Thousands of street parking spaces on Manhattan’s Upper East and Upper West sides will be removed as the city rolls out curbside trash containers that will move garbage bags off sidewalks.
A draft environmental assessment released this month estimates each neighborhood will lose about 1,500 parking spaces — roughly 10% of the area’s street parking — a larger share than any other neighborhood in the city.
The losses are part of a broader plan to install “Empire Bins” and remove nearly 30,000 parking spaces citywide by 2032.
The proposal has divided residents in neighborhoods where street parking is already scarce, Gothamist reported. About 23% of households on the Upper East and Upper West sides own a car, according to city data.
Upper West Side resident Ella Darling told the outlet she recently spent 45 minutes driving home from work in Hoboken, New Jersey, only to end up parking illegally after failing to find a spot.
“There’s not really any accessible parking for drivers, and it’s only getting worse as the city gets more popular,” she said, adding that she has paid as much as $60 for 30 minutes in a private garage.
The city’s environmental review estimated the average car-owning household on the Upper West Side would need to use a garage about 4.4 days per month because of the parking changes, at an additional cost of about $270 per month.
Under the plan, buildings with 31 or more units will automatically receive one or more curbside trash bins, while smaller buildings with 10 to 30 units can can request to join the program.
Sanitation officials say the initiative is about reclaiming public space, not taking parking away.
“We’re repurposing public space that has traditionally been used for parking so that we have clean streets and sidewalks,” Department of Sanitation spokesperson Vincent Gragnani said.
Councilmember Gale Brewer backed the plan despite the parking reduction, saying cleaner streets, fewer rats and less odor outweigh the inconvenience for drivers.
“It’s for a positive purpose,” Brewer said. “It’s not easy for drivers, but in this case, you have a public good in the parking space.”
The Department of Sanitation will hold a public hearing later this month on the proposal on July 28.