Gale Brewer Pessimistic About Further Riverside Center Parking Reductions

Now that the City Planning Commission has called for 1,260 parking spaces at the Riverside Center development -- instead of the 1,800 requested by the developer -- the project moves on to the City Council for the final step of the city's land use process. Traditionally, the local Council member representing the district is given a lot of deference by her peers, so we checked in with West Side representative Gale Brewer to see whether she'd be pushing for a further reduction in the number of spaces.

Brewer said that she still supports bringing the total number of spaces down. She said that she supported the community board's recommendation, in this case 1,000 spaces. "I always support what CB 7 did," she said. "I will do everything I can to get as close to that as I can." Brewer had previously endorsed the goal of building only one floor of parking, or 1,100 spaces.

However, Brewer doesn't expect to be able to bring the number below 1,260. "My guess is we won't get it much lower than that," she said. "We have a lot of Council members who have cars." Negotiations in the Council hadn't begun as of Friday, she reported.

Brewer also thanked the City Planning Commission for bringing down the number of parking spaces. "That was quite unusual, for City Planning to do that," she said. "It was a good effort."