Coming soon: No Park Slope?

PLG residents who drive to Park Slope to eat and shop are in for a rude awakening. The City's increasing need to ease traffic congestion is bound to cut the amount of free (and nearly free) on-street parking. The DOT discussed the possibility of a residential parking permit system in a workshop in Park Slope this week. Such a system, according to the Brooklyn Paper, would allow car owners to "buy a sticker or placard that gives them the right to look for parking in their neighborhood — but not guarantee them a spot."

A key question for those in PLG is what counts as your neighborhood. Could Park Slope be considered close enough for permits granted here to count? The same question could be asked of people in South Slope, the Gowanus, or Boerum Hill. Will Carroll Gardens = Cobble Hill from a parking standpoint?

Time will tell, but this is sure to be a heated debate. And the solution can't be to do nothing. According to a study by Transportation Alternatives, drivers looking for free parking in Park Slope make up 46 percent of traffic on Seventh Avenue! Drivers aren't the only ones who are suffer from this situation: pedestrians and cyclists have to contend with the added smog, exhaust, noise and traffic.

I just hope that the fee for the parking permit is meaningful and not some pittance. I'm all for allowing the freedom to drive a vehicle if one so chooses, but one needs to pay for it rather than expecting the rest of us to pick up the tab.

Comments

[tomgee]

Forest Hills Gardens (near Rego Park) has resident permit parking already.

[Charles]

Forest Hills Gardens is a private development that has granted a right-of-way for through traffic. You can drive on the streets but not park.

Consider the roads of FHG a very attractive private parking lot.

[Bob Marvin]

Forest Hills Gardens, where I attended PS 101--although I lived [literally] on the wrong side of the [LIRR] tracks, has private streets--the residents pay to maintain them.

Fieldston, in Riverdale is similar. Fieldston also used to have an interesting low cost approach to traffic calming--they let the streets develop lots of pot holes--I don't know if this is still their practice.

We also have an example right here in PLG--Parkside Court[off of Parkside Ave., between Flatbush and Ocean] is a private street wuth parking only for residents.