Help support residential permit parking in central Brooklyn!
State legislation required to limit demand for car travel to Barclays Center

What: Hearing of the New York City Council Committee on State and Federal Legislation
When: Wednesday, 11/2 at 10:30AM
Where: 250 Broadway, 14th Floor

According to the Empire State Development Corporation, when the Barclays Center opens in September 2012, an expected 35-40% of arena patrons will arrive for events by car1. That means as many as 6,100 cars travelling to the site2 for each of the more than 200 events3 anticipated to be held each year. This barrage of traffic is expected to cause significant delays at more than half of the intersections within a half mile of the arena4. It will add to the vehicular, pedestrian and bicycle accidents that have already make Atlantic Avenue Brooklyn's most dangerous road. And it will result in up to 3,000 arena patrons taking curbside parking spots5 in Park Slope, Boerum Hill, Fort Greene, and Prospect Heights, clogging already-congested residential side streets.

Among all of the impacts to neighborhood character and quality of life that will come from locating Atlantic Yards' arena within residential communities, none are of greater consequence to more residents than the traffic generated by arena events. But there is a way to reduce the demand for our local streets. It's called "residential permit parking," or RPP, and it's been effective in other cities, like Boston and Chicago, where sports facilities are located in densely-populated areas. By limiting on-street parking during arena events to local residents, RPP will create a disincentive for arena patrons to drive, reducing congestion and making streets safer.

New York City requires authorization from the State legislature before it can implement RPP. On Wednesday, 11/2 at 10:30AM, the City Council will hear testimony on legislation authorizing the City to enact residential permit parking programs in the five boroughs. The BrooklynSpeaks sponsors urge you to participate in this critical hearing and make your voice heard.

Please email us with your plans to attend and interest in testifying, and thanks for speaking up!

1. Atlantic Yards Final Environmental Impact Statement, table 12-10.
2. FEIS, table 12-11.
3. FEIS, page S-2.
4. FEIS, page 12-3
5. FEIS, page 12-56.

BrooklynSpeaks | http://www.brooklynspeaks.net
The Atlantic Avenue Local Development Corporation | The Boerum Hill Association | The Brooklyn Heights Association | The Congress for New Urbanism (New York Chapter) | The Fifth Avenue Committee | The Park Slope Civic Council | The Pratt Area Community Council | The Prospect Heights Neighborhood Development Council | Tri State Transportation Campaign

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WN, you may be correct about the fate of the current proposal, but I question your assumption that congestion pricing was opposed solely by those who live outside of the 5 boroughs. Believe it or not, some NYC outer borough residents do have cars, and object to being charged for entry into the sacred precincts of Manhattan.

Much better!

Not sure how RPP would violate that tenet.

This isn't about charging a fee to people from outside NYC, but it is about limiting on street parking to only residents/businesses owners in the neighborhood during arena events. Otherwise, we'll have thousands of cars circling around looking for on street parking 220+ days of the year. And during the circus and ice shows, it'll be 3x a day.

If anything, Ratner should support it so as to fill his Mother of All Parking Lots. Which in turn, will put money in his pocket, and pocket change in the City's & State's coffers.

Actually, the problem is that the City currently lacks the ability to “pass, enforce or maintain any ordinance, rule or regulation requiring from any owner of a motor vehicle or motorcycle . . . any . . . fee . . . for the use of the public highways.” (see http://www.dartmouthlawjournal.org/articles/88-105.pdf
). It's not at all about who lives where, it's just the history of who has the authority.

That's what the public hearing is about. The city council is deciding if they will ask Albany to grant them the authority to have permit parking regulations on NYC streets. This is, in City Council parlance, a "home rule message." Then the state legislature needs to pass a bill allowing it to happen.

I love the idea of keeping parking spaces in my neighborhood reserved for neighborhood residents... but I hate the idea that I might not be able to park... except at meters... in other, nearby neighborhoods. So I suppose it comes down to how the regs are written, i.e. are permits issued inly to residents of a given block, a given neighborhood (and how the boundaries of each neighborhood are defined), a given borough, etc.

The wealthy don't need such mechanisms. They keep their cars in garages.

I lived in a city that had a residental parking system and I found that while it was great for homeowners, it sucked for many people (including myself). For example, there was a limit on the number of permits that could be issued to each resdence. Single-family homes were allowed two permits. Multi-family residences were permitted a greater number, but it was very possible that, for example, if you were living in an apartment building where there were three people sharing an apartment with one name on the lease, you'd only be eligible for one residential permit.

As someone pointed out above, what residental parking did, was guarantee everyone a spot in their own neighborhood. However, it also meant the odds of you finding a spot outside of your neighborhood was very slim. Any time you wanted to travel to another part of town and you knew you'd be gone for several hours, you had to worry about finding a meter, or contend with moving your car every hour to a new parking spot.

What I'm really offended by is the fact that not only is Ratner causing all this, but he's singlehandedly going to benefit because he owns all of the nearby parking garages. The overhead on the parking business is extremely low, and its one of those businesses, that has a really high return on investment, especially in NYC.

Brownstoner chatter:

http://www.brownstoner.com/blog/2011/10/a-push-for-residential-permit-parking-near-the-arena/#disqus_thread

As long as I don't have to pay extra for the permits, I think this is a great idea. I also think for this to work they need to cut down alternate side to just one or two days a weeks.