Comments on: “Movement Afoot” to Drop Downtown Brooklyn Parking Minimums

By: tom murphy

tom murphy — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 21:50:50 +0000

I remember driving to Metro Tech (where I worked) on my way to a funeral. This was the only time I drove there on a workday. I usually took the train; or biked, on occasion.
Since this would be a short but necessary visit I sought a metered spot. There were none to be had. It was only ten AM and the meters were just ‘going legal’ but the spots were already filled. Of course, every car there had a FDNY permit.
This brings me to my question: When are you going to take on the uniforms? and the MTA workers? and the teachers?

By: Diana L

Diana L — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 17:03:40 +0000

This is all good, but what about all the metered parking along the very congested stretch of Flatbush Avenue Extension where Toren is located? And what about the on-street parking permits that encourage the Health Department Employees in the facility up the street to bring their cars to the area instead of taking public transportation?

By: Jo Anne Simon

Jo Anne Simon — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 17:24:03 +0000

This is an altogether worthy effort. Reducing the parking minimums was one of the things the communities argued for in the Downtown Brooklyn rezoning – the 2004 rezoning that permitted buildings like the Brooklyner and the Toren to be built. Obviously we were unsuccessful at that time, but this and many of our predictions have been proven true. There is good energy and good public policy behind this idea.

By: poncho

poncho — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 19:45:54 +0000

I like the Duany approach… whatever your parking minimum is, make that your parking maximum. Most city’s parking minimums are so high to begin with that for walkable urbanism that benchmark should be used for the maximum, not the minimum. Then again in a place like NYC where car ownership is minimal, you could just leave it to the market to determine how much parking. I doubt under that scenerio you would see excessive parking.

By: Boris

Boris — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 18:15:06 +0000

One thing I still don’t get is this: if the Clean Air Act ruling admitted that mandatory parking requirements cause air quality to decrease to the point of violating the Act, why is this fact so widely ignored? Why are there no followup lawsuits?

By: paco

paco — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 17:59:55 +0000

this change cannot come soon enough. after downtown brooklyn shows that business won’t crumble without parking minimums, perhaps other neighborhoods with solid transit infrastructure will embrace them… and then other areas will aim for ample buses and bikes rather than parking lots.

should this change actually happen, does anyone know if a building with excess parking can get grandfathered in and repurpose that space? I envision loads of vehicle parking spots becoming cheap indoor bike parking.

By: Mike Epstein

Mike Epstein — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 17:17:44 +0000

Great news. A lot of these new residential buildings, especially rentals, will end up with acres of unused parking — or will have to subsidize the prices to fill them up. There’s no reason why we should insist on making developers build more parking than their buildings need because of rules applied on a broad, citywide scale without regard for the incredible bounty of public transportation available to Downtown Brooklyn.