Hamilton Heights Weighs Benefits Of Public Infrastructure In Face Of Acute Parking Shortage

Upper West Side NY

18 October, 2021

11:54 AM

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Columbia Daily Spectator BY KATHERINE NESSEL AND VICTOR SWEZEY OCTOBER 14, 2021 Some New York City residents spend hours searching for parking spots, which have been in ever-shrinking supply since the start of the pandemic. Others use that time to enjoy the elaborate outdoor dining setups that have taken over former parking spaces. With one of the highest population densities in the country, street space in New York City is at a premium, and debate simmers around how best to optimize it. In Hamilton Heights, the intersection of 140th Street and Amsterdam Avenue epitomizes the fight over street space in large American cities. On the northwest corner of the intersection, chatter resounds from an outdoor dining setup. On the southeast corner, drilling noises from a construction site fill the air. Commercial vehicles double park to off-load deliveries, backing up both bike and car lanes. Drivers circle the block searching for places to park. At a Community Board 9 meeting on Sept. 2, the issue of parking was front and center, with Edwin Torres, former chair of the Health & Environment subcommittee, blaming the dwindling supply of spaces on outdoor dining expansions, increased construction, and drivers from outside of the community. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, around 8,550 parking spots—about 0.3 percent of the 3 million spaces citywide—have been taken over by outdoor dining setups. "The city came up with a fantastic idea of allowing restaurants to take over the streets. … The flip side to that is that it comes at a cost, and the cost has been to the residents of the city," Torres said. "And now, parking has become even more dire than what it was originally." For residents who rely on their cars to commute to jobs outside of Manhattan, the lack of parking has threatened their livelihoods, with drivers saying that the problem is worse than it has ever been. "There is no parking on Amsterdam. There is no parking nowhere around here," Pablo Luciano, a Hamilton Heights resident who manages a used car dealership in New Jersey, said. "I've been here for 20-something years. We never had that." While the lack of parking due to the repurposing of street space has burdened local drivers, many residents, particularly those who do not own cars, have enjoyed outdoor dining. At a time when revenues have dipped due to the pandemic, restaurants have also greatly benefited from the additional outdoor space. "This is one of the lifelines helping [us] survive for sure," Warren Terry, manager at Grill on the Hill on 140th Street and Amsterdam Avenue, said. "I think [outdoor space] would be good for every restaurant, and it also allows more access for more people, more space." Terry noted that taking up three parking spaces allows the restaurant to expand its seating capacity by 20 percent. New York City's Open Restaurants initiative has helped relieve pressure on the service industry since the beginning of the pandemic, allowing over 10,000 restaurants to use sidewalk and street space for outdoor dining. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio claims that the program has saved an estimated 100,000 restaurant jobs. Rather than blaming restaurants, Torres believes drivers from outside of the community who park in Hamilton Heights are a major reason for the shortage of curb space. He sees the introduction of parking permits as a quick fix to ease stress on drivers in the community and prioritize street spaces for residents. "You have folks from all over just parking their vehicles in the streets," Torres said. "So the city has to do a better job making sure that the spaces in the district are utilized for those who are residents." Currently, New York City does not have a residential parking permit system, meaning that its 3 million parking spots—about seven percent of all city land—can be used by anyone for free. In 2018, New York City Councilmember Mark Levine introduced a bill to create a residential parking permit system in Northern Manhattan, including all areas north of 60th Street through Inwood. "We can't afford to continue as one of the only big cities in America that doesn't have a residential parking permit system—this policy is long overdue," Levine said in a statement. The bill never passed, but the idea continues to be discussed by policymakers. Sophie Maerowitz, co-founder of the Loisaida Open Street Coalition on the Lower East Side, has concerns that residential parking permits could incentivize car usage instead of decreasing it. "The issue then becomes, does that mean people who don't own cars in the neighborhood decide to buy cars and you again have more of a demand for parking?" Maerowitz said. Though the policy has gained some traction, Elliott Sclar, professor emeritus of urban planning at Columbia's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation and co-director of the Earth Institute's Center for Sustainable Development, argues that New York City's extreme population density could make parking permits impractical. "When you start to talk about residential parking, you're talking about a city that's a unit of scale beyond what every other city in the United States is, so it's a much trickier issue," Sclar said. New York City is the densest big city in the country with 27,000 people per square mile; Hamilton Heights is even more densely populated with almost 73,000 people per square mile. With such a tightly packed population, there is an even greater shortage of space than other metropolitan areas in America. Experts like Sclar see addressing climate change as the primary imperative for today's urban planners. Sclar endorses a solution that is simple in theory but difficult to fully implement: move residents away from car use. "I think over the long run, the solution is going to be to have more people working in places that are transit accessible and making it much easier not to own a car," Sclar said. "I mean most people who come to live in New York, they ought not to own cars." Though residents have different priorities, many see the value in having a neighborhood with a mixture of infrastructure for driving, dining, and leisure activities. "I think that the people in these areas could definitely use more parking spaces," Jeffrey Cobbs, a New York City park worker and neighborhood resident, said while cleaning the Jacob H. Schiff Playground on 138th Street and Amsterdam Avenue. "[But] green squares and stuff … those are definitely really good for the community as well." Staff writer Katherine Nessel can be contacted at [email protected] Follow her on Twitter @KatherineNessel. Staff writer Victor Swezey can be contacted at [email protected]. Follow Spectator on Twitter @ColumbiaSpec. Founded in 1877, the Columbia Daily Spectator is the independent undergraduate newspaper of Columbia University, serving thousands of readers in Morningside Heights, West Harlem, and beyond. Read more at columbiaspectator.com and donate here.