UPDATED: Parking Craziness, Roosevelt Island Is Overloaded with Cars

About the parking craziness, one resident said, “I had never seen that plaza’s surface completely covered by parked cars.” She was talking about a small plaza tucked between buildings at Manhattan Park. Over the years, Roosevelt Island went from discouraging cars to fertilizing them.

By David Stone

The Roosevelt Island Daily

RIOC, seldom an agency known for setting good examples, sometimes does worse. A few days later, they jammed the No Parking area at 591 Main Street with prohibited vehicles and an unauthorized dumpster.

A “No Parking No Standing” sign is blocked by the van. But if you’re RIOC, the rules are not the same as for everyone else.

“On a hot day I cannot use those benches to enjoy the shady breeze that normally flows up there,” our reader added. “And I am furious about it.”

The area features broad steps down to the promenade and the East River. Almost no one sits there anymore, and fewer children play on the Z-bricks below.

Once performance space, a Manhattan Park Plaza became an improvised parking lot. Landscaping is a thing of the past.

Parking Craziness, Roosevelt Island

Emerging as New York’s “City of Tomorrow,” Roosevelt Island was born resolutely anti-car. Set apart from city congestion, brick streets and restricted parking discouraged four-wheelers rumbling across the bridge from Queens.

But cars are an American Disease, displayed at its worst in New York City. An insidious strain eventually infected the narrow strip of rock in the East River.

The sign says, “Police Cars Only.” But although directly across the street from PSD headquarters, only one in three match that description.

With parking at a premium, the otherwise invisible Public Safety Department claims three prime spaces. One is reserved for the Chief’s personal car.

It may not seem like much, at first glance, but it contributes to the overall parking craziness.

Tucked in the plaza adjacent to Blackwell House.

Odd choice for parking when the New York State Shelton J. Haynes Parking Area, across the street, is normally half-full.

RIOC pickup almost obscures the “NO PARKING STOPPING STANDING ANY TIME” sign at 591 Main Street.

Is it fair for RIOC, a consistent violator, to ticket other offenders? In April alone, the state agency handed out 754 parking violations for other than their own cars and trucks.

How do you spell “elites?”

A Red Bus weaves between illegal and double parkers on Main Street.

Roosevelt Island committed to car culture with lots of free parking, starting in the ’90s. Main Street deteriorates without plans for saving unique Z-bricks while the state converts Southpoint into Brooklyn Bridge Park North.

Because it’s now meant for tourists over residents, more cars will stream onto already overcrowded streets. But where will they park?

Not to be left out, RIOC contributes to the parking craziness with illegal parking blocking one of two lanes. It’s not unusual, and no tickets expected.

Related…

But the most recent contribution to parking craziness on Roosevelt Island takes the grand prize.

The official New York State Shelton J. Haynes Parking Area, July 15th, 2021. The enormous gas guzzler is Haynes’s ride to work, usually solo or with no more than a single passenger.

RIOC shoved locals aside, demanding four prime parking spots for Haynes and his “guests.” The maneuver kept the president/CEO from walking more than 100 feet in public while a second spot is set aside for him along the East Promenade.

As you can see here, the prime parking spaces are usually no more than half-full while mere residents scramble for spots wherever they can find them.

Haynes predecessors usually used mass transit or parked in Motorgate, but the president prefers his own giant gas guzzler.

Climate change increases the risk of devastating weather for Roosevelt Island, but the Island’s supposed leader fails to set a conscientious example. He chooses instead an elaborate salute to local car parking craziness.

Again.

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