After more than five years of my presenting data to the Village of Great Neck Plaza, the village finally decided to address the problems of parking abuse, especially in the Gussack Plaza outdoor lot.
That lot is behind my store, Camp & Campus.
I have been in my present location since March of 2005 after being on Bond Street for 50 years. I personally observed on a daily basis the abuse that took place.
Employees and some merchants would park in the lot for the four-hour limit from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. or 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and then move their cars to a metered spot in the garage across the street for two hours.
That brought them to 3 p.m. or later where the garage was free from 3 p.m. on.
These people could have purchased a permit to park in the garage all day. However, the $90 dollars for three months was more expensive (although very reasonable) than the $1 in the lot and the fifty cents in the garage.
Sometimes, they simply fed the meter and stayed there for 8 hours, especially if they saw that the tires were not chalked that day.
With the change in the parking charge from 25 cents per hour to 25 cents for 30 minutes, this is no longer the case.
Also, and most importantly the problem is solved by the fact that the garage is no longer free from 3 p.m. but was changed to 5 p.m.
This would require the abusers to address their cars between 3 and 4 p.m. if they work to 6 p.m. which is when most of the stores close, except for the restaurants in town.
Between the additional cost and the need to attend to their cars an additional time, this would be enough incentive for them to get a permit and end the abuse in the lot.
Every parking spot that is used by an employee is one less spot that is available to many customers.
Each spot occupied by a consumer turns over at least three to six times a day. The lot is the busiest between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. during the lunch hour period.
Customers circle continuously hoping to park in a vacating spot. The abusers are taking up parking spaces during this period of time.
However, the Great Neck Plaza Board of Trustees is creating as many problems as they are solving in regards to the parking problems in the Village of Great Neck Plaza, the main shopping area for the entire Great Neck peninsula.
I personally did surveys of the parking abuse in the lot.
These surveys were presented to Mayor Jean Celender and other village employees. I went around the lot three times during the day: 10-11 a.m., 1-2 p.m. and 3-4; very often for seven consecutive days; I wrote down the spot number and the license plate of every car.
I was able to identify the cars that were there multiple times a week and for more hours than they should have been because they were feeding the meter.
The village hired a parking consultant to evaluate the parking problems at a cost of $3,500 to the taxpayers. The only need for having this consultant was so that the village could point to the fact that the changes were recommended by a consultant, thereby reducing the validity of objections.
The consultant spent three hours between about 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. on two consecutive Thursdays to form all its conclusions. He did not see parking patterns earlier in the morning and after 3 p.m.
He was not here on the weekends. Saturday is not a problem at all; but Sunday is actually the worst day of the week for abuse and is not dealt with nor solved by the changes to take into effect this week.
The consultant identified the same problems that I had identified and reported to the village for years; but his conclusions and suggestions did not consider all of their ramifications.
Common sense alone dictated what had to be done.
The actions previously mentioned should solve the problems caused by these inconsiderate individuals.
But the village has gone beyond that and thereby making it more difficult for some shoppers to patronize the Great Neck stores and restaurants.
The consultant said that the average shopper spends about an hour and a half in the village.
That means that some could spend only 20 minutes, but others could spend 2 ½ or 3 ½ hours.
If a customer comes into town and wants to have lunch and then go shopping and visit multiple stores, that can take more than two hours.
The number of times over the last 50 years that a customer has said to me “I am in a hurry. My meter is about to expire” is easily in the thousands.
Sixty-six of 95 parking spaces are being converted to a two-hour parking limit.
This is unnecessary because the person who only needs an hour is not staying longer any way.
What happens when the shopper who needs the extra time arrives at the lot and all of the 29 four-hour spaces are occupied?
She parks in a two-hour space.
In two hours, she might just leave town. She might feed the meter, thereby risking a summons.
Or she might move the car to another two-hour space. She might move to a four-hour space, thereby giving her a potential six-hour stay.
If she could do this, then the abusers could do this also. What is the solution? And what risk of a summons is she taking? Let us just chase away the customers. This was not the intent of the changes.
Supposedly, the changes were meant to make it easier for shoppers to park. This is not the case. The lot is being cleared by simply the change of the garage meters from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. and the reduction of the number of those meters from 24 to 12.
I have visions of many more customer complaints and in many cases of customers not coming back after they receive a summons for staying in my store or some other store or restaurant beyond their allotted time.
We have all been looking forward to the opening of the “Muse Paint Bar” in what was the former location of Bruce’s.
It has opened and is already very successful and has brought some new faces to the street and my store.
Yesterday, four women carrying their canvases came into Camp & Campus, looked around and indicated that they would be back.
While writing this, I walked over to the Muse Paint Bar and asked how long one of his events/parties lasts. The answer was 2 ½ hours just for the paint time.
The two-hour meter does not work for this new Great Neck business.
How about seeing the effects of the change in the garage hours and the change in the fees before changing the parking lot meter limits.
That should be enough to get the offending people to buy parking permits.
I mentioned the weekends. The garages are free on the weekends.
The Gussack lot is very often almost empty of cars with permits on Saturday.
Why? The abusers park in the garage. Why pay when it is free across the street.
But Sunday is a different story. The lot is also free.
Therefore, many people who normally park in the garage with their permits all of a sudden become lazy and park in the lot.
On most Sundays, I have seen up to 14 cars with permits in the lot all day. Those, in addition to people who have abused the lot during the week can bring the total number of cars that do not belong in the lot to 20 cars: 20 of 95. Ridiculous.
Remember that in 2015 in Great Neck, Sunday is what Saturday used to be for the previous 50 years.
Also, on Sundays I have seen as many as 12 cars with permits on Middle Neck Road from Cuttermill Road to Cedar Drive.
Plus, the cars of the people who take the LIRR to the city are on the streets and in the lots, thereby taking up parking spaces in the business district all day.
Another problem is the Maple Drive Garage. It has had four-hour meters on the first floor. These are being changed to two-hour meters with the need to pay until 5 p.m. instead of the original 3 p.m.
There are several negative impacts of this change. The parking lot on Maple Drive behind the Squire Theater and the Gold Coast Arts Center and across from the Maple Drive Garage is going to be closed shortly for months for a total renovation.
A two-hour limit clearly is not enough time to attend a movie matinée. People attend the movies from all over. We would like them to become patrons of the stores and restaurants also.
Also, we should be promoting the employment of our high school students. I have had students who start work between 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. and work until 6 p.m.
I have always recommended that they park in the Maple Drive Garage at a meter. If they came in before 3 p.m. or after 3 p.m. they were okay.
When they arrived after 3 p.m., then they parked anywhere in the garage.
Now that is impossible.
Either a four-hour meter or the 3 p.m. limit or both would be workable.
After years of my complaining to the village and documenting the problems of parking abuse by employees in the Gussack Lot, I would have preferred that they had done nothing then the changes that they are putting into effect.
Mark Wolf
Great Neck
