Vacca Watch: Council Allows Parking Meter Rates to Rise to Dollar Per Hour

Transportation Committee Chair James Vacca at a rally against the 25-cent meter rate bump in December. Photo:
Transportation Committee Chair James Vacca at a rally against the 25-cent meter rate bump in December. That rate hike went through in Wednesday's budget. Photo: ##http://yournabe.com/articles/2010/12/23/laurelton_times/news/lt_parking_meter_hike_20101223.txt##YourNabe##/Council Member Vacca's office

After a grim day, it’s nice to be able to head into the holiday weekend with some good news.

In a vote on Wednesday, the City Council allowed a proposed parking meter rate hike to move forward. The cost of parking on the street for an hour will increase from 75 cents to a dollar in Manhattan above 86th Street and in the other four boroughs.

In the last budget fight, council members led by Transportation Committee Chair James Vacca and Brooklyn rep Diana Reyna successfully fought to keep meter rates at 75 cents, though they allowed them to rise in the Manhattan core.

All indications suggested that the council would again fight to keep on-street parking as subsidized as possible. Vacca announced his opposition to the rate hike at a council budget hearing in early June; Vacca and Queens rep Karen Koslowitz promised to fight for the low rates in a Daily News article published later that month.

This time around, however, the council opted against removing the parking meter rate hike from the budget. Neither Vacca’s office nor that of council Speaker Christine Quinn would explain why they let the hike go through, though both confirmed that they did.

The council’s official press release on the 2012 budget touts their prevention of teacher layoffs or firehouse closures; perhaps council members understood that the roughly $14 million that would be raised by charging more for parking was needed elsewhere.

It’s also possible that they finally realized that underpriced parking just makes it harder to find a spot and clogs the streets with drivers endlessly cruising for an open spot. Given past behavior, that seems less likely.

  • Anonymous

    I have a hard time believing that .25/hr, in the context of vehicle ownership & operating costs,  makes any difference at all in behavior, and it seems like a crazy issue to oppose.  Too crazy even for Vacca, apparently. 
    One could probably make the argument that parking meters are pro business due to the number of people who have to buy something in a store to get change. 😉

  • carma

    25 cents is VERY insignificant.  in places such as flushing parking lot 1, it can be increased 1.50 and there will still be demand.

    However, in many outer borough locations, 25cents does nothing as the demand for parking meter spaces are lower than high demand areas.

  • Driver

     What really seems to free up parking is the time limit rather than the cost.  It’s fairly easy to find a metered spot around Union Sq or other congested areas in Manhattan, but you can only park legally for up to 1 hour without having to move your car to another block. 

  • Anonymous

    Agreed

ALSO ON STREETSBLOG

Vacca, City Council Agree to Deeper Budget Cuts to Keep Parking Cheap

By Ben Fried |
Speaker Christine Quinn’s office just announced that the City Council has reached a budget deal with the Bloomberg administration, restoring some services slated for cuts and targeting others instead. There’s also one case where the council successfully fought to prevent the city from raising revenue to fund more services. A proposal to increase parking meter […]

Bloomberg Budget Sets Up Round Two of Parking Meter Fight

By Noah Kazis |
Mayor Bloomberg unveiled his budget plan yesterday, including hundreds of measures to close a deficit of billions of dollars [PDF]. While the most controversial element may be Bloomberg’s plan to lay off thousands of teachers, included among the smaller-scale deficit-closing measures is one that is sure to set up a fight over transportation policy. The […]

Manhattan Parking Meter Rates Increase, Nobody Notices

By Stephen Miller |
Did you hear? It didn’t get press coverage, but a week ago rates for on-street parking in Manhattan below 110th Street increased by 50 cents. The lack of attention this story has gotten is truly amazing, given the media’s usual windshield perspective. As of January 25, meters below 96th Street now charge $3.50 an hour, […]

Vacca Watch: At Budget Hearing, Council Calms Down, Focuses on Potholes

By Noah Kazis |
Call it the case of the missing demagoguery. Yesterday’s City Council transportation budget hearing was less notable for what was said than what wasn’t. Attacks on the city’s proposed parking meter rate increase were largely absent, and the scapegoating of bike lanes and pedestrian plazas that has dominated recent hearings in James Vacca’s committee failed […]

Vacca Looks to Squeeze $ From Bikes, But Won’t Touch the Price of Parking

By Stephen Miller |
The headline from today’s City Council transportation committee oversight hearing was Janette Sadik-Khan’s announcement that the official launch date for Citi Bike is Memorial Day. Meanwhile, for Transportation Committee Chair James Vacca, it was another occasion to flail at bikes and defend cheap parking under the guise of holding a budget hearing. Sadik-Khan kicked off the hearing […]