[thebean11]

In New York owning a car is a huge luxury, the city is giving away free real estate to the richest of the rich New Yorkers. Getting rid of free street parking is a great idea.

[jinushaun]

You must not visit Queens, Bronx or Manhattan beyond 110 very often. They have extensive car ownership. I don't think anyone would call them rich.

[Wowfunhappy]

True, we should be careful to not conflate "Manhattan" with "New York City".

That said, I agree with OP's comment within the context of Manhattan. Anyone who owns a car there is very wealthy, even within the context of a wealthy city.

(I don't agree with pegging the divide at 110th street, that's much too low.)

[ericd]

Anecdotal, but my relatives who live/grew up in the outer boroughs call Manhattan “the city”.

[Grazester]

Thats only if you live in NYC you refer to Manhattan as "the city" but we very well know that New York City consist of all 5 boroughs

[thebean11]

Yeah good point, I should have specified UES/UWS or below

[ipnon]

62% of households in Queens and 44% of households in Brooklyn own a vehicle [0].

[0] https://edc.nyc/article/new-yorkers-and-their-cars

[smogcutter]

Yes, the “parking is free real estate for the wealthy” idea is really a manhattan thing, but those numbers aren’t doing you any favors - that’s far and away the lowest proportion of car ownership in the country.

https://www.governing.com/gov-data/car-ownership-numbers-of-...

[lisper]

Charging is not going to fix that problem. If anything, the closer you get to charging market rates, the less accessible it becomes to anyone other than the richest of the rich. At least with free parking all vehicle owners are on an equal footing regardless of how much disposable income they have.

Not that I'm advocating free parking. I'm not. But this isn't a good argument against it.

[thebean11]

To me, the problem is giving away publicly owned land to people who don't need handouts. Charging market rates fixes that problem.

[closeparen]

Should we also charge for the parks and schools in rich neighborhoods?

[clairity]

market rates for parking would still unequitably favor the wealthy. to be equitable, parking fees would need to be wealth-weighted/income-based.

[thebean11]

you're missing the part where only the wealthy are using these spaces in the first place (speaking specifically about Manhattan)