Brooklyn, NY – Park Slope has long been infamous for its lack of parking. Now, many residents say the situation’s gotten worse, thanks to a recent city policy change that’s supposed to provide relief.
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The decision to suspend alternate side regulations – expected to last at least through the summer – was needed so that more than 9,000 street signs can be replaced. The signs outline new residential street-cleaning rules that reduce once-a-week “no parking” enforcement from three hours to 90 minutes.
“At first I thought it was great not having to deal with alternate side parking, but as it turns out, now it’s twice as hard to find a spot,” said Linda Morrison, 29, of Sixth Avenue. “A lot of people are just leaving their cars in the same spots for days, weeks.”
But city spokesman Seth Solomonow said “observations” by the Department of Transportation and Brooklyn Community Board 6 have found the number of available spots hasn’t changed “noticeably” compared to “the high level of parking occupancy that existed before the suspension began.”
Maria Maloney, 32, of Eighth Avenue, has another gripe. Without street sweeping, roads in Park Slope are “beginning to smell with the arrival of the warm weather,” she complained.
Be careful what you wish for!
Friends in Marine Park tell me they have the same situation where cars are parked there for months.
Alternate side regualtions work. Cleaner streets and cars move along.
New Yorkers have learned to live with alternate sides for decades. During the summer especially the streets need cleaning, especially the commercial areas.
Free parking = more traffic.
There’s a law about how long a car may be parked, about commercial parking, cars for sale etc. Look it up! I was once annoyed by the lack of parking spaces in my area, noticed that they were all jammed by a car service and a car dealer in the area. I called the authorities and kept up the pressure. Guess what – it worked. Cars were towed, others were ticketed. In short time it was gone.
Guys remember when good old Bloomy wanted to charge meter fees on sunday? What an out cry there was! Now we all see that for the sake of parking availibilty it was worth it.
I say keep alternate side but make the tickets much lower. Like $10-15. That way if you want to ‘pay’ for parking its your perogative, and everyone gains…