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SCHENECTADY
Parking permits a possibility for city
State would need to approve idea; Albany gets OK
BY KATHLEEN MOORE Gazette Reporter

    With Albany finally getting state permission to regulate parking, the Schenectady City Council may consider a residential parking system, too.
    Residents around Ellis Hospital have complained for years that workers fill their streets with cars, forcing them to park blocks away from home.
    Those who live near Union College say visitors park everywhere — even on their lawns — during football games, hockey matches and other popular events.
    Residents in both areas have asked for residential parking stickers, which would allow them to park there freely while others would be limited to a few hours a day.
    But until now, City Council members have said the idea is impractical because it would require state approval. They said the state Legislature would never pass a residential parking system.
    On Monday, the governor signed one into law for the residential blocks near the Capitol. Suddenly, the political calculus changed.
    “We could look at these types of things,” Council President Gary McCarthy said Tuesday. “Though I believe it took Albany 20 years. We’d hope it wouldn’t take that long.”
    He wants the council to discuss parking solutions for the entire city, including the Stockade, where narrow streets and densely fi lled apartment buildings make parking diffi cult.
    “We hopefully can work something out city-wide,” McCarthy said.
    Ellis and Union offi cials said they would work with the council. They have more than enough official parking, they said. But for those who don’t want to walk or take a shuttle bus, residential street parking is more convenient.
    “We have plenty of open and available parking on campus, especially after business hours, when most of our events like football and hockey games take place,” Union College spokesman Phillip Wajda said. “However, people are going to park where they fi nd it most convenient, so naturally there are some who choose to park on public city streets in the surrounding neighborhood.”
    At Ellis, it’s the employees who park on residential streets. They, too, have other options — there’s an employee lot five minutes away from the hospital.
    “We have a shuttle that runs morning and night, every seven minutes,” said hospital spokeswoman Donna Evans. “We have adequate resources for parking. We encourage them to be good neighbors.” ..............>>>>.................>>>>...................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r00900&AppName=1

Another example of the City's refusal to act and passing a problem onto the State. This is not a Citywide problem. Enforce the parking laws on a couple of blocks around Ellis and move on. Dragging Union College into this for a couple of footballs games is absurd.

     This is an example of "renaissance"? It's another example of a do nothing City Council that can't solve the simplest problems. Instead of focusing on cutting Stratton's record $13 million deficit they waste time on recycling and nonexistent parking concerns. The parking problem isn't Downtown. Plenty of empty taxpayer supported lots there-where business used to be.

I'm sure there will be a fee for this?

Quoted from 615

I'm sure there will be a fee for this?

Oh be real ... does Schenectady do ANYTHING without a fee involved?

lol

Of course there will be a fee. Like garbage, water or garage sales. Another absolute disgrace.

     For the Gazetto to print this on the front page of the local section says it all. They have no answer for Stratton's budget mess and refuse to get going on overdue layoffs. A Citywide parking fee is not an answer.

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EDITORIAL Yes, Schenectady should pursue parking permit bill

    It may have taken the state Legislature two decades to approve a parking permit system for downtown Albany’s residential neighborhoods, but the long delay was due to politics, not the intransigence of state lawmakers. Thus Schenectady officials now contemplating whether to make a similar request of the state shouldn’t assume it will take anywhere near as long. Indeed, they should develop a plan and get a home-rule bill presented for the coming session.
    Pure and simple, the reason state lawmakers dilly-dallied so long over the city’s request to limit parking to nonresidents around the Capitol and Empire State Plaza had everything to do with state workers. The politicians count on their unions for support at election time and didn’t want to alienate the workers by making it tougher on them to park near their workplaces. (Never mind that by letting them park all day long in residential neighborhoods, lawmakers were creating a nightmare for the people who actually live near downtown, not to mention merchants trying to make a living there.)
    Schenectady has a similar problem in the residential neighborhoods around Ellis Hospital: Employees would rather park there during the day and walk the block or two to work than use the employee lot on Hillside Avenue and wait for the free shuttle (which runs every seven minutes). And yes, there’s a big garage adjacent to the hospital, but it doesn’t have enough room for the hospital and the adjacent doctors offi ce building.
    The people living on Glenwood and Parkwood boulevards, and nearby streets, many of them in two-family homes, have been putting up with this problem for years. They deserve a break – well before the hospital’s new 130-space garage gets built a few years from now. A permit system that allowed only certain spaces along those streets to be occupied by nonresidents, or to restrict the length of time nonresidents’ cars could park, would provide that. .................>>>>....................>>>>..........................................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r02600&AppName=1

Schenectady does not have a similar parking problem. They wished thousands of cars were packing empty money losing Downtown lots.

     Put up no-parking signs on a couple of streets by Ellis Hospital and be done with it. How long are they going to debate this and not get onto real fiscal emergencies?  Union College is no problem. Instead of belt tightening expect more fee nonsense and smoke from City Hall "leaders".

More poor planning. They didn't see this as a potential problem? Adding more in-house patients, more er patients and more employees wasn't going to overburden the already overburdened parking lot?

Ellis hospital did the patients and the workers no favors by merging. There are horror stories that are coming out of that hospital. The parking issue is just a visual problem plaguing that hospital. The employees will NOT speak a word for fear of losing their jobs!!

Instead of making hard choices like closing Bellevue and making St Claires the new County Home-they choose to close nothing. Parking is not a problem. A couple of chronic complainers egged on by a pathetic City government eager to sell unneeded parking permits. Don't forget your garage sale permit and dog permit while at the City Jerk's for your parking permit.

     The Gazetto is on the wrong side-as always. This is another money grab the kind Mayor SOS is famous for. Should we cut his pay because his budget is $13 MILLION in the red? Re-elect who?