The Hunger Games in New York: How Citizens Fight for Parking Spaces

For several weeks last fall, a flood of new cars filled parking spaces in Borum Hill, Brooklyn, and finding a parking spot in the area turned into a 15-, 30-, or even 45-minute ordeal. How the townspeople are fighting for parking spaces, said the publication New York Times.

One day in September, local resident Noreen O'Donnell faced all the "delights" of New York parking lots. She first discovered that someone had crushed her car, leaving $ 3000 in damage and no contact note. She left in a crumpled car on business, and when she returned, she found that the parking space, which she always used near her house, was occupied. For an hour, she circled the neighborhood in search of a place, until around midnight she gave up and just illegally parked outside the school.

“It's like the Hunger Games for parking,” she said. "Now it is not just difficult - it is a ruthless process."

Last spring, as the pandemic swept New York City, people faced shortages of basic commodities such as toilet paper, paper towels and hand sanitizer. But the pandemic has also led to a spike in car sales, in part due to restrictions on public transport. This led to a new deficit in the city - a shortage of parking spaces.

All over New York, drivers complain that finding a free parking space on the streets is almost impossible: people who left for the summer have returned; restaurant areas, which were allowed to place tables on some streets, occupied approximately 10 parking spaces; the number of cars has also increased.

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The alternative is often to park in a prohibited area at the risk of a $ 100 fine, or to use a private garage, which is not much cheaper. Manhattan garage fees start at $ 400 per month.

In Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx, the number of new vehicles registered between August and October jumped 37% over the same period last year. On Staten Island, where public transport is limited and many residents already own cars, registrations have also increased, but by only 6%.

The sharpest jump was in Manhattan, where registrations grew by 76%, and in Brooklyn, by 45%.

Fights without rules

The problem of finding parking is not new. But competition for parking spaces has become even fiercer as the pandemic has redefined the cityscape: restaurant tables have taken over sidewalks and some streets, and parts of roads are completely closed to cars on weekends to provide space for pedestrians to walk.

As a result, according to drivers, parking in residential areas became a real war, in which the age-old unwritten rules of decency were thrown away and lawlessness reigned. This has increased tensions between neighbors.

Many people use orange cones to block off parking spaces near their homes. But sometimes other drivers remove these cones and park in other people's places - in response, their cars can cut the tires.

On days when there is an alternative parking rule that requires drivers to move cars to one side of the street to make room for cleaning, the situation becomes especially tense. The gentlemen's agreement that allows drivers to return cars to their previously occupied parking spaces after cleaning is complete is no longer valid, residents said. Drivers now quickly take over as soon as a harvesting vehicle passes.

Unlike almost every other major US city, New York City does not have a residential parking program requiring parking permits for certain areas. The idea to introduce it was never very popular among drivers - they were afraid of the high cost of such permits.

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By some estimates, New York City has around 3 million street parking spaces, most of which are free. But car owners complain that even before the pandemic, free parking was dwindling as street space was used for new bike lanes, bus lanes and the city's bike rental program.

In Queens, growing tensions around parking took a sharp turn when a fight broke out between four men in November over a parking space. One of the drivers took out a baseball bat in an attempt to defend their parking space, and the other tried to knock down the enemy, but lost control and drove into the bakery building.

Four people at the bakery were hospitalized and the driver was charged with assault.

Alternatives and complaints

Fortunately, most conflicts don't go beyond talking and complaining. Veteran drivers complain that newbies do not know how to park in parallel, leaving so much space that they lose a parking space for another car. People who use Zipcar say private cars are parked in designated car-sharing areas, while car owners complain that Zipcar has taken up too many parking spaces.

Some drivers choose to pay hundreds of dollars for garage parking instead of wasting time looking for parking on the streets. The number of requests for monthly parking on the popular parking app SpotHero rose 103% in October compared to the same month last year.