My Life In Brooklyn

When we lived in Manhattan, it was on a Park block in the 80s, on the west side.  Having invested many, many years in that rent-stabilized apartment, my husband was suddenly facing a possible eviction, the landlord claiming his parents wished to move in.

Now the landlord’s parents would occasionally stop by the building with various trades people, I suppose discussing renovation plans.  He drove a large SUV, she was in a trendy green new (at the time) Beetle.  They lived in Manhattan Beach in Brooklyn.

Suddenly to our great joy, the parental interest in our apartment waned.  Much later, we learned the interest disintegrated when the parents discovered that, unlike Brooklyn, the regulation of buildings is a bit more strict in Manhattan.  As it turns out, the parents had attempted to obtain a variance in order to excavate a garage / parking space under our building (an 1800s era brownstone).  This was, of course, denied.

At the time I was appalled that they would even consider making the attempt at such a variance.  There was one such garage on W. 90th St, but that is the only one I can ever remember seeing.

But then I moved to Brooklyn.  I have to say I find the amount of people who have makeshift parking spaces in their front yards appalling.  Thank goodness for the historic districts.  But just take a walk around Parkside from Flatbush (east) and some of the other side streets outside the district and you will see what I mean.  I have even seen one on Ocean Avenue, on the park block.  It really looks trashy to see cars snugged up to buildings in that way.  On my walks I have taken a number of photos of this but will not post them for issues of privacy.

I would love to see people who are using their front yards this way forced to park on the street, that is where cars belong.  I just cannot imagine this is legal.  I do believe if you choose to live in a city, such as this, you must buy into the rules — and if you wish to have the convenience of a car, you must also deal with the parking related issues.  Rules are made for everyone, not everyone except you.

This entry was posted on Friday, September 22nd, 2006 at 10:56 am and is filed under Brooklyn, Daily Walk. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site. Your comments will be moderated but will appear as soon as humanly possible.