New UWS Parking System Installed in Dead of Night
With no advance warning, the Department of Transportation put up new signs on a Sunday night that alternate-side parking rules along a 13-block stretch on the UWS have been replaced by an app-controlled system that drastically cuts allowable parking times.
| 15 Aug 2025 | 03:35
Signs for a new app-controlled parking system went up in the dead of night on the UWS (76th Street and Columbus Avenue shown above). The new metering system abolishes the all-day parking allowed under the city’s traditional alternate-side-of-the-street parking rules. (
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A new app-controlled parking system has sprung up on 13 blocks on the UWS. It has some residents upset because it eliminated all-day parking under the traditional alternate-side-of-the-street parking rules that required vehicles to be moved on only two days. Now you can only park for three hours at a stretch. (
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Residents off Columbus Avenue went to sleep in rowhouses lining meterless streets on Sunday night, Aug. 10. But on Monday morning, they woke up to three-hour paid parking along those same blocks.
The stealth conversion involved a 13-block stretch between Central Park West and Columbus Avenue and from West 73rd to West 86th streets.
“Why are they doing this, finally, under the cover of darkness?” asked Ken Frydman, who lives off Columbus. “We should have known about this already, the people living in my building.”
Frydman supports the city’s generating revenue from property that it owns, but he is wary of the secrecy behind the paid parking implementation.
“[Mayor] Adams beat his chest about bike lanes, right? Why aren’t they beating their chest about paid parking?” Frydman asked.
According to NYC’s Department of Transportation (DOT), Sunday night’s stealthy implementation was actually part of a two-year project. DOT launched its “Smart Curbs” program back in October 2024, with the intent of better utilizing curb space for the Upper West Side community.
The press release elaborates on this, saying that demand for curb space in the city is increasing, “from trash collection and bike lanes to truck loading and parking.” The initiative, which is planned in two phases, is meant to modernize the city streets while addressing community needs. Installing this week’s new paid parking is part of phase one, and the meters are controlled via the ParkNYC app.
Under the old regulations, car owners could park all day and night except for the mandated one and a half hours on two days when street sweeping was supposed to take place. The updated time frame is limited to three hours, Monday through Thursday, between 8am and 10pm. Some are not pleased with this regulated time range, including Frydman, who says people should stop having to feed the digital meters much earlier. He suggests a 6pm cutoff time.
Community Board 7, which represents the Upper West Side and often has an advisory say on land use and parking, was left relatively surprised, too. “They didn’t provide a ton of notice,” said Max Vandervliet, the district manager of CB7, referring to their communication with the DOT.
Vandervliet and the rest of CB7 are planning various ways to disseminate this information. He told Straus News that Upper West Siders can expect a full board meeting, cabinet meeting, a newsletter, among other methods of explaining the shift in parking.
But even if the paid parking is intended to help the Upper West Side community, the way it was executed has sparked questions.
“My guess is that they wanted it to block the angry hordes who were taking up parking spaces uptown in order to avoid the tolls,” said Frydman, referring to congestion pricing, which charges most vehicles $9 to enter streets below 60th Street during the 5am-to-9pm time slot, seven days a week. “And that’s probably the scenario that took place, and that’s why we don’t know about it.”
The press team for Council Member Gale Brewer, Upper West Side’s District 6, did not reply by press time.
“Why are they doing this, finally, under the cover of darkness? We should have known about this already.” — UWS resident Ken Frydman