Q&A
Parking requirements and transportation challenges in the Bronx
5:12:54
·
3 min
Council Member Eric Dinowitz raises concerns about eliminating parking minimums across the board, highlighting the unique transportation challenges faced by residents in the Bronx. He emphasizes the need for cars in areas with poor public transit connectivity.
- Dinowitz points out that intra-borough travel in the Bronx can take longer than trips to Manhattan.
- He questions the city's efforts to create municipal lots or address issues like illegal car washes taking up parking spaces.
- Chair Garodnick responds that the proposal allows flexibility in parking provision based on local needs, without imposing caps on parking spaces.
Eric Dinowitz
5:12:54
Okay.
5:12:55
I thank you.
5:12:55
I I do I do wanna mention parking, and I and I, you know, always bring this up when it comes to, you know, when you're a commissioner, when you're testifying about development, that in my district, for example, for me to get to the other side of my district from my house to listen to the Wakefield library is an hour a half by public transit.
5:13:14
And it's an hour 20 minutes to city hall by public transit.
5:13:18
In other words, Cerrito travel within my own baro within my own district takes longer than does for me to get to Manhattan.
5:13:25
But that's also the story for a number of people in the Bronx where the number one employer is Montivir.
5:13:33
Right?
5:13:33
You know this.
5:13:34
So if people in my district are going across to Einstein, that's you know, it takes an hour a half.
5:13:41
Again, quicker for them to get to Manhattan.
5:13:43
For us in the Bronx, The Manhattan Manhattan's not the center of the universe.
5:13:49
And I I I just I I wanna mention that because eliminating parking minimums across the board without recognizing that places like the Bronx In many cases, people need cars to get to work or get their kids to school.
5:14:08
It's that is the the way life is in the Bronx because of the existing infrastructure.
5:14:16
Are there efforts by the city to create municipal lots in recognition that perhaps parking minimums may go away?
5:14:24
In many cases, they don't exist anymore for a number of the new as of right developments.
5:14:30
And other efforts being made to clean up some of the streets, for instance, with the illegal car washes that are taking up parking spaces, a number of abandoned vehicles and trucks that are taking up parking spaces.
5:14:43
I haven't seen any of that, any evidence of that.
5:14:46
But what efforts are you making in conjunction with your partners in the administration to provide more parking knowing that you're also pushing for the end of parking minimums in housing?
Daniel Garodnick
5:14:58
Thank you for the question.
5:15:01
Well, when we're talking about eliminating across the board, as you say, without recognizing that people need cars, we do recognize that people need cars in some areas.
5:15:10
And that's important because we're not capping, parking, We're not saying you cannot go beyond a certain level on providing parking in a new building.
5:15:19
What we're saying is if you have parking in your building, keep it.
5:15:22
If you want parking in your new building, that's yeah.
5:15:24
Go ahead and add it, and you can add it up to the max.
5:15:27
And if you don't want it, that is okay too.
5:15:30
But the across the board dynamic is most prevalent when we're looking at our own zoning resolution, looking at a district in the Bronx, at an r 6 versus a district in Queens or Brooklyn at an r 6, and the parking requirements and needs for those districts may be completely different, but we are actually mandating the same amount.
5:15:54
So what we want to do here is to to enable that level of flexibility recognizing that in some areas, you you really should probably provide some parking in that development, and that's what we have seen in areas that have done exactly what we are proposing to do here.
Eric Dinowitz
5:16:09
Thank you.
