Could New York City Eliminate Free Street Parking?

The area highlighted in the article is the Upper West Side in Manhattan, which is a primarily residential area and not a commercial area that will be subject to a 2021 congestion toll. I don't know of any data that tracks the breakdown of outsider vs. resident cars, but generally I feel that the majority of cars who "cruise an average of seven blocks [...] before they find an empty space" will not be impacted much if residential parking permits are issued.

In fact, residential parking permits would probably still result in the same problems mentioned in the article: double-parked vehicles during the day, remnants of a car-centric culture, and residents desperately circling for free parking spots. The one benefit of a parking permit would be an increase in city revenue.

This is sort of addressed in the article where "residential parking fees in other cities have not been a panacea, in part because neighborhood permits usually do not deal with the supply-and-demand problem — too many cars for the number of spaces."

You could force residents to pay for garages which generally charge $700+ per month to store a sedan (more for SUVs), but then we keep hearing how such policies favour the rich and wealthy because they disadvantage residents who need vehicles to drive to work every day.

But, parking still sucks, and it hurt businesses significantly. Probably half of the restaurants in the area that I'm thinking of closed down after the parking change. Although the rules are fairly lenient (2-hour parking is permitted in most places), people just stay away.

Parking sucks because in this city there's no permitting for housing units and no actual way to limit or have costs associated with permits. You just need to prove residency -- so you may be one of 12 tenants in a "two family" building.

Funny how drivers are willing to blame everyone except other cars. Walk down Canal or Broome around rush hour and it's pretty clear that the problem is not bike lanes (neither have them) but the fact that there are just too many cars for the amount of space available.

It will be interesting to see what happens with city politics after the next mayoral election. My sense on the ground is that political will from the non-driving majority is stronger and more organized than it has been in the past.

So basically, the actual people who live there, believe that even with all the difficulties cars are the best way to go?

And the city wants to .... make things harder for them?

That's pretty backwards.