenter.com/crime/nycrime.htm https://www.disastercenter.com/crime/nycrime.htm > It's also difficult for street-level cameras to track people. And that's another good thing.
    - busterarm 4y ago
      https://nypost.com/2022/08/17/west-village-is-epicenter-of-rising-big-apple-crime-nypd-data/ https://nypost.com/2022/08/17/west-village-is-epicenter-of-r...
  - j0hnyl 4y ago
    I'm certain they will never do it, but one can dream. I mean, they already do it for police precincts. I have not considered the crime element that you're describing either, but this doesn't need to be a citywide initiative, they can take it block per block.
aabajian 4y ago
I 100% agree. I see those placards on the most expensive vehicles (Lamborghini SUV, Porsche 911s, etc). Either the NYC police are very well paid, or they are selling their placards.
Nextgrid 4y ago
Out of curiosity, why don't landlords want parking spaces? Does it cost more than what it adds to the property value?
- kube-system 4y ago
  Parking spaces rent for less than apartments do
  - busterarm 4y ago
    That's not exactly it. Per sqft parking spaces would typically bring in more. The problem is that parking space pricing is more competitive, doesn't allow you to increase rents for capital improvements and doesn't give you the flexibility to cheat the tax code like housing does. You may have seen on TV recently talk about Trump inflating the size and value of his real estate holdings in NYC but that's _EVERY_ NYC landlord. There's massive tax advantages (write down opportunities) for them to do so. And NYC gets to pretend that they have more tax money coming in than they really do to justify those billion dollar budgets that they always have a shortfall for.
dantheman 4y ago
We should end free overnight parking, and make street parking only for a few hours. If you want to have a car put it in a garage or live in a building that has parking.
- e40 4y ago
  And for the units which don't have parking, what are you going to do, remove them from the market? Honestly, this is the wrong direction. How about we remove the corruption??
xxpor 4y ago
>Instead, for the last (at least) 40 years, the parking scheme has been a way for NYPD officers to get paid. They'd sell their placards to tenants in the buildings on my street, effectively providing guaranteed on-street parking to the wealthy residents of my street. Calling this a grift is doing a disservice, IMO. This is straight up corruption. And it's rampant.

addicted 4y ago

Manhattan should end street parking, paid or free. Cars are not compatible with a city of its nature and parking is probably the least effective use of that space.

j0hnyl 4y ago

100% - it does feel like a massive grift. Also, there are so many useless blocks in this city, especially outside of manhattan where there might be a dense population that has cars, but they're limited to parallel parking, when in fact there's plenty of room to have angled parking if you allow the cars to park halfway on the sidewalk. This is how it's done in many European cities, and even with their sidewalks that are actually 2x narrower than ours, there's plenty of room for cars and for pedestrians. NYC should zone a bunch of these useless extra wide sidewalks that no one needs for angled parking and just solve the problem over night.

busterarm 4y ago
European cities typically don't have the same level of crime as NYC's outer boroughs...historically. Angled parking presents a problem when people want to lie in wait to rob you. It's also difficult for street-level cameras to track people. Guaranteed NYC will never do this.
- klyrs 4y ago
  I must be missing something obvious... what about angled parking makes it especially friendly to robbers?
  - busterarm 4y ago
    It's extremely easy to hide, invisibly, between cars with angled parking. Angled parking also shortens the gap between your front and back tires perpendicular to the street. Less light passing through means less opportunity to see shadows that shouldn't be there.
- TomSwirly 4y ago
  I lived there for thirty years. The idea that slanted parking would lead to a wave of mugging is simply silly. In reality, crime in New York City is at record lows: https://www.disastercenter.com/crime/nycrime.htm https://www.disastercenter.com/crime/nycrime.htm > It's also difficult for street-level cameras to track people. And that's another good thing.
  - busterarm 4y ago
    https://nypost.com/2022/08/17/west-village-is-epicenter-of-rising-big-apple-crime-nypd-data/ https://nypost.com/2022/08/17/west-village-is-epicenter-of-r...
- j0hnyl 4y ago
  I'm certain they will never do it, but one can dream. I mean, they already do it for police precincts. I have not considered the crime element that you're describing either, but this doesn't need to be a citywide initiative, they can take it block per block.

aabajian 4y ago

I 100% agree. I see those placards on the most expensive vehicles (Lamborghini SUV, Porsche 911s, etc). Either the NYC police are very well paid, or they are selling their placards.

Nextgrid 4y ago

Out of curiosity, why don't landlords want parking spaces? Does it cost more than what it adds to the property value?

kube-system 4y ago
Parking spaces rent for less than apartments do
- busterarm 4y ago
  That's not exactly it. Per sqft parking spaces would typically bring in more. The problem is that parking space pricing is more competitive, doesn't allow you to increase rents for capital improvements and doesn't give you the flexibility to cheat the tax code like housing does. You may have seen on TV recently talk about Trump inflating the size and value of his real estate holdings in NYC but that's _EVERY_ NYC landlord. There's massive tax advantages (write down opportunities) for them to do so. And NYC gets to pretend that they have more tax money coming in than they really do to justify those billion dollar budgets that they always have a shortfall for.

dantheman 4y ago

We should end free overnight parking, and make street parking only for a few hours. If you want to have a car put it in a garage or live in a building that has parking.

e40 4y ago
And for the units which don't have parking, what are you going to do, remove them from the market? Honestly, this is the wrong direction. How about we remove the corruption??

xxpor 4y ago

>Instead, for the last (at least) 40 years, the parking scheme has been a way for NYPD officers to get paid. They'd sell their placards to tenants in the buildings on my street, effectively providing guaranteed on-street parking to the wealthy residents of my street. Calling this a grift is doing a disservice, IMO. This is straight up corruption. And it's rampant.