Be careful where you park on Black Friday

Alternate side of the street regulations are in effect

November 20, 2013 By Paula Katinas Brooklyn Daily Eagle

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Have fun shopping on Black Friday, but be careful where you park your car!

That is the warning issued by the leaders of two southern Brooklyn community boards, who said the public needs to be reminded that alternate side of the street parking regulations will be in effect on Friday, Nov. 29.

You still have to feed the meters, too.

“The Friday after Thanksgiving in not a city holiday,” Community Board 10 District Manager Josephine Beckmann told board members at their meeting on Nov. 18.

Beckmann said that residents of Bay Ridge and Dyker Heights, the two neighborhoods the board serves, often mistakenly believe that alternate side rules are suspended not just on Thanksgiving Day itself, but for Friday, too.

“Each year we receive complaints from residents who do not move their vehicles for alternate side parking and are summonsed. Please spread the word,” Beckmann asked Board 10 members.

Alternate side regulations are suspended only on Thanksgiving, not the day after, under city parking rules.

Marnee Elias-Pavia, the district manager of Community Board 11 (Bensonhurst-Bath Beach) said she’s concerned about shoppers getting tickets for failing to put money in parking meters.

“People don’t realize that the meters are in effect on Black Friday. They park someplace without obeying the meter rules and they get a ticket,” Elias-Pavia told the Brooklyn Daily Eagle.

“People think that because it’s Black Friday, they don’t have to worry,” she added.

If Councilman David Greenfield had his way, motorists wouldn’t have to worry about it.

Last year, Greenfield (D-Borough Park-Midwood-Bensonhurst) introduced a pair of bills to that would exempt Black Friday from alternate-side parking and meter payment requirements.

The first bill introduced adds the Friday following Thanksgiving to the calendar of dates and holidays during which alternate side regulations are suspended. The second bill adds a paragraph to the city’s administrative code stating that drivers are not required to pay at parking meters or muni-meters on the Friday following Thanksgiving.

Black Friday is historically one of the highest volume days in New York City in terms of parking tickets issued, according to Greenfield.

The proposed legislation would benefit a wide segment of the city’s population, including car owners enjoying a day off work, shoppers taking advantage of deals at local stores and tourists visiting for the holiday, according to Greenfield.

“There is no valid reason Black Friday is not exempt from parking regulations. Aside from collecting revenue for the city – which is not the purpose of parking rules – it serves no purpose to force drivers to move their vehicles or feed meters the day after Thanksgiving. It is already widely celebrated as a long holiday weekend, so it is about time that the city’s parking codes are updated to reflect this,” Greenfield said.