Number One Reason Not to Own a Car in Manhattan: PARKING

 

I have been thinking about how I could get new photos today, and, considering my injury, stay within my tactical striking distance. Then it occurred to me: Why people in NYC so often do not own a car...

It has been years since I have done any driving at ALL, and I have been able to get away with that, don't ask me how.

Most of the people I interviewed for this article--starting with people in my own building-- have a NY State Driver's License. That in  itself can be a colossal pain ( love those jokes on "the Simpsons" about Patty Bouvier (Marge's sister) I guess it is and her job at the DMV...what a typical NYC DMV person she is!!...particularly when she told a mob boss he had lost his "advantageous position" in the line (then closed her window when he finally made it back as I remember or something equally NYC- DMV-ish) after cheerfully telling him he needed a form from "over there"( "Will I maintain my advantageous position in line?" "Try it and see!")...this almost got Patty whacked, but in usual Simpsons style it all turned into a joke, and a pretty clever one at that)...

And it isn't just the insurance ( liability plus collision) necessary in NY State, or the price of gas, or getting traffic tickets, though that is one of the real pains.

No, it is PARKING.  Either you devote an enormous amount of time and effort finding a way to park your car on the street (where the battery may be stolen or something...but that is rare around here..used to happen to people down in Stuyvesant Town all the time, though)..

OR you park at a garage.

I have to laugh when I think how my first apartment in Manhattan had a parking space in the cellar included in the rent.  I think now people often buy co-op or condo parking space type deals for their cars, just like for their apartments. Or they find a garage that has a monthly rate.

Then there are the lucky few who --like one woman I knew-- was the Executive Assistant to the President of a large corporation owned by a real estate family. They provided her with a parking space in a garage in Midtown not far from her office. That was good enough a "perk" for her, as it would be for just about any regular employee in NYC...

 But people go through the hassle of parking on the street anyway.

Which brings us  again to TICKETS.

Their was a time when New Yorkers laughed at parking tickets. These people were called "scofflaws" by the press and got away with running up huge numbers of tickets because the system worked so slowly it took forever for them to be caught.

One fellow student of mine had a car registered in Vermont. No reciprocity between NY and Vermont on anything about motor vehicles. He collected tickets merrily until it was time for him to leave the City.

Another was a Coast Guard Chief friend of mine who was nearing retirement and had moved to the East Village, nice block. His only big problem was kids messing with his windshield wipers.
He ran up something like $3000 in unpaid parking tickets and then moved to New Jersey where he had found his retirement job as a sensitivity group trainer ( don't ask me how he got into this --it is at once a hilarious and awful story). That was that.

But with the coming of computerization--successful computerization--all that is past history. Your parking tickets increase in money penalty for every thirty days you don''t pay them and then after 90 days they will haul your car away. (Trucks come in  the middle of the night).

Another fooler! It is not an empty space ( I saw none in any residential parking area)--it is the space in front of the main door of a big apartment building. The doorman will chase you away fast if you try to park HERE.

Competition from other sources-- all kinds, especially all the dumpsters you see around Midtown which are there for all kinds of building work reasons.

Commercial parking facility dating from the 1920's..

People who use the commercial facility..also a car rental place plus an electric car charging station.

Typical apartment building garage...may or may not have monthly rates.

Of course that's not a space you see, it's empty because it is a driveway...

People who work or visit in the area pay pretty stiff fees, of course...love all these "specials"--as if it were a bargain somehow. Well, better than getting a ticket...

Other objections

Other problems with owning a car in Manhattan are nothing compared to the Parking problem and people find ways to "beat the system"..if you are a good driver, you can shop around for insurance on the internet these days after all, and if you have a family member living in say, South Carolina you can find some way to register your car there to get a lower rate and for other advantages..even though this is of course illegal and of course I know nobody who has ever done it LOL.


How do you get around then? Rent a car when you need one for a while or use one of the many limousine services. And last but not least, Manhattan has tons of cabs and limos that cruise around ( people who use them can spot them fast, they learn to...just like people learn to pick up on other things when they are cops for instance).

YEAH, PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION. After I wrote and posted this, it occurred to me I had left something out...what could it be?

Merely the lifeblood of travel in NYC, the subways and buses. 

HOW could I forget this? Well, what would Freud say? BECAUSE I DO NOT WANT TO THINK ABOUT RIDING THAT DAMN SUBWAY TODAY AT ALL, THANKS. It gets worse every year as do the buses. Talk about unconscious denial on some magnitude  that boggles the mind...

FINALLY, you don't even need a driver's license in NY for a photo ID. You can get a non-driving ID by coming up with other documents they require...have known lots of people who have these.