The West Village is Running Out of Change

Last week the Department of Transportation began a pilot program that had been in the works that is "congestion pricing for parking" of sorts, doubling the rates on meters in the West Village. From noon until 4, meters now cost $2 an hour in what the DOT hopes will free up spaces and cut down on double-parking by creating greater turnover for the area's highly coveted street parking spaces. Vehicles in the West Village tend to camp out because the DOT rarely enforces the 1 or 2 hour limits that cars are supposed to leave within. Residents and business owners in the area think that with the price to park on the street still costing so much less than local garages, little will change other than the higher amount of revenue coming into the city. Phil Mortillaro the owner of Greenwich Locksmiths lamented the Times, “It would have been better to run the trial at night when this place is full of tourists, not just during the day.”