Selfish Parking Makes Driving in CH Impossible

Absolutely no reason at all! A sedan which has another two feet to back-up and a 4×4 SUV both hang out into Albany Avenue traffic.

A typical trip from the parking lot of Beis Rivkah on Crown Street to Carroll and Troy should take no longer then 5 minutes, but thanks to inconsiderate motorists along with construction projects around our neighborhood that trip took over 20 minutes.

Frozen snow and ice from the first blizzard, dubbed the blizzageddon, which came down last year is still packed on the shoulders of our streets. Parking spots are scarce, between the massive frozen snow banks and all the construction, that is understandable, but it is no excuse to park in such a manner that you disrupt all other road going functions because you need to park.

Driving in Crown Heights is a nightmare thanks to those who parked their cars so selfishly, angled out and hanging over into the roads. School busses could not make it down average streets like Carroll and Montgomery thanks to the narrow passageways caused by these cars.

Besides the immediate hindrance that these cars pose there is the bigger picture. Sanitation attempts to plow streets as close as possible to parked cars, pushing the snow back into the street which helps it melt faster, but when cars are angled they cannot plow, letting the massive piles build up after each storm.

Just like shoveling sidewalks is a homeowner’s responsibility, parking your car properly is too. Police have been writing tickets to cars parked on an angle or disrupting traffic – rightfully so.

25 Comments

  • Yeah right

    Let me guess… the author of this article has a nice driveway or garage…. Im not condoning its right. but try parking in the street…even without snow….!

  • resident

    the writer of this article probably has a Garage for their car/SUV, which not all crown heights’ers do, and as of late there have not been many parking options left for a CH driver

  • Not selfish

    That is not selfish.That is the only way one can park on the streets of Crown Heights.I just don’t feel that the sanitation dep has a good plan for snow removal they really need to look at other cities that have mostly parallel parking like we do .

  • not really

    when i clean in front of my house its done…. should i shovel every time i park my car?
    instead of giving tickets the city should clean the snow to arrange proper parking spots!!

  • yikes

    i was wondering about that.
    we drove in from OOT and i see these white “lumps” along the side- when i looked closer i saw they were buried cars. they stay that way till spring?

  • too bad

    It says in Tanya that the world was created exclusively for me. So what is the problem. Let’s forget that the Alter rebbe was a Lubavithcher and therfore Ahavas Yisroel wasn’t meant for me. So it took you to go from Empire Blvd to eastern Pkwy twenty minutes. What’s your rush? The world was created for me, and I’m not there yet. So pleae get out of my way, you are blocking the street. When will people stop thinking about themselves and honor their neighbor. And WE WANT MOSHIACH NOW ! Not in this Snowstorm. I love Crown Heights where everybody looks out for themselves. Probably Moshiach is stuck in this traffic jam, that’s why he is not here yet. But the truth is who really wants moshiach Now. That’s why he is not here yet. Because if we really wanted Moshiach Now we would do everything in our power, for him to come. Like being nice to one another, even though the world was created for me only, I don’t mind sharing it with you. But it AIN“T gonna happen. That’s what Lubavitch is all about. I maybe wrong on this issue, but that’s my personal opinion. Until you prove me wrong, Live like the world belongs to you, and why not. So park where you want, do what you want, until you will meet a bigger and stronger Bigot. Than like the Talmud says. ” Kol Dealim Gvar” Should I say Yechi, nah! not worth my breath.

  • Who is parking selfishly?

    Unfortunately, with an incompetent sanitation department which suspended alternate side parking rules, rather than enforcing them and cleaning the snow (before it totally froze into ice) it is extremely difficult to find parking or park, especially on the right side of the street, as that is where the plows push the snow.

    Having a garage doesn’t help much, as the alleyways are not plowed, making it virtually impossible to use a garage (unless one lives at the end of a block and is willing to shovel all the way from his/her garage out to the street (where would all that snow go???)

    However, there are certain community residents (and bochurim) who have vehicles which are used for ‘business’ purposes – whether that ‘business’ is a for profit ‘business’ – like the illegal car rental business which operates around the Yeshiva dormitory, or even if that ‘business’ is Mivtzoim. Such vehicles should NOT be parked on residential streets!! The law forbids parking of commercial vehicles on residential streets during the evening and night hours, but these people skirt the law by having non-commercial license plates.

    It is further exacerbated by extremely long vehicles, which occupy at least 2 parking spots (sometimes 3 or more – depending on how they park), and are used once a week at best, or not at all – simply stored on a residential block! Tax paying residents of the block have to resort to all kinds of illegal parking, with no other alternative available, subjecting themselves to fines, while people who live blocks away, or bochurim who sleep in the dormitory, occupy good parking spots on the left side of the street – which has much less snow!

    All vehicles 20 feet and over, or vehicles which have a ‘commercial’ or semi-commercial use (i.e. their use has a direct involvement in revenue generating) should not be parked overnight on residential blocks, but should park at a lot, while the operators can walk or commute to or from such lot, just like the school bus drivers do!!!

  • Snow sucks

    If the city enforced street cleaning between snowstorms and used the time to clear the spots, there wouldn’t be as much of a problem.

    On the other hand, I was in CH this weekend with my car, and even with the conference, managed not to park ‘diagonally’ or illegally once.

  • solution

    there is a simple solution. the day after a storm alternate side parking should be IN effect. that way people will have to dig out their cars and move them so that sanitation can plow the snow away from the curbs! our streets would be unobstructed and traffic flow (as well as parking) will be much easier.

  • your solution aint no solution

    sorry to say, not everyone is able to get it done so fast.
    everyone has a story why not
    and it is not called laziness
    and even if you do dig it out
    the plough comes by and buries the car again!

  • rg

    why don’t you show pictures of houses that don’t shovel?
    the least you could do is blur the license plates!

  • avraham

    You should all come to Eretz Yisroel and dont worry about any of this nonsense, stop wasting your life, come now….we love you here and so does hashem. yechi yechi yechi….

  • shlucha

    It took me 45 minutes to go from Oholei Torah on Eastern Parkway to Bais Rivkah on Lefferts, on Friday morning.

  • Anonymous

    To #8: I wholeheartedly agree with EVERYTHING you have said! Though these problems are not just because of the snow; they occur in the neighborhood during all seasons of the year.

    As for the pictures posted above, the selfishness of some of these drivers is not that they park crooked, rather that they park crooked when they can get into the spot completely. Its just easier to park halfway and not worry about having to pull it out later; which would take an extra 3 minutes. Took me quicker to drive in from LI this morning then to get from Utica to Kingston Avenue.

    And to all of you that “I see my car!!”: get away from your computer and go move it. Thank you.

  • SIdewalks ect

    More importantly then the cars sticking out a little is sidewalks that turned to ice because it was not shoveled, or if it was shoveled it was only a little narrow path, impossible for strollers to go by, and it also causes traffic on the sidewalk because you need to walk slowly because of the ice, and only 1 person can go at a time, so you have peopole traffic, how exciting. I think that we (including me) should learn how to be more considerite.

  • better solution

    i have a better solution for u
    make everyone park diagonally on 1 side of the street the day before the snow comes, so that side with no cars parked will be clean. after the snow everybody will have to move to the other side so sanitation can clean it. this can be done with coordination, everybody listens to the new, radios, newspapers, call 311 etc. its not difficult to organize.

  • DriveWay

    Those who have garages or driveways have plenty of snow to shovel, so don’t try using them as a scape goat.

    There is no excuse to part the way many part, especially when there are many that take advantage and don’t part the way they should (like using the two extra feet available to part like a mensch).

  • oiss vorff

    if u cant park normal ? dont take yr car out !!!!! if you park like a idiot ,, u should get a ticket evry hr.

  • Stam

    this article is obviously aimed at the people who were able to park correctly yet refused to out of laziness or fear of being trapped again by the plows. however they just make the problem worse and we all end up with less available parking spots and impassible roads.

  • S. Holmes

    This article doesn’t take into account that we have 3000 woman from out of town staying here, its elementary my dear Watson.