All month, people have been bitching and moaning about the increases in parking prices which Mayor Bloomberg has proposed for next year. But while the proletariat are left to scurry and hustle for parking scraps on the street, the bourgeoisie get to play their own decadent version of the same game: where can one find the most expensive parking space in NYC?
We may have a winner: the Post reports that the monthly parking rate at The Empire, a condominium building on 78th Street and Third Avenue, was increased up to $1,200 a month on Dec. 1. That adds up to $14,400 a year: "It's gotta be the most expensive rate in the city. That's more than I pay in rent," said an Empire employee. According to BestParking, that's over $250 more a month than closer neighboring competitors. But oh, the luxuries of the Empire: an attendant drives your car into an exclusive, single-vehicle elevator that whisks it underground to an exclusive space surrounded by similarly expensive, luxury vehicles. And that doesn't even take into account the vintage Don Perignon car washes, the caviar-scented interior clean, and of course, complimentary tickets to peasant boxing.
But if you think that's bad, then just imagine if you have to park a really huge luxury vehicle there! Poor Paolo Zampolli, owner of the brokerage firm Paramount, pays over $1,200 a month to keep his Rolls-Royce, which takes up two parking spaces, near Gramercy Park: "It is a total rip-off. Many garages won't take it. They are afraid to scratch it. It's almost cheaper to have a driver 24/7." Our hearts break for him; we only hope he can find some reason to keep living, perhaps to finally taste the sweet meat of an endangered giant panda.
