Parking Meters Getting A Rate Increase

Parking meters will soon cost an extra 25 cents an hour across the city, a change likely to impact shoppers in heavily-trafficked areas.

Currently, shopping at most meters in Queens is set at 25 cents for every 20 minutes of parking time, or 75 cents per hour.

As of Jan. 3, the Department of Transportation has announced on its website, parking in Queens will be 25 cents for every 15 minutes. That's one dollar for every hour across the borough.

So far, very little has been made of the announcement. No signage has been posted in Forest Hills to make shoppers or commuters aware of the switch, which is likely a reaction to steep budget cuts across the city.

D-Whitestone, was not happy about the change, or the quiet nature with which it's being handled.

"It's another example of the city socking it to the middle-class residents of Queens County," Stavisky said. "Of course it's going to hurt the businesses on Main Street and Austin Street….This is literally a nickel-and-diming operation."

Stavisky said she thought there should be easily-visible signage in metered areas, telling residents about the new parking rate. She called it a "sneak attack on the middle class."

We're being asked to bear an unfair proportion of these nuisance taxes," she added.

said the increase was a business-killing proposition.

"I expect this rate increase will hurt the businesses on Jamaica, Liberty, Myrtle, Metropolitan, Grand and Continental Avenues, Crossbay and Rockaway Boulevards, all lined with parking meters," Addabbo said. "It will also result in more parking tickets for residents and other consumers who, instead of boosting their local small businesses, will drive out of these areas to malls with parking lots to avoid such parking harassment."

Addabbo noted that after a similar rate increase in 2009, drivers were not warned of the increase with signage, and parking tickets increased.

"At a time when everyone feels their wallets can't take any more hits, does the city and DOT really want to punish small mom-and-pop shops and hurt local commercial strips already reeling across New York City?" Addabbo asked.

Forest Hills Chamber of Commerce President Leslie Brown said that many areas in Forest Hills are already unfairly targeted by ticket officers.

"Forest Hills is now targeted for parking tickets and is a problem," Brown said. "The DOT waits and watches to ticket our visitors' cars."  

Brown did advocate for proper signage, saying that the quarter-per-hour parking fee increase wouldn't result in more tickets as long as it was well advertised.

Representatives of the Department of Transportation did not answer any questions about how much signage, if any, would be posted to warn drivers of the rate increase at parking meters.