New Rochelle BID Board Chairman Marc Jerome, Vice President of Monroe College (far end, light blue shirt and tie), proposed revising the current BID Proposal to the New Rochelle City Council which would have changed downtown parking rules to extend metered parking on the street from 6 PM t o 11 PM. Under the plan, the downtown municipal lots would go to 24/7 metered parking as originally recommended but the extended street meter parking hours would not change from the current 6 PM cut-off.
The vote was passed with a near unanimous vote with James O’Toole against and City Manager Chuck Strome and Councilman Al Tarantino abstaining.
At the same time, across town at Bella Bella restaurant, Jim Killoran of Habitat for Humanity was leading a SoNoNewRo Luncheon to discuss the soon-to-be obsolete BID Parking Plan.
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It’s Time To Voice Your Opinion and Be Counted
Since the downtown parking problem seems to be mainly caused by the residents of Avalons 1 & 2 refusing to pay for parking in their respective buildings then the solution should be obvious to the BID and City Council. A resolution must be passed that Avalons 1 & 2 must provide a parking space or spaces when a resident signs a new lease or renews an existing lease. Why penalize the entire city with additional parking fees for the negligence of 2 buildings. Remember, there is Citizens to be Heard on the City Council agenda tonight Tues. 4/13 at 7:30pm at NR City Hall. Sign up and speak out to voice your oppostion to the proposed new parking fees that will hurt all city residents. If you can’t make the meeting then call or email your councilperson to voice your opposition.
All Residents Suffering Because of Short-Sighted City Decisions
Why do all residents have to suffer because Avalon residents will not pay for parking? The City Council when the Avalon agreement was made did not include even one parking space per apartment and did not force Avalon to include any parking space with each apartment. Therefore, their residents are filling up public parking spaces at night and residents can not go to Library events or to a restaurant because of the lack of parking. Church goers will also suffer. It is grossly unfair to punish one group of residents because of the actions of another group. There have to be better ways to deal with these problems. There should not be any parking fees at night in downtown.
Neighborhood in Downtown Opposes Parking Fees by Patricia Zaffo
I will be unable to attend tonight’s meeting due to a previous engagement but would like to be heard. Please note that the Board of Directors at 30 Clinton Place have reached out to the residents of this building and we have an over whelming feeling that the parking should not be disturbed in the down town area. I for one have been paying to park in the Church/Division St. lot for almost 20 years. We think anyone who wants overnight parking should pay for it. Our building has no parking at all and so we have no choice. Businesses are already hurting from the economy so why would we want to hurt them further? Suggestion of maybe putting payment after 12:00 a.m. would deter people from parking on the street since by then most restaurants will be closed and anyone living in buildings will have to get up out of bed to put money in the meters. Please advise your council of our feelings and let me know your thoughts. Have any other suggestions come up that sound better than the 24/7? Please advise all parties below in email of our feelings on this matter.
If the City Council did not give all the high rise buildings permission to build without sufficient parking this would not even be an issue. The City Council needs to take on some responsibility for their actions on allowing building without enough parking. They need to get the message once and for all.
Patricia Zaffo, President, 30 Clinton Place