The Greenfield/Vacca/Quinn Parking Panderfest Can’t Fix This

The viral video of the day, courtesy of Dan Amira at New York Mag, is this bout over a free parking space on the Upper East Side. It’s got all the hallmarks of NYC street dysfunction — traffic backups, aggressive use of motor vehicles, honking, road rage, left jabs.

In related news, David Greenfield, James Vacca, and Christine Quinn had a press conference yesterday to announce that the City Council has addressed the urgent need for “Muni-meter reform,” passing legislation to help people stop paying Muni-meters when free parking is in effect or the machine is out of paper to dispense receipts. If the mayor signs the bill, it will join the 5-minute grace period for parking scofflaws and the elimination of alt-side shaming stickers as the signature legislative accomplishments of the City Council transportation committee in the Quinn/Vacca era.

Of course, none of the City Council’s efforts to make parking less of a headache have actually addressed the real source of aggravation. There’s a fixed amount of curb space in the city, but almost all curbside parking is either free or underpriced, hence the chronic shortage of available parking. And the occasional outbreak of physical violence.