By Richard Miroe
Picture this: Should I use my car? And if I do and get back after 4 to 4:30 p.m., chances of finding a parking space anywhere near where I live are minimal! And yet, there are almost 1,400 feet of empty streets just beyond where the four apartment buildings end.
The street signs beyond the four apartment buildings read, “No Parking from 2 a.m. to 8 a.m.” This appears in many of the other eight out of the nine villages that comprise Great Neck. Now, here is the difference and this is where the rub is: Russell Gardens is unique. I’ll repeat—“unique,” the only one of the nine villages that has the “unique” mix of precode apartment buildings and private homes and “NO” provision for “municipal parking.” Three of the Russell Gardens apartment buildings are “precode.”
Precode means that before the 1960’s there was “No requirement for One Garage Space for each apartment.” In those days, especially prewar, far fewer people owned cars. Every one of the other eight villages either has no apartment buildings, e.g. Kings Point, University Gardens, Saddle Rock, etc., or those that do have apartment buildings either have postcode garages or “municipal” parking provisions, e.g. Great Neck Plaza, Village of Great Neck, Thomaston, etc.
So, there is the crux of the situation; the need to rectify this horrific problem of not being able to park within four blocks of our home and the subsequent walking during the heat of summer and cold of the winter at all hours—this applies to the elderly, young, mothers with babies or very young people.
Truly, we live under a curfew; home by 4:30 p.m. or suffer the consequences. A choice of seeing a movie, having dinner out, visiting a sick friend or simply coming home from work at 5 p.m. or later. The doctors and nurses who are doing their internships or residencies cannot afford their $50 ticket night after night. More than a few have been forced to move!
Mr. Mayor, trustees—do what’s right. Treat the four apartment buildings as the integral, heavily taxed-paying part and parcel of Russell Gardens that we are! For once, set aside that political thinking of “will this help my reelection?” Enough!
We all await your answer, Mayor Steven Kirschner!
