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Could New York City Eliminate Free Street Parking?

nytimes.com

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Re: Could New York City Eliminate Free Street Parking?

#41

Post by clairity »

thebean11 wrote: post #30
lisper wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Charging is not going to fix that problem. If anything, the closer you get to charging market rates, the less accessible it becomes to anyone other than the richest of the rich. At least with free parking all vehicle owners are on an equal footing regardless of how much disposable income they have. Not that I'm advocating free parking. I'm not. But this isn't a good argument against it.

To me, the problem is giving away publicly owned land to people who don't need handouts. Charging market rates fixes that problem.

market rates for parking would still unequitably favor the wealthy. to be equitable, parking fees would need to be wealth-weighted/income-based.

Re: Could New York City Eliminate Free Street Parking?

#42

Post by refurb »

ipnon wrote: post #20
kiliantics wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While this is a helpful point, I think it would be nice if this issue were framed more in terms of physical and mental health, not just as a question of how to optimise economic output. We need less cars for almost every possible reason you can think of.

I want to make a point. There should be no concern that The War on Cars harms the economy of New York City. It is a claim without evidence.

Your article says people with cars spend less, not nothing.

So in fact reduces fares would have a negative economic impact.

Re: Could New York City Eliminate Free Street Parking?

#43

Post by closeparen »

thebean11 wrote: post #30
lisper wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Charging is not going to fix that problem. If anything, the closer you get to charging market rates, the less accessible it becomes to anyone other than the richest of the rich. At least with free parking all vehicle owners are on an equal footing regardless of how much disposable income they have. Not that I'm advocating free parking. I'm not. But this isn't a good argument against it.

To me, the problem is giving away publicly owned land to people who don't need handouts. Charging market rates fixes that problem.

Should we also charge for the parks and schools in rich neighborhoods?

Re: Could New York City Eliminate Free Street Parking?

#44

Post by closeparen »

AdrianB1 wrote: post #26

I live in Europe, but I see no reason why parking space would be free. I also don't see a reason why a part of the street should be used parking when they are built for driving. I am not an eco-nazi, I use a car and a motorcycle, but they are always parked either on my property at home, in the shopping mall parking (cost included in the price of the products I buy) or in the parking at the office (which the employer…

It's a function of the urban design. In neighborhoods that are planned around residences having off-street parking, it's not necessary, and many have a blanket "no overnight street parking" rule.

In others, almost no residences have off street parking and there are few if any commercial garages, so everyone parks on the street. Reducing the curb space available for parking forces the least patient street parkers to give up their cars.

Re: Could New York City Eliminate Free Street Parking?

#45

Post by Spooky23 »

yabadabadoes wrote: post #31
Spooky23 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My city (NOT New York City) did residential parking in a couple of areas. It helped eliminate the issue of certain workers in nearby-ish businesses stalking residents. 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),…

Given how bizarre the US is, I suspect the only option in most cases is to assign the rights to spaces to the adjacent buildings and then use them as a factor in value and therefore local tax. Once this is done, there's no place to park at virtually everyone's destination and a few people end up paying a lot up front and in tax for multiple spaces while everyone else gives up on cars.. The end result is a much more s…

I doubt it.

The big problem here is that you have well-intentioned, intelligent people who are ultimately correct re: cars. Then you have reality, where millions people are dependent on them, and trillions in wealth are based on ready access to cars.

In a democracy, the magic and challenge of governance is balancing the long term needs of society with the current needs of the electorate. For this issue, that means the solutions and the implementation will be messy.

Re: Could New York City Eliminate Free Street Parking?

#46

Post by thebean11 »

clairity wrote: post #41
thebean11 wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To me, the problem is giving away publicly owned land to people who don't need handouts. Charging market rates fixes that problem.

market rates for parking would still unequitably favor the wealthy. to be equitable, parking fees would need to be wealth-weighted/income-based.

you're missing the part where only the wealthy are using these spaces in the first place (speaking specifically about Manhattan)
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