Manhattan's Parking Nightmare from IntoTheBox.TV
From IntoTheBox.TV comes this great piece on the emotional and financial pain that is parking in NYC.
Check out Wait For Parking:
Prior to taking the plunge and paying an exorbitant amount of money for a parking space in our current building, my wife and I (who am I kidding...just I) used to wait sometimes for as many as 5 hours for a parking spot on the street. I'm not kidding...there were nights where I actually fell asleep in the car! For us, the amount to pay for parking was worth avoiding the time and aggravation of street parking. That said, there isn't a day that passes that I don't think of the Mercedes S Class that I could be leasing if I didn't have that current garage payment.
Have you seen who the prices in the UWS shot up in the past year?! It's absolutely insane. On my street the parking jumped from $500/month to $700/month in 1 year. I blame the Harrison condo. The garage that was demolished reduced the parking spot on the UWS by 150.
Yes indeed there are seceral garages that have closed or are closing. I feel blessed that ours has only gone from 475 to 600 per month because it seems 700 is more in line with the rest of the hood. The price we pay to live in Manhattan...try private school tuiton.
The trick to parking in Manhattan and other big cities is to know the street parking regulations - not just where, but when you can park. There is an amazing new Manhattan Parking Search Engine (kind of like a Google for parking) online at WhereToFindParking.com. The best way to avoid paying a couple of hundred thousand for a parking space is to be empowered with knowledge.
Why not just do ZipCar? Seems like a good enough solution to me.
But then I take my car out of the city every day on my commute so I don't have the issues others do.
