The New Rochelle city council voted 6-0 in favor of making the downtown parking lots 24/7 except on Sundays from 8am-8pm and holidays.Mr St.paul was not present to vote.So let’s get this right of whom is to blame for this. The city says the bussiness improvement came to them after some bussiness’s complained to them (Bid) that residents were taking up spaces in the lots and on the streets. The Bid put together a parking task force (ptf) on the ptf is albert Tarintino a bid board member and a city council member (conflict of interest)who also owns talner jewerly on main st which close’s at 6:00pm most nights, the other member of the ptf is Ralph Dibart exective director of the Bid making around 100,000 from the Bid and 45,000 from the city as a consultant he has no office in new Rochelle and does not live in this city either and goes home to the city after 5:00pm . The third member of the ptf is bob Kahn former owner of diamond glass on main st and still is a property owner ,his former buisness closed at 6:00pm and he lives in conn. Mr Dibart said at a recent council meeting that he spoke with many business owners in the downtown and most agreed that a change to parking must be done to help them out. I don’t know of to many business’s open after 7:00 pm in the downtown besides resturants and deli’s . Mr Dibart at a recent council meeting stated that they did not talk to all buisness as a matter of fact Mr.Dibart did not remember who he spoke to when asked for a list ,none could be provided. Why not? The fact is the ptf is looking to do the city a favor by saying to the city that the Bid is requesting a parking change so the city does not look bad. This is a pure revenue grab by the city council and the city mgr they will tell you no but that’s the truth. After city council layed off three cso (parking ticket agents)on dec 31 they were rehired because of the parking changes coming.
