NYC NOW - March 5, 2024: Evening Roundup

Episode Date: March 5, 2024

Second Avenue from the Queensboro Bridge to Houston Street may be getting wider bike lanes and a bus lane offset from the curb. Meanwhile, New Jersey First Lady Tammy Murphy wins her first Democratic convention on Monday night. Plus, WNYC’s Stephen Nessen reports that some Upper West Side residents are pushing for the city to make drivers obtain parking permits.

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City. From WNYC, I'm Jenae Pierre. One of Manhattan's busiest thoroughfares is getting a redesign. Second Avenue, from the Queensboro Bridge to Houston Street, may be getting wider bike lanes and a bus lane offset from the curb. WMYC's Charles Lane has more. Moving the bus lane off the curb solves the problem of the legally parked cars blocking the bus lane. It's been a particular concern for.

for residents near the NYPD's 13th precinct. The proposed redesign also extends the dedicated bus lane to 24 hours a day. The redesign also widens the bike lane to 10 feet, allowing people to bike side by side or what officials call social cycling. Since the boom of e-bikes and e- scooters, cyclists and transportation officials, say Second Avenue's bike lanes have become overcrowded with some 6,000 daily riders. Meanwhile, in the Garden State, New Jersey's first lady Tammy Murphy won her first Democratic convention on Monday night. Murphy's victory gives her the Bergen Party's endorsement and preferred placement on that county's primary ballot.

WNYC's Nancy Solomon reports. The Murphy campaign was strongly favored by the county party boss, Paul Giuliano, and it showed Murphy won with 64% of the vote. As the wife of the governor, Murphy has gotten most of the support of the Democratic Party. leadership, but Andy Kim won over the rank and file membership in the first five conventions. In Bergen, Kim's supporters said the influence of both the governor and the county chairman proved too much for them to overcome. Up next, some Upper West Side residents are advocating for parking permits for residents. We'll hear that story after the break.

Parking along the curb in New York City is mostly free. It's been that way in Manhattan since the 1950s, when overnight parking was legalized. But with the MTA's congestion pricing program going into effect this spring, a group of Upper West Side residents say it's time to start making drivers pay to park. WMYC's Stephen Nesson reports on a push for parking permits. If Kvetching was an Olympic sport, Upper West Side residents would be a shoe-in for the gold medal. Connecticut. Maryland, Virginia, New Jersey.

That's Renee Baruch, a retired lawyer who lives uptown. She's strolling along Riverside Drive and pointing out her bugaboo. People who park on the street with out-of-state plates. People are very careful about where they register their cars. You don't believe that this is just someone from New Jersey who moved to New York that happens to live in New York now. Too many. New Jersey, New Jersey, Connecticut.

She examines the bumper of a blue Honda fit. It's covered in thousands of. of little scratches. It looks like a Jackson Pollock painting, the kind of car that's done some tight parallel parking jobs and has the scars to prove it. Not typically a thing that happens in most parts of Connecticut, but that's the state on the license plate. All of these cars look very much like New York City cars. But Baruch isn't just griping about her neighbors not registering their cars properly. She started a group two years ago that advocates for a parking permit program in the neighborhood. Upper West Side residents, business owners, and workers in the area would pay what

Baruch describes as a reasonable monthly fee. But no spots could be guaranteed. Think of a parking permit like a hunting license. A residential parking permit could be very lucrative for the city. I mean, essentially it would tax every car that's here. Baruch is joining a battle that's been brewing for years. Lawmakers at the city and state level have tried and failed to get any traction for a residential parking permit program in the city. But now, the issue is taken on new urgency. The MTA's congestion pricing program is expected to go into effect in Manhattan later this year. The transit agency studied the possible effects of congestion pricing on parking.

It finds more drivers may park just outside the toll zone at 60th Street and then hop on mass transit. Around the corner from Baruch is Upper West Side Building Super Kevin Kee. Heenan. For him, it's no mystery what will happen once the tolls go in effect. Right now, it's crazy because nobody's moving their car. It's going to be hard to get parking anywhere, honestly. City Council member Gail Brewer studied the issue. She commissioned a report in 2019 when she was Manhattan Borough president to look at parking permits around the globe. I would like to have what would be the New York version of the best possible registration system.

And I don't know what that is. I can. say that we didn't hear great feedback from the systems that exist. Her report finds that in San Francisco, for example, even people who paid for a permit still had trouble finding a spot. And a permit program could also backfire. If the cost of a permit is too low, it could encourage people to buy more vehicles and park on the street. Brewer says with city bike docks, open dining, bike lanes, and soon trash bins, there's a lot a competition for scarce curbspace. New York is different than anywhere else.

Urban planning expert, Donald Shoup is a professor at UCLA who studies parking. He agrees New York is an outlier in that it barely charges for any of its street parking. New York is unusual, I'm sure, in the United States and maybe of the world, that 97% of all the curb spaces are unmetered. And this is some of the most valuable land on Earth. and you could use it free if you bring your car. Shoup suggests New York create more metered spots. He figures if the city charged $5.50 for every curb spot,

it could generate $6 billion a year, enough to offer everyone free public transit. I think you have to realize that parking is political, period. Everybody knows that because it's publicly owned land. And I think that you want to take advantage of the politics and figure out what will appeal to the majority of people on the block. So what would appeal to people on the Upper West Side? 63-year-old Diane Rinaldo is not a car owner and says she would support a program like

Schupe described. I would like to see far fewer cars on the streets of Manhattan, especially in Midtown. I would like to be sure that the money goes to something related and also takes into fact clean air and environmental concerns. Last year, City Council member Carmen Dela Rosa, whose district includes Washington Heights, introduced a bill to create a residential parking permit program. She says New Jersey drivers crossing the George Washington Bridge use her district like a park and ride. She believes that will only get worse with congestion pricing.

Communities like mine, where people can literally drive into the community, park their cars, and then take the transit, because we're fortunate enough to have multiple public transit options, will become sort of ground zero for out of community folks coming into park. She says she's building a coalition of council members to renew the push for parking permits, but she doesn't expect to introduce a bill until later this month. Even in the best case scenario, it's unlikely a parking permit program could go into effect before congestion pricing begins. That's WNYC's transportation reporter, Stephen Nesson.

Thanks for listening to NYC now from WMYC. Catch us every weekday three times a day. I'm Junae Pierre. We'll be back tomorrow.