I’m not. Even when filming on location, TV and film tends to depict places in ways that frequently bear little resemblance to reality, either by selective location choice, or even outright altering of surroundings. Example: When Murder, Ordained was filmed in Emporia, KS, the producers removed all the equipment from a barbershop they used and replaced it with Floyd the Barber looking equipment to make the town seem old-fashioned and smaller than really it is. Large cities they tend to go the other way around, focusing on iconic or more congested areas and ignoring more humbler areas.
I would assume that’s pretty common in any city, no? At least around here in Chicago, which is nowhere near the dense mess Manhattan is, an off-street parking space often isn’t included in the price of the property (I’m thinking condominiums, specifically, not so much houses, which usually have a garage and alley to access them here). Some places may have a deeded spot that you own; other places you might rent the spot. And, yeah, if you’re using a private garage, they have their own monthly fees. I’m not sure how else it would work.
Indeed. Anyone who thinks they’re familiar with Manhattan because they’ve seen every episode of “Friends” is in for a rude shock.
It’s for real. And NYC streets do actually need that much sweeping. I live in a neighborhood of single family houses, most of which do not have driveways. We do not have street sweeping on the residential streets in my neighborhood, which is mostly fine with me. The part that is not fine is the cars that are not moved for days or even months on end*. Because when a car is parked in a space continuously, the property owner can’t sweep the street and may get a ticket. Even if nobody drops trash on the street , circulars left on stoops blow away and leaves and branches accumulate under the parked cars. But there’s always someone dropping trash , and unlike most suburban neighborhoods I’ve seen there’s always someone passing through. What do I mean by that? As far as I can tell, in suburban neighborhoods, no one is walking down a block unless their destination is on that block. You might park three houses down when you are visiting your brother, but that seems to be the limit. Most blocks in NYC have lots of people walking through “on the way” somewhere - people walk down my block to get to the school and playground at the of my block , others walk to get to the train station three blocks away and still others to get to the supermarket two blocks away. And this is not specific to my block - depending on the starting point and ending point , people may be walking down any of the streets in my neighborhood. Lets say 100 people live in my block (although I’m pretty sure it’s more than that). There may be 500 or even 1000 walking down in every day - and I’m in a residential area.
Apparently most cities have street sweeping programs- according to this , Philadelphia is the only major city that doesn’t.
- Why does this happen?- because a lot of people have cars even though they only use them on weekends. Or they have more cars than drivers.
Does this really happen? this is following the letter of the law without appreciating the spirit of the law. If you do your part by not being on the street when the street sweeper comes by, you shouldn’t be given a ticket for parking your car there after the street has been cleaned. The whole point of the ticketing is so that the street gets cleaned. Once the street is cleaned what’s the point of the ticket, other than extortion?
I lived in or around NYC for 25 years, and actually learned to drive (stick) in Manhattan. Except for times I lived out on Long Island, I was happy to be a pedestrian.
Channing Idaho Banks:
None. This city (and state) love nothing more than siphoning the money out of its citizens’ pockets, and motorists are particularly juicy target.
I live in San Francisco, where we have similar parking (and street sweeping issues). I recently had to see a medical specialist recommended to me by a friend. Even though this friend knows that I do not drive and do not have a car, she still kept telling me about the difficulties of finding parking at his office.
“You need to be sure to get there early, since it’s impossible to find a place to park.”
“I’m not actually going to be driving.”
“But there’s no parking at his office, so it’s really tough.”
“I will be taking light rail.”
“Just leave enough time to find a parking space.” :dubious:
The population density in New York is a real thing. When the 1940 census was released, we looked up both of my parents by their address in 1940. For my father, who lived in a single family house in Denver, it took about 5 minutes. For my mother, who lived in an apartment building in Brooklyn, it took about a week. There were over 40 pages of census data for the one building.
Just another anecdote, I knew someone living in a rent controlled apartment in lower Manhattan in the 80s and 90s who was paying several time more for parking than his rent. He wasn’t just renting a parking spot, he was buying a parking spot in a garage, like buying a condominium he would own that spot.
:30
It does, and it sucks - but the thing is the people giving the tickets after the street has been swept have no way of knowing it was already swept. Lets say parking is prohibited from 8-9:30. The sweeper comes through at 9:10, and you park because you saw the sweeper go through and a traffic agent or cop gives you a ticket at 9:20. That ticket writer most likely has has no way of knowing that the sweeper already went through and s/he certainly wouldn’t know if the sweeper had gone through at 8:30. There’s really no way to avoid it unless you have the sanitation police drive ahead of every street sweeper to chase cars and write tickets. That happens on some of the commercial streets * but it’s probably not practical for that to happen citywide.
There is a five minute grace period at the beginning, though, so you won’t get a ticket until 8:05.
- In my experience, you don’t get tickets after the sweeper has passed on those streets- they tend to have an early half hour window where parking is prohibited and the regular traffic agents don’t appear until after the meters go into effect. It also means that you will invariably get a ticket if you block the sweeper.
Even in Denver (Capitol Hill, at least) this happens. They used to put out signs, and the sweeper would come by, followed by the meter maid, followed by somebody removing the signs. Sometimes the sign people would come by first, but the ticketers would still give tickets, but you could fight them and win. Now there are permanent signs, and it’s only one day a month (first Weds. for instance), but they will ticket you during the entire time frame. Realistically, usually only a little while after the sweepers have gone but you can’t count on it, and my understanding is these days you can’t fight it.
That sinking feeling when you come out and realize yours is the only car on your side of the block and you see the sweeper tracks going around your car.
Self Answered
Then its no place for me!
If the alternate side of the street regulations seem crazy, wait till you learn about the suspensions. On some holidays, some people can’t drive, even if it’s just to move their car to the other side of the street. So NYC suspends the alternate side of the street regulation on those days. A list of these days is here and includes everything from New Year’s Day (when perhaps many are too hung over to move their cars) to the Feast of the Immaculate Conception.
Another thing. You might remember an episode of Seinfeld in which Kramer gets a role in a Woody Allen movie (“These pretzels are making me thirsty!”). Earlier in the episode, he helped out a friend whose job was to move other people’s cars from one side of the street to the other to comply with these regulations. That is actually a real job in New York.
My frame of reference is suburban living, but what I would expect is that the cost of parking would be embedded in the condo rental rate. Especially if the parking is a lower level of the same building - if it’s in a different location from the home then I do see that it would be a separate charge.
I can’t believe I’m the first to post this link to Louis CK’s show: Louie - Confusing Parking Signs [HD] - YouTube
I remember growing up in South Jersey we had switch cars to the opposite side of the street for the street cleaners. The thing was, a police car would come by before the street cleaner and announce over a loud speaker “Move your cars. Move your cars.” Seems they didn’t want people to get tickets.
Somehow I doubt this would happen today.
I live in suburban NJ and we also have street cleaning rules. You have to move your car for 2 hours on Mondays in my case. And sure the sweeper comes on Mondays but he comes at 6 am so the moving of the cars is useless but we have to do it anyway.
You are probably also assuming that an apartment building that has parking (whether it’s a rental, condo or co-op) has a parking space for each apartment. Not always the case in a city - in fact, plenty of them in NYC don’t have any parking at all.