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As the Mayoral election approaches, the issue of Sunday parking is back. On Wednesday the City Council voted 41-3 to end the "pay to pray" levy, which essentially will stop parking meters on Sundays. Doing so is going to cost the City an estimated $7 million in lost revenues.
The general argument against "pay to pray" is that since Sunday metering was dramatically expanded in 2002 parishioners have been forced to run out to feed quarters into meters before, during and after services. On the other side is the point that taking away metered Sundays will only make things worse as people will start parking their cars on Saturday night, not moving them until Monday morning. The theoretical lack of parking on Sundays could hurt businesses that depend on their clientele being able to park nearby. Not to mention the fact that there are many religions that don't worship on Sundays.
The issue isn't going anywhere fast as Bloomberg is opposed to the idea and is almost certainly going to try and veto it (he called it "fiscally irresponsible" on his radio show). Since Gothamist doesn't really own a car, metering on Sundays seems perfectly reasonable to us (now, if the subways were free on Sundays...). But then again, we don't own a car. What's your take?
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I believe that religious people should not be an exception to this policy. Most church services are over an hour, so if this is a problem, I think metered parking should reach a limit of 2 hours, as opposed to an hour.
This way, religious people are happy, the city is happy. and businesses are happy.
Now if only there was a laser on the street that could detect how long your car was parked for, and would automatically send you an invoice.
Why should christians get free parking on Sundays and no other religious group get the same treatment on their sabbath day? In a diverse city like New York this doesn't seem fair. I think they should keep metered parking on all days. Why should people insist on driving to church anyway? New York has a lot of transportation options that don't involve parking: buses, subways, trains, cabs, bicycles, walking, to name a few. Actually, I think we should try having one day where no one drives in New York City...just to see what it's like.
Meters are meant to improve parking by turning over spaces faster, but the city treats meters like they're there for making money only, which is wrong.
If you're going to claim Sundays are free for religious reasons, then Friday after sunset and Saturday until sundown should be free for the Jews, but it's not.
I own a car, and I find metered parking on Sundays totally fine; you'll have to move it Monday morning anyway, so who cares?
It's not just church goers that get affected. Under the previous administration, Many places that had free parking on Sunday had meters put in place. In China town there are even 24 hour meters, 7 days a week.
IMO, These meters are now all abour money, nothing more.
All about money, nothing more? Anything wrong with that? Would you rather sales tax or have bridge/tunnel pay meters? What about Jews, Muslims, Buddhists...etc? I would like free parking on Tuesday because I attend Temple Chez Moi!