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?
