Some Bronx car owners forced to sleep in vehicles while waiting for scarce street parking spots: ‘It’s a parking war’
It’s so hard to find parking in one Bronx neighborhood that some residents say they sleep in their cars overnight, double parked, waiting for an elusive spot.
“It’s a parking war,” said Sandy Blackwell as she pulled her SUV into a space on University Ave. near W. 195th St. in Kingsbridge Heights last Tuesday afternoon, minutes after a city street sweeper made its weekly run along the west side of the street.
“Everybody got a car,” said Blackwell, 61, who’s lived in the neighborhood for 18 years. “I’ve slept in my car to wait for a spot. That’s why I’m out here grabbing this one.”
Blackwell said parking struggles are nothing new for the neighborhood — but said she’s noticed more people in her community buying cars recently. That’s left Kingsbridge Heights with more car owners than the dense, working class neighborhood was designed to handle.
“It used to be a luxury to get a car,” Blackwell explained. “Now it’s no money down, no interest. Anybody can get one.”
David Gonzalez, 29, who lives on Webb Ave. north of W. 197th St., said he needs to be home before 5 p.m. to score a spot on his block. Any later than that, and he’ll be forced to wait for hours.
“I’ve camped out in my car all night before when I’ve got here after 7 p.m.,” said Gonzalez. “If you come late, you’re just not going to find parking.”
State data shows about 2.2 million vehicles are registered in New York City, including about 300,000 in the Bronx. Those figures appear to have held steady in the last few years.
But Kingsbridge Heights’ parking battles are apparent in city data, which show the ZIP code covering the neighborhood registered at least 936 complaints to 311 for illegal parking so far in March, the most of any in the city.
The area has seen 2,606 parking complaints so far this year — up from 848 during the same period of 2021.
Kingsbridge Heights isn’t a public transit desert — but it isn’t easily accessible either. It’s about a 10-minute walk from the Kingsbridge Road station on the No. 4 line, which does not have an elevator.
The number of residents in the neighborhood who own cars is most apparent on Tuesdays and Wednesdays during alternate side parking hours. As in other city neighborhoods, car owners often double park while the street sweepers roll by.
But in Kingsbridge Heights, entire blocks are lined with double parked cars on alternate side parking days — and many residents follow the street sweepers in a parade-like procession and make a mad dash for spots after the sweeper passes their block.
Luis Carrero, who’s lived in the neighborhood for 40 years, did the parking dance with his Chrysler minivan on Wednesday, double-parking it on Webb Ave. at 11:30 a.m. and moving it back to a legal spot just before 1 p.m., when alternate side parking ends.
Carrero, 75, noticed the street sweeper never passed his block, and trash and dirt still littered the ground.
“Sometimes it can’t make it through the neighborhood,” said Carrero. “You have to park early after it passes. Sometimes I wait for hours to find a spot. Years ago, it was easy. Now some families have three or four cars, all on the street.”
Gustavo Lopez, 47, a building superintendent on Carrero’s block, said the city should address the problem by making it harder to own a car in the neighborhood.
“The only way to fix this is if they make alternate side parking two days a week on each side of the street,” said Lopez. “They should add speed bumps on the streets. It would be hard for the people who live here, but I don’t know what else they can do.”
A lack of enforcement isn’t the problem. Neighborhood residents said they regularly get ticketed, like Inari, 29, who declined to provide her last name after her boyfriend’s car got ticketed when he forgot to move it for alternate side parking on Wednesday.
“This block is terrible, but I know the routine,” she said. “From 5 p.m. it’s a rush to get spots. I got back at 8 p.m. one time, I was just sitting in my car for two hours, waiting.”
