Downtown Brooklyn is already the city’s third-largest business district. With 4.5 million square feet of office space scheduled to be developed over the next decade it is only growing and parking promises to become an ever greater problem for businesses and residents. That’s why it makes no sense for a thoughtful proposal to improve the quality of life for auto-owning residents of Brooklyn to continue to be blocked by the City’s Department of Transportation.

Council Member David Yassky recently proposed a neighborhood parking permit system for Brooklyn Heights. It was applauded by many residents, and it boasts entrepreneurial aspects that should pique the interest of the city budget writers, especially in times of continued budget deficits.

Mr. Yassky is suggesting that paid parking permits be issued to the residents and businesses of the neighborhood. The permits will let them legally park on residential streets during the day. Visitors to the neighborhood for business or shopping would have only a limited time to legally park on the streets, for longer stays they would have to park at a meter or in a garage. There is reason to believe that this proposal would work both financially and practically.

The city’s first parking-space condos were sold in Park Slope 15 years ago; $34,000 bought about 130 square feet of cement, and buyers were responsible for a maintenance fee ($147 a month for each space). New Yorkers snatched up the 145 condos offered at a lot at the corner of Union Street and Seventh Avenue. One buyer even took out a mortgage so that he could park his car. The gap between supply and demand has only grown greater since. A study comparing Brooklyn Heights to Hoboken, Boston, Seattle, and Philadelphia, disclosed that Brooklyn Heights had the highest density of cars: 8,772 a square mile. That’s more than 1,200 cars more a square mile than the next city on the list, Hoboken.

It would seem that the need for some sort of residential parking program is obvious. But the New York City Department of Transportation has unwisely decided that because of the number of cars in the neighborhood, a residential parking program would lead residents to compete for parking spaces — although this already happens every day, in the mornings, after work, and on alternate-side-of-the-street days. The number of vehicles in a neighborhood is only one factor to consider for a neighborhood parking program. A more relevant question is how many of the cars on the street belong to the people who live there.

In Chicago, the city government does neighborhood surveys to answer this very question. If it finds more than onethird of the cars parked in a neighborhood belong to outsiders, it converts the neighborhood’s residential streets to permit parking. Signs are posted. Stickers are issued. And residents have a better chance of parking on the street they actually live on.

Permits are sold to Chicago residents for $25 a year, and they must must have current identification, plates, tags, and insurance. The program has the side effect of making money while working to increase the number of insured drivers. In Washington, D.C., a similar program allows residents to park in their neighborhood for $15 dollars a year. Many New Yorkers pay more than $300 a month to park their cars in privately owned garages. This is a rare opportunity for the City to gain a significant but voluntary new stream of revenue in exchange for the convenience of neighborhood parking.