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Robert Ripps book
History of Tribeca Buildings
Parking: An Endangered Species
The recent news that the parking garage at 24 Leonard is being converted to condos—like with the parking lots at 11 N. Moore and 460 Washington—has had me wondering how long the remaining parking lots/garages can hold out. How on earth has the Central Parking garage at 56 N. Moore (above) survived? Please don’t take that to mean I want it to be turned into condos. But obviously it will one day—as will, most likely, the lots pictured below.
Where will people park? Some new buildings have parking (although the 53-unit 443 Greenwich will only have “a limited number of indoor parking spaces.”) There are underground garages, sure, and street parking. But one reader emailed the other day to say that there’s less and less street parking in his/her part of the neighborhood.
I am a resident of North Tribeca. I am also a car owner, who is attempting to save some money by parking on the street. I don’t use the car often enough to justify spending $500+ per month on parking.
Recently four streets were changed to “No Parking” in this area. These happen to be the four closest streets to my apartment (Washington btwn Hubert & Laight, Hubert btwn Washington & Greenwich, Hubert btwn Greenwich & Hudson, and most recently Hubert btwn West & Washington). There is now no Monday-through-Friday daytime parking within a quarter mile of my apartment building.
This is a growing neighborhood. There are an ever increasing number of residents, and with that come more cars. In addition to my building, which is brand new, there are three more under construction within one block. Where are we to park?
I understand NYC is looking to prevent cars from coming in/out of the city, particularly around the Holland Tunnel area, but the amount of parking available to residents of North Tribeca is not even remotely equal to the amount cars owned by residents, let alone non-residents. It feels as though NYC DoT is forcing me/us to park in the price-gouging lots.
I have emailed Manhattan borough representatives, the DoT, and the Tribeca Committee & Quality of Life Committee. I do not believe this is something that will be resolved in a timely manner. I thought my best course of action was to take this to you and your readers, to see if this was an issue that is being discussed more widely.
Any thoughts? Parking is one of those things I personally don’t pay much attention to, as we have always put our car in a garage.
Update: Comments have been turned off due to spam. To have them turned back on, email tribecacitizen@gmail.com.
14 Comments
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And don’t forget: Citibike. Loads of parking lost to the mostly silly placement of the racks (not to mention how some of them skirt fire zone violations – see Warren st).
One wonders why the city doesn’t look to issue yearly residential permits for $. Too costly to support in a big city, even color-coded by neighborhood zone?
I agree with you jfrankp – on my block there is no street parking during 7a-7p as that is where the city workers park their cars. as a tax-paying resident, i think those spots should go to the people who live here — not the people who are too lazy to take public transit to work. i always say that there should be residential parking permits like in some other parts of the city for an annual fee(mainly forest hills gardens in queens).
Someone who doesn’t use their car enough to justify paying $500 a month on parking is probably a good candidate for car sharing. The market is signalling that your car-owning decision is not an economically feasible one.
True. But also –without fewer parking garages or spaces — fewer places to host car sharing. Zipcar works out of these garages being converted to condos.
(*proud not-owner of a car since 1993)
You have a personal possession that is large and requires lots of space to store. So tell me why the government should step in to make it cheaper for you to do this?
If you can’t pay the rent for storing your car then I’d suggest either selling your car or moving to a place where the rent is cheaper.
If you are not a frequent driver who doesn’t want to pay for monthly parking in the neighborhood, why not rent a space in lot outside of Manhattan. It is relatively easy to get around the island without a car, so the only time you would need it is when you leave the city.
I hear Yankee Stadium has a ton of unused parking, you could probably get a spot there really cheap.
@jfrankp: How many bikes take up each former car spot? Seems to me that the bike sharing program makes that space useful for many more people than previously.
Parking: The Price-Gouging of New Yorkers. Regardless if you have a car or not, they’re here to stay. And if the city reduces parking spaces then more people have to pay the outrageous monthly prices of parking garages that have been recently rising (Edison Park Fast on Worth, cough, cough) on a monthly basis and the city tacks on another 10-18% parking tax. The city & local politicians (CB1?) does nothing to the price gougers, but collects all the parking taxes and every other tax imposed by the city. Can’t wait for the HRP-NID tax. I <3 NY politicians and our fellow price-gouging Americans/American businesses.
Sorry, I meant “Americans” – the quotations are important in that context.
Just an FYI- the public garage pictured above on North Moore Street used to be an FBI (I believe) garage, where they modified new cars for government use (and took the occasional high speed test run around the block) before they moved out maybe 20 years ago.
I’m surprised no one has mentioned the parking spaces taken by the 1st Pct/NYPD. There is a huge allotment of the spaces which are reserved for police officers who drive into NYC from the suburbs. There must be at least 30 RESERVED spaces which rarely have NYPD patrol cars in them.
As people are concerned about subsidizing TriBeCa residents (who are also taxpayers) with on street parking, what about providing free spaces for non NYC resident cops? While some of you complain about paking space allotted for government agency cars, at least these spaces accommodate actual government vehicles. Why should we provide free parking to non NYC workers to commute by car to OUR neighborhood.
We have neighbors who have free street parking as one of them works for OSHA. They use that car only for personal reasons but save $500/month because they have protected on street parking. The new mayor should take away free parking for everyone–use public transport or pay for parking like everyone else.
Tribeca has become predominately residential, but there does not seem to be any changes to accommodate the needs of the residents. There is no alternate side street parking, limited metered parking, and municipal parking lots no longer exist or not available to the public. I understand the need for commercial parking, but the neighborhood west of Broadway is primarily residential with few businesses. More so, most of the commercial and metered parking spaces are taken up by cars with parking plaques – vehicles who are NOT on official business. Some cars don’t event have plaques, but copies of department “manuals” or PBA-type cards in the dashboard. Those people should commute like everyone else. I do not have a car full-time, but sometimes it would be nice to be able to park on my own street during the work week after 7am and before 7pm.
The problem is not overpriced garages, the problem is the underpriced street parking, and the expectation that you should be allowed to dump your personal property on the street for free. This approach constitutes a massive subsidy to car owners, who are the wealthiest segment of Manhattan’s population.