The Real Estate

60th Street May Be the New 60th Street in Congestion Pricing

Getty Images.

Remember back when 86th Street looked poised to become a new boundary line of status thanks to the Mayor’s proposed congestion pricing zone? Mr. Bloomberg said that stopping the $8 fee at 60th Street would create a parking lot just outside the zone because drivers would try to dump their cars just outside the charging boundary and walk to work? At Monday’s meeting of the congestion mitigation panel, members seemed to be just fine with keeping the boundary at 60th Street.

“Nobody is concerned that a real parking issue is going to develope between 60th and 86th streets because there is no place to park now anyway,” said Marc V. Shaw, the commission chairman (and former first deputy mayor). “Mainly, it gets rid of the issue of creating a parking nightmare north of 86th Street, especially in Harlem, and it more better defines the traditional downtown and midtown business districts.“

Shrinking the zone would not make as big a dent in “vehicle miles traveled” (a 6.2 percent reduction compared to a 6.7 percent decline under the Mayor’s plan) and would also reduce the amount of revenue (from $420 million to $387 million), according to city Department of Transportation estimates. The adjustment, which won’t be voted on unless presented as part of the final recommendation in January, shows that the clout of uptown legislators trump the Mayor's ideas about his own neighborhood.

  • del.icio.us
  • Digg
  • Reddit
  • Newsvine
  • Google
  • Yahoo
  • Technorati
  • Facebook
  • Stumble Upon
  • Netvibes
  • Windows Live

Comments
Post a comment

Terry Grace (not verified) says:

Why wouldn't the reps from Harlem want more people to open new parking lots and garages to create more jobs and economic activity from car owners who park in Harlem? Doesn't that sound like a win-win situation for the drivers, who would pay higher tolls on the Triborough anyway. I don't get what their problem is.

If this is about alternate side of the street parking, it is a yawn. Before WWII there was no street parking at all in NYC; yet now we have this colossal sense of entitlement to FREE street parking. We have to get over it and save the city!

Post a comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
  • Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd><br> <p> <i> <b> <embed> <img> <blockquote> <span> <strikethrough> <u>
  • Use <!--pagebreak--> to create page breaks.

More information about formatting options

By checking this box you are giving permission for Observer staff to contact you to obtain contact information and permissions required for publication.