Put this plan in park.
A Republican lawmaker vowed yesterday to kill a proposal that would make it easier for New Yorkers to find a parking spot in their neighborhoods.
“I have serious concerns and can’t support it,” said Brooklyn state Sen. Marty Golden about a plan that would require drivers to pay for a permit to park their cars on the streets where they live.
“I see this as just another tax and you shouldn’t be taxed for the privilege to park your car in New York City,” said Golden, who said the idea would never get through the GOP-controlled Senate. “You should be able to park wherever you want. It’s picking the pockets of drivers.”
Two Brooklyn pols are pushing the idea in anticipation of the opening of the new Barclays Center, an 18,000-seat arena for the NBA Nets in Prospect Heights that will have just 1,100 parking spots.
Residents there fear people attending events at the center will hog already-scarce parking places in the neighborhood.
The parking permit plan — which the City Council will take up today — would also extend to other residential neighborhoods where residents wage daily battles with commuters and visitors for precious parking.
“This bill should not be killed in an Albany back room. Communities that want [permit parking] will get it, and those that don’t, won’t,” the bill’s co-sponsor, state Sen. Daniel Squadron (D-Brooklyn Heights), responded to Golden’s vow to quash it.
Meanwhile, Mayor Bloomberg, who supported residential permit parking when it was part of his congestion-pricing proposal, backed off yesterday.
“I don’t know. I have to take a look at it,” he said. “It has its advantages and disadvantages. Residents like it, and merchants tend not to like it … because they want turnover in the parking spaces.”
Community leaders largely applauded the idea.
“We have a long way to go, but it looks like there is finally enough citywide support to make it happen,” said Judy Stanton, head of the Brooklyn Heights Association.