I live in New York City. And in New York City, parking spaces are like gold. Fighting over public street parking is a nightmare, and garages are incredibly expensive. People regularly pay hundreds of thousands of dollars—the equivalent of very nice homes in other parts of the country—for single parking spots in New York.
For the longest time, I made do with street parking, electing to battle it out in my Lower East Side neighborhood amongst a sea of Lexus GXs, Toyota Siennas, and Honda Passports, each more dented up than the last. But around summertime last year, I managed to score a great deal on a space in an open-air parking lot just two subway stops away from my home, in downtown Brooklyn. For $99 a month, I could keep my car on one of the lot’s stackers, without having to worry about moving it for street cleaning or it getting broken into.
Stackers, by the way, are these things:
For people who have never lived in NYC, $99 a month for a single parking spot must sound like highway robbery. But people who have lived here will know it’s an absolute steal. In truth, I was able to snag a special “storage” rate online through the company’s web portal, which was really designed for cars that rarely ever left the lot. Normally, monthly spots at this place run around $400. The only downside to the storage rate is that you pay $15 every time you want to take the car out.
Seeing as how I don’t drive to work, this was a great deal for me. Even if I took my car out every weekend, I’d only end up paying $159 per month. So I’ve been keeping my Miata there ever since, where it’s lived a relatively comfortable life (for a New York City car, anyway). The lot increased my monthly rate to $125 back in July, which sucked, but I didn’t consider leaving, since $125 per month is still a wild price for downtown Brooklyn. Even the company representative admitted I was getting a deal:
Source: My email
Then, yesterday, I got some terrible news: The parking lot would be closing permanently. The last day of operations for the place is November 30th, which means I have just 60 days left to bask in the convenience before having to vacate forever.
Part of me hoped I’d be able to keep my treasured monthly spot forever, though deep down, I knew it’d be ripped away sooner or later. Truthfully, I expected something more dramatic, like a phone call from a disgruntled manager who realized I’d been gaming the system. I didn’t think it’d be because the entire lot would just shut down.
Before you suggest I try and plead my case to Edison ParkFast to transfer my monthly account to one of the nearby lots mentioned in the screenshot above, don’t bother. I already tried that. A representative for the company told me over the phone that they wouldn’t be honoring any of the current monthly customers’ pricing. If I wanted to move to a nearby lot, I’d have to pay the advertised monthly pricing ($450 per month, at the time of this writing).
I don’t want to pay $450 a month for a parking spot, obviously. With every other lot in the immediate vicinity priced around $300 a month or more, it seems my Miata is destined for a life back on the streets, right as the salt trucks prepare to hit the road for winter. Pray for it.
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I have an 2 story apartment with a private garage under my unit and pay $20 extra a month for an unassigned parking space in my complex which I considered a bargain. The most I’ve ever seen a place charge for parking at an apartment complex is $75 a month but I’m in Dallas so our cost of living is pennies compared to New York not to mention the abundance of space. I lived in a condo for the past 3 years that only had street parking. My brand new Tundra got hit 3 different times and once by the US Postal Service van (you should write a story on trying to recover damages from the USPS Federal Government). I don’t wish street parking on any fellow car enthusiasts 🙁
How does your car get off one of these “stackers”. Also, my rent in college was less than $450 a month. I can’t imagine paying that much for a parking spot. NYC is wild.
Reminds me of this from Seinfeld:
Attendant: “What can I tell you buddy. Take it up with Consumer Affairs.”
George:. “All right , just give me my car and let me get the hell out of here.”
Attendant: “Well that’s going to be a problem”
George: “Why?”
Attendant: “It’s all the way in the back. Can’t get it out for a couple of days.”
George: “What are you talking about.. I WANT MY CAR!!”
Attendant: “We ask that you please bear with us.”
George: “Bear with you! This is a parking lot PEOPLE ARE SUPPOSED TO BE ABLE TO GET
THEIR CARS!!!”
Attendant: “Ideally..”
Seinfeld has a situation for everything!
My hat is off to you you Brian. I’m a car guy but no way would I ever bother with owning one in NYC. The stories about the hassles are incredible, from getting stolen, vandalized, parking battles plus the astronomical expenses just to keep one around. Do you know if people vehicle share? 4 or 5 people splitting expenses on an old Buick might be the way to go.
I will never understand why anyone would choose to live in an environment like that. Paying a whole lot more to live like a sardine makes no sense to me. Almost everything people that live in a big city say they want are available in more reasonably-sized cities. And for the record I’ve lived in a massive city like NYC and spent time in many others.
To each their own. While I do own a car, I find city living without a car a perfectly valid proposal. What I could never endure is living in a city that would be unlivable without a car, like L.A. or Houston. Needing a car is fine, but if I need one in a city then cityplanning has gone wrong at some point.
Ugh, I feel your pain. In DC, monthly spaces are typically $300ish a month and permanent spaces regularly sell for 40-70K.
Thanks for the perpective! I pay $250 a year for two indoor parking spaces, right in the centre of Copenhagen, DK, and I was beginnimg to think it was a bit much.. 🙂
$450/month just for parking closeby … wow.
But having been to NYC, I’m not surprised.
Looks like if you want a space that is close, you’ll have to pay.
Or you’ll just have to park farther away to get a reasonable rate.
Or put up with the hassle of the finding free street parking.
Sorry to hear this. Poor Miata. I spent the first 25 years of my life in NYC and didn’t think I could ever live anyplace else. Now I’ve been in LA for 30 years, and am pretty comfortable here, and have a bit more elbow room for my three cars and one motorcycle, all of which are parked in/on my property. Plus, I never have to shovel snow anymore which is good because I can’t (bad back). I even have one of my neighbor’s cars parked on my property (at no charge/as a favor). And I could probably squeeze in one or two more if I had to.
My NA Miata is a bit ratty despite its lowish miles (about 85K) as anyone who saw it at either of the two Autopian GTGs at Galpin in Van Nuys can attest. But it’s still the only one of my cars that’s fully garaged.
It would be so hard to be a car enthusiast in New York City. My A1 GTI was broken into three times when I lived there… I just got used to driving around without a radio eventually. 🙁 And this was back when WLIR and WDRE were still on the air, so no radio was an actual hardship.
Is that your actual Miata in the top photo with the googly eyes? That’s a fantastic color blue… it’s a special edition maybe? What year. Mine’s black and I’d rather it were most any other color, but I’d kill for that blue. 🙂
After living in San Francisco for 6 years and dealing with parking, traffic, parking tickets, etc – I got rid of my vehicle altogether.
I had no car at all for 14 years – and no driver’s license at all for much of that time.
It was like giving myself a raise at zero loss. Because busses, subways, taxis, Ubers, walking and grocery deliveries.
There’s no reason anyone who lives in Manhattan should waste their money on a car.
Much less someone in the auto-blogging industry who can call up and get a presser to write a review when they need to make a road trip.
I didn’t even have to get past the headline to know that $125 for a parking spot in Manhattan or most of Brooklyn is a super ganga deal!
Glad that I live in a big enough city to have big city conveniences, but still have a driveway that holds 4 cars. And a garage that is measured as “two and a half cars” but really holds a plethora of large appliances and tools as far as the eye can see but not a single car in there.
Even though I didn’t buy it at Ikea (I got it at Menards), the refrigerator in that garage is thusly named Gröjfridge. Now I just need to get me a flat-pack Gröjcouch to have a nice wide area for seating in there.
NYC and Brooklyn are amazing places for sure, so much to do and see and just incredible!!
But for a car enthusiast? To each his own of course but Brian’s bio shows he buys rusty project cars & has 2 dailys. Where do you work on the project cars and store tools and tires etc for the track days you participate in?
I feel your pain, man.
I currently pay $100/mo for every extra spot I occupy in the parking garage below my condo bldg on the westside of Los Angeles. This is a great deal since garage rentals can be $4-500/mo here $250-300 for spots inside large parking structures. My condo’s HOA can take away these spots whenever they decide they want them for another use.
Variously over the years, I’ve spent anywhere from $75/mo for an outdoor space at a storage facility in Philadelphia, $150/mo for a private garage in Orange County, CA, $250/mo for a space inside a residential building in Boston, and $250/mo for a spot inside a WeWork-type place in LA.
It sucks to have to pay to just keep cars around. But it’s still better than the alternative to me, moving to the suburbs (for now at least!).
Daaang. $125 a month in *Philadelphia* would be a steal, for New York I don’t know how it ever happened.
I pay $80/mo for a spot in Ann Arbor. $125 in Manhattan is insane.
For a non-New Yorker, with street parking freely available in front of my door, measuring how far you park in subway stations is insane
I dunno man, if you’re actually using the car every weekend, that’s one thing, but if you’re not, it’s probably a better deal to just rent a car when you need one, if you factor in time, insurance, and maintenance.
Need? A Miata?
“I guess I better go get the car for my Ikea and Costco run.”
Haha right. Flat Pack indeed.
I feel you Brian. I did the twice a week alternate side dance for decades. Never had a car that had a clean bumper. You know what I mean.
You’re in Manhattan which is tough but if you’re already in Brooklyn look into homeowners with unused driveways. I was able to snag a $80/month spot but this was over 10 years ago. You’ll have to widen the radius though. Think Bay Ridge, Sunset Park or Bensonhurst. They are out there. But you’re looking at an extra half hour ride on the subway.
I had a friend paying $5000 / month for a an indoor garage spot in Manhattan around 2005.
My head almost exploded.
$5k/month? Where in Manhattan? I used to park my car monthly in Midtown and it was in the hundreds.
I have no idea about NY geography, but he was a foreign grad student from a very wealthy family driving a new Lexus LS at the time. His tastes leaned more towards fancy than hip.
I had a friend in ’16 paying as much for her car space and apartment (a sixth floor walkup, in alphabet city, where her “room” was an alcove off of the “living room” which in itself was half the size of my bedroom) every month as I was for nearly half a years rent outside of Baltimore. I put a dent in the floor when my jaw hit it.
I don’t understand why people want to live in NY…
I’m assuming you mean NYC, since there’s a lot of other area in the state.
Regardless, I do. It’s not for me, but there’s a reason so many people live there and continue to do so. Many of them probably don’t own a car.
Because there’s stuff to do anytime you want to do it. And anything you want to eat that you can think of, you can get within an hour. I’ve lived in NYC and the ‘burbs. People in NYC say the same thing about living outside of a city, they dont understand why anyone would want to live outside in the middle of nowhere.
Yeah NYC, not the state in general. I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with it, I just don’t understand it at all personally. Biggest city I ever lived in was Phoenix, which is a totally different type of big city to be fair, but I wasn’t a fan of the general concept at all.
Different strokes for different folks. It’s the cultural capitol of the US, distinctly American, and easily one of the top three most important cities in the world. That said, I used to live there and I moved away, so it’s not for everybody, including me. The west coast is much more my jam.
“Different strokes…” yeah, that’s true enough. But the argument that NYC is the cultural capital of the world only seems relevant to me if you participate in the drivers of that culture: finance, entertainment, news, big bidnezz, and so on. I’m sure there are other categories where being in “the City” matters.
But there are so many more people there than are accounted for by the above. Why? It just seems like an exercise in Sysiphean misery and expense, day in and day out. Even the excuse of “I was born here” only holds water until one is able to get out.
The rest of the…well, US is as far as I’m willing to stand and speak for…is left grumbling by this attitude, about the “tyranny of the left coast.” And the Left Coast then gets to grumble about the tyranny of “the City.” Because what would be a local story anywhere else makes the national news if it happens in NYC. “Cars are being broken into!” Gasp, we all yawn.
Oops! Sorry. I meant “the tyranny of the East Coast.” I live in California, near Sacramento, so the other phrase is one I hear often and just reached for automatically.
Living in a big city can be an amazing experience or a terrible one. It just depends on what you want out of life. The same goes for living in the suburbs or in a rural area. If you are able to stretch those empathy skills a little and consider what others might find important about life and how it differs from what you find important, you might be able to start seeing why/how people can enjoy living a life that is different than yours. 😉
It’s all about personal preferences and what you value. NYC is convenient, bustling, full of culture, exciting and alive in its own unique way. For me it’s people from all different walks of life and cultures you get to meet and learn about. It’s also grimy in places, crowded and expensive. But as with everything you weigh the pros and cons. For me the pros outweighed the cons.
Living in the suburbs and rural areas have advantages too, it’s more idyllic, quiet and the pace of life is slower and more manageable. It’s also a bit boring and the tendency in the communities I’ve been part of tends to be insular and a bit narrow minded. You’re kind of restricted in variety and you’re around the same people a lot so I get the echo chamber effect. I deal with it almost daily when I go pick up my kids from school. But this leads to ignorance, there’s another thread in this post that just makes a blanket statement about NYC being hell. It’s a bit sad to see that especially on the Autopian and I doubt if the people who feel that way have even lived in NYC.
“I don’t understand why people want to live in NY…”
I do. The kind of person who wants to live in NYC is the kind of person that likes the action of a city, likes to go out to a variety of bars, nightclubs, live shows, museums, concerts, festivals and other events.
It’s the kind of person who likes to have a variety of restaurant options at their doorstep.
It’s the kind of person who likes to interact with all sorts of people from different walks of life and different cultures.
Living in the city is also for someone who finds the suburbs to be boring wastelands.
I’m that kind of person and that’s why I live in Toronto.
And Toronto is kind of like NYC, but about 1/2 of the size in terms of land area, just over 1/3 the size in terms of population and just over 1/3 of NYC’s population density.
I visited NYC a few times and loved it and will go again at some point in the future after US voters eventually do the right thing and vote Trump and the MAGA gang out of office.
T O is fantastic. As Peter Ustinov once said, “it is like New York City run by the Swiss.”
I live in the States, but have been visiting Toronto for 25 years. I always said “Toronto is New York without the drama”. I like them both (was IN NYC in Dec. in fact), but I can get a street parking space in Toronto with ease, and I can stay at the dorms the university rents out in the summer for $99/day (try finding a place in NYC that you can stay downtow for that!). Toronto has a vibrant arts scene, as well as great restaurants and bars and shopping, so justification to going to NYC is hard, But I wiuld stlll go back, cause it is a unique experience.
I can completely understand it.
I also completely know it’s not for me.
Too many tradeoffs for the things I know bring me pleasure (dogs, cars, off-leash walks through the woods, easy parking…). I have a big city less than an hour away by car or public transit and rarely take advantage of it.
I’m sure most of the people are perfectly fine, there are just too many of them for my liking.
This story was as foreign to me as reading a recipe about how to cook kangaroo.
Everything about that city just seems to be a drain on a car enthusiast’s soul.
Kangaroo Mini Roast with Red Currant Gravy
What you’ll need
550g K-Roo Herb & Garlic mini roast
¼ cup tablespoons olive oil
1 garlic clove, crushed
2 teaspoons fresh rosemary, chopped
250ml red wine
1 beef stock cube
1 tablespoon grainy mustard
⅓ cup redcurrant jelly
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
2 teaspoons cornflour
Salt flakes and freshly ground black pepper
To serve
Roasted vegetables and broccoli
Nutrition information
Fats: 15.2g (2.6g saturated)
Calories: 339
How to cook it