Mayor Proposes Permit Plan To Allow Parking Restrictions

Mayor Bloomberg is proposing a "residential parking permit program" that would restrict parking spots to neighborhood residents during certain hours. Drivers who did not display neighborhood-specific permits would be ticketed.

If approved by the City Council, the program would allow local community boards to designate their neighborhoods as restricted parking areas. Some see the parking program as a way to appease critics of Mr. Bloomberg's congestion-pricing proposal, which would have drivers paying $8 to enter Manhattan below 60th Street. Residents of boroughs outside Manhattan have expressed concern that if congestion pricing were to pass, their streets would become congested with drivers looking for a parking space before traveling into the city on public transportation.

With less than three weeks to go before a deadline that would disqualify the city from $354 million in federal funds for the traffic plan, Mr. Bloomberg has been actively courting lawmakers in neighborhoods that could be affected and whose support is pivotal in the upcoming votes in the City Council and Albany.

Council Member David Weprin, who represents parts of Queens and is an opponent of congestion pricing, said the parking program would do little to help the congestion legislation pass.

"It may be able to affect one or two members," Mr. Weprin said of his fellow lawmakers. "But overall I think the major opponents will still stay the same."