The city of New Rochelle was to make parking changes today on the downtown street meters and in some downtown lots.The changes were that the meters in the certain lots would increase 100% from 50 to a $1 a hour and the meters on the street would be extended to 12:00am.
Well as of 3:30am Tuesday morning no signs were changed no meters changed no lots changed.
I wonder what happened. Will this loss of revenue effect the budget will Firefighters,Crossing Guards and Dpw workers get threatened that there jobs be cut.Because the city has no money.
Or maybe the city will hire someone else at a salary of $100,000 to tell us that we need retail in our city.
Again this city has failed to notify downtown business owners of the change to the parking rules as they said they would.
Let’s wait and see what the city has to say about this one.I would love to hear from the people who read this site.
8 thoughts on “Parking Change Where Is It?”
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Revenue from Fees
Happy New Year to all correspondents. Looks as if the readers have zeroed in on one of the major issues facing taxpayers. The problems with how the city concentrates on fee revenues has received a great deal of negative publicity lately from a number of sources. It not only causes problems of disproportionate handling, confusion and anger among people trying to boost busiiness owners’ revenue, but it negatively affects future business. You may have read a recent Xmas shopper’s letter to the editor weeks earlier in the Journal News who pledged never to shop downtown again after an all too typical ticketing experience with a traffic agent. My lovely wife, who pays well over a thousand dollars in parking at the station parking lot, was ticketed for $200 for a one day expired inspection ticket. Yes she was late, but she was late by a day and had a vehicle displaying several support emblems from the police department.
Don’t get me wrong, she was late, but City’s who collect large fees for parking train their traffic folks to place a note on the windshield saying, you are expired, please fix in 48 hours or I will be forced to give you a ticket. Shoppers during a holiday season who are briefly late, get amnesty for a reasonable period of time or some warning. It is common sense and protective of an overtaxed city.
It comes down to not having a proper financial management/budget plan that would justify the expenditure of a $100,000 a year consultant if, (1) he is not politically aligned, (2) is a recognized professional who begins with an assessment of what the issues are and describes these, does not give in to the pressure of producing a solution package but impresses on the Council that this comes later and has to be something that crosses party and idelogical lines and not political linees, involves stakeholders from community (code for residents from all walks of life), ensures the city council and city manager comply and exercise their authorit and responsibility as outline in the City Code and separates short term immediacy from longer term desirablility. And, he or she should report to the key line guy who seems to be Freimuth.
That said, you don’t dimension or work in immediate fashion on say, Echo Bay. You take matters in hand such as building the commercial and residential basse as appropriate in the business district. So you look at a lot of dimensions — here are a few, the current zoning codes, landlord relations vs. City needs, crime, presence or absence of City department presence… police precincts, City Agencies, etc.., the value and cost effectiveness of BID, the effectiveness of the Chamber of Commerce, the ratio of non-profit to profit, the growth and “sprawl” of local educational facilities, safety, traffic lights, and THIS KEY ISSUE as brought to our attention by this veteran poster.
None of this will work unless the City Council demands that it must work. It must buy into and support basic and sound principles of urban development and strategic planning with the first being assessment or description before prescription.
It requires commitment and a will to succeed and make a difference. It is literally that simple.
And, a modest suggestion. You need too inform the entire community and seek ways to get their interest and buy-in. That does not mean blank capitulation, it means following the sort of process our Founding Fathers envisioned for our great nation.
So, here goes! Contact Bob Cox and commit to reporting the entire process as it plays out to the readers of TOTS. Do the same for other sources if you like. But, reach out to the entire City. I am sure Bob would work with Kathy Gilwit or anyone else to keep the readership on board. You will collect a good deal of information and much will be useful. Just read what is already contributed by Eye on New Roc and the others. If I, (pardon the arrogance)with all my experience in this area can state with certainty how much I am getting from the perspectives of many of the posters here, I should think the City Manager and his staff as well as all Council Members, should have an open enough mind to feel the same way.
Take a look about you. So much is happening. It is well past the time to put our reputation as “northeast elitists’ to the test. People like us are in town halls, open meetings, marching in streets, or otherwise demonstrating for inclusion and change. It isn’t all a pretty picture but most is just fine because it comes from our traditiion of an open society committed to the greater good of its citizens.
2012 is going to be a milestone year so we need to come together and what the hell is wrong with that.
Soon Bramson will ask for a raise so he can pay his own taxes!
There can be NO justification for NR to hire someone at $100,000 and by doing so our government just got a little bigger at a time when it should be getting smaller. The city simply needs to spend LESS and stop looking for ways increase revenues which is a fancy way to say that they're raising taxes.
I don't really care what gets cut (although I'd rather not have to pay higher insurance rates because someone took the easy way out and fired firemen) so long as cuts are made.
Bramson could start by making a flow chart of all the things the city spends money on and organize it by must haves (like police fire & garbage collection) and nice to haves (like consultants, fishing derby’s & take home vehicles) and let the cutting begin but he won't do that, he'd rather hand down 10-15% tax increases that are 5 to 8 times the rate of inflation. Does Bramson think he can raise taxes 10-15% for the next 3-4 years?
Something needs to change or our houses will soon be worthless because buyers can afford to pay X each month. X needs to cover the mortgage payment, property taxes and the insurance so when property taxes go up, 1 of the other 2 items needs to come down & it won't be the insurance so it will have to be the mortgage and that can only be accomplished by paying less or putting down a larger down payment; with the former being much easier to attain.
Soon Bramson will be asking for a raise so he can pay his own taxes.
And does everyone know that NR spends almost $8 million to pay the interest on the money its borrowed? Seems wasteful to me, especially knowing the city has issued bonds (borrowed money) to balance the last 2-3 budgets. Can't wait until interest rates start increasing so Bramson can blame it all on Wall St.
No Signs of Hope
The change is no change. It was sad but also comical last week when I went out to dinner Down Town. Several people tried to figure out what to do about parking in the Division Street lot. The signs said Free 2hours Holiday Parking from 9:00am – 9:00pm. There were several very confused seniors going to a Birthday Party trying to figure it out. What is a person to do when dinner could go past nine and the party they were attending went until ten. Better part of valor knowing New Rochelle and the love of tickets was to feed the beast/meters. We all tried but to our surprise the meters didn’t work which created more confusion for the group. I will fight that fight later and went to dinner. At five minutes to nine the same group of people were upset about the possibility of getting a ticket and left the party that was still going on. Their friend tried to get them to stay. But the people, they didn’t want to get a ticket. What a parting gift that would have made. It’s parking. It should not be this difficult.
Happy New Year!
Lost Revenue
If you want to see lost revenue from parking meters, just drive north on Main Street starting from Pelham Rd and south starting from Cooper Dr. We have selective enforcement in those areas. The car dealerships can park for free for 2 hours-they wanted 3 hours. No meters are in sight. Coming from Cooper Dr. going toward Main St. there are meters in front of the small shopping area starting at Stephenson Blvd. up to the Post Rd. Ale House. On the opposite side of the street from Post Rd Ale House not one meter-free parking.Along the city yard, the meter poles remain but not one meter and no sign stating the number of hours you can park. When I asked the council person about this, he stated New Rochelle cannot afford to put meters in those areas.
My point is if we are trying to have people shop, etc. in the downtown area why are we increasing the cost of parking.Are car dealerships more important? How many New Rochelle residents are employed at these dealerships? I think the businesses in the downtown area should be very upset. Also, the businesses that are near the selective enforcement areas should be contacting city hall and request everyone pay or no one should pay for parking.
i Agree
At one of the recent council meetings council decided to change the rules on east main street.I would check on this and i think they are adding meters in front of the city yard.
Thanks Noam, you really know how to run a city into the ground!
Why would they do that? Businesses around NR are struggling enough, why add to their problems?
I know why, as Ivar Hayden stated, the city's problem are revenue driven so all the city cares about is increasing revenue, forget about cutting expenses. Its the revenue G-dam it! After reading that, I feel better about telling my wife she needed to get a 2nd job to pay for things. She didn't care for that & we cut expenses instead.
My city property tax just went up $300 bucks which from what I read is low because I'm in a single family residence. Low? I can't believe I just said my 10% increase was low but compared to others in NR its low. If my property were a 2 family w/the same assessment, my increase would have been close to 15% or $460. Soon (2 years at the current rate) my $3000 city tax bill will be $4000 and that's the problem, especially when the Governor said my taxes should only go up $60 or 2% this year.
Thanks Noam, you really know how to run a city into the ground by making it unaffordable! A truly gutless man who doesn't make any cuts and only makes everything cost more. Gee, I wonder if these decisions are increasing or decreasing the value of my primary asset, my home? Does anyone care or give a sh&t about the local government when they're looking to buy a house? Or do they care more what the tax burden of the property is? I bet the latter.
Must cost a few thousand to change all those signs.
Must cost a few thousand to change all those signs. Maybe Noam forgot to budget that or maybe city hall is saving us money by not having them work on a holiday?
Here's a cost savings idea, have the DPW guys working on the parking signs take down those confusing bike signs that popped up all over the place.
Signs
The signs are done in house beleive it or not. But i'm sure there is still a heavy price tag on it.