From the Anash.org Inbox: Street parking in Crown Heights is a precious commodity. Residents and guests rely on these spaces for daily use. So, when car rental companies use public street parking for their fleets, it raises eyebrows and frustrations.
By A Frustrated Resident
In Crown Heights, street parking is a precious commodity. Local residents and small business owners, particularly along Kingston Avenue, rely on these spaces for daily use, whether it’s for their personal vehicles or customer access. So, when car rental companies use public street parking for their fleets, it raises eyebrows and frustrations.
We’ve heard from frustrated residents along Montgomery, President, and Union Streets who are fed up with the situation. They now have to think twice before running an errand, knowing they might come back and be stuck circling for parking for an extended period of time—sometimes for up to 45 minutes, even being forced to double park or park at a pump, risking a ticket. Others end up parking on streets farther away, which can be dangerous late at night, or on meter-lined blocks where they have to rearrange their schedules just to avoid getting a ticket.
Living expenses in the area aren’t cheap. Baruch Hashem, many families are blessed with large families and school tuitions, on top of basic necessities. Getting several tickets due to the lack of parking only adds to the financial burden, hurting residents’ pockets.
As it is, the area already faces the challenge of alternate side parking twice a week per side, making the search for a spot even more difficult. Moreover, President Street residents are no strangers to street closures for Kaparos, Moshe Rubashkin’s half-block Sukkah, Chanukah and Yud Alef Nissan tank parades, camp bus pick up and drop off, and a few organizations with their own Mitzvah tanks that park on the street all day and year-round which often leaves residents scrambling for parking. With one car rental company operating a fleet of over 50 cars, and another company with nearly double that, occupying public spaces, the situation has become even more untenable.
Small business owners along Kingston Avenue are also feeling the impact, as fewer parking spots mean less customer access, which could hurt their livelihoods. It’s simply not fair for car rental companies to treat public streets as their personal parking lots, especially when they’re profiting from these vehicles. If a rental company wants to operate a business, they should invest in a private lot instead of taking away spots that the Crown Heights community and local businesses rely on.
Public spaces should serve the public, not be monopolized by businesses looking to cut costs at the expense of local residents and small businesses. It’s time for a fair solution: car rental companies need to respect the community and invest in proper facilities for their operations.
We are calling on the new Vaad Hakol and community activists to step up and address this issue. Let’s work together to ensure that the streets of Crown Heights serve the people who live, work, and shop here—not just businesses seeking profit at the expense of the community.
B”H
Halevai every resident would have a car and be able to complain like this.
I agree that the parking situation is insane but it seems funny to put it on the rentals who are enabling RESIDENTS of CH who cannot own a car (either because they can’t afford, or because they don’t have a parking spot) have a car available when they need.
Of course ideal would be if they have a garage, but then they would be taking precious space that could be for housing…
No easy answers here…
For your info thease Car-Rentals aren’t for people who aren’t locals they are here to service people in CH
Important to remember that car rental companies are here to help both residents and visitors in Crown Heights. They provide transportation for people who need a car for errands, family visits, or Simchos.
It is not as simple as it being a case of some selfish private business vs. crown heights residents.
These companies primarily local crown heights residents. driving up their costs by pushing them off the streets would drive up the costs for local residents who need to rent from them, often because said residents cannot afford to buy or lease cars and choose to rent ocassionally when they must.
The people who rent ocassionally, often because they cannot affoer to buy or lease a car are no more able to afford an increase in the cost of their rentals, than the people who do own or lease cars can afford risking parking tickets.
This is not to say that the companies should use the spaces on the streets, that is a reasonable topic for debate, but it is to say that the view presented in this article is a little narrow in its perspective and grossly oversimplified.
Love the aurgument the “public spaces should be for the public” while complaining that you need to park your “private” car takes presidency over these rental companies that service the public”. If these vehicles were not available there would be more “private cars”. Don’t know if you remember but before these rentals, citybikes, revel, zipcar etc there were plenty of parking spaces! Not!
Have equal right to parking
There are 2 car rental companies that actually service the community, but there is another rather large company, that mainly rents their cars out to TLC drivers, and all their cars have TLC plates, these cars take up the most parking, sometimes even 5+ cars in a row in front of apartment building and houses, it’s simply disgusting
The problem here isn’t necessarily the parking, it’s the illegal double parking, blocking bike lanes etc. and worse the blatant “look the other way” by the NYPD right next door….
4 times a week i have to move my car because of Alternate side parking, i lived here all my life and can count on my hand how many times I’ve seen the cleaning truck actually come, but the Police given out the tickets never misses.
I think the only good think that Mayer Deblasio did was make it once a week. Mabey the vaad Hakohol Could do something about that
712 Crown Street (corner Schenectady) has a lot of abandoned vehicles parked in front of the building on the city street, since before Covid. If those derelict vehicles get towed, then there will be 4 more permanent parking spots for the entire community & area residents to use.
If the brown down vehicles by 712 Crown Street gets towed…
If the broken down vehicles are towed, it will benefit everyone with more parking spaces
“”6) Nighttime parking of commercial vehicles prohibited. No person shall park a
commercial vehicle on a residential street, between the hours of 9 p.m. and 5 a.m.”
https://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/downloads/pdf/trafrule.pdf#page=32 – Section 4-08(k)(6)
NYC can 1) designate rental cars as commercial (change license plates) to restrict parking 2) create “NO Rental Car Parking Signs” where needed
Report abandoned vehicles NYC
https://portal.311.nyc.gov/article/?kanumber=KA-02130