Roosevelt Island Riverwalk Parking Problems Exacerbated By Goldwater Hospital's Decision To Prohibit Weekend Parking On Adjacent Street And Lot

Empty Weekend Street On Queens Side Of Coler

Some Southtown residents living in Roosevelt Island's Riverwalk buildings are not very happy with the lack of parking spaces close to their apartments. They complain of very few street parking spots and being too far from the Motorgate Parking garage for it to be convenient.

As a result, they have been parking on the Queens side street adjacent to Goldwater Hospital on weekends, when the street is nearly empty of employees and visitors, but have recently been advised of a decision by Goldwater to prohibit weekend parking on the that side of their facility.

Last Sunday afternoon, I took a walk over to Goldwater Hospital and found the street parking nearly empty except for one lone person fishing,

and the parking lots empty as well.


A Riverwalk resident sent a message to RIRA President Frank Farance, myself and the Main Street WIRE regarding parking problems in Southtown, particularly those caused by the recent decision of Goldwater Hospital to prohibit weekend parking on the Queens side of their facility. Below is the message.

Dear Mr. Farance

I, like many residents of Southtown, keep my automobile in the Motorgate parking garage. However, on weekends, when we often use the car for several trips, I have frequently parked it on the street near Goldwater Hospital, on the Queens side. If I lived in the WIRE buildings or in Manhattan Park, I would not have a problem parking in Motorgate in between such trips, but it is a different story when you live at Southtown‘s southern end. Our distance from Motorgate is such that it takes at least 18 minutes to park there and walk back, whereas it takes just 6 minutes to park at Goldwater and walk back. As is true in general on Main Street, it is very difficult to find parking on the street near our buildings; longer-term parking, such as overnight on Saturday, is out of the question with the metering system.

Until recently, parking near Goldwater was prohibited Monday through Friday, but permissible on the weekends. My guess is that it has been that way for 30 years. On Sunday, September 6, however, I noticed that the all signs were changed and parking was now for authorized vehicles only, Tow Away Zone. The signs state that the Authority agency is RIOC.

The question is, why was this change made? What authorized vehicles need to park there? I can only guess as to what lurks in the mind of RIOC (if there is such as thing as a mind of RIOC) or, more likely, the hospital administration, which may still have influence over street parking there despite having abandoned their security huts. Here are some possibilities I came up with:

1. Hospital employees and visitors need to have priority for parking. While this may be true near the principal entrance of the hospital on the Manhattan side, which is often parked up, there are easily 100 available parking spots in the hospital parking lots on the Queens side of the building. On weekends, perhaps 5-10 of these are occupied. Conclusion: there is plenty of parking on weekends.

2. The signs were put up to discourage non-residents who drive to the Island to fish, barbecue, picnic and enjoy the river view. This is absurd as well; those visitors stay very close to their parked cars. If Public Safety officers show up to ticket the car, the owners will be at their vehicles in seconds – saying that they were standing, not parking. However, there will be law abiding citizens, I’m sure. On Labor Day, I saw a group of perhaps a half-dozen Hasidic Jewish families enjoying a barbecue. As God-fearing citizens, they obeyed the signs and did not park their cars on the street. Indeed, I saw six minivans parked side by side in the nearby Goldwater parking lot! It is ironic that the result of the new parking restriction will be to encourage visitors to park in the hospital lots.

3. The signs were put up to cut down on traffic around the hospital for the safety of the wheelchair-using patients. This again is a specious argument, because the vast majority of the traffic is due to buses, employees, hospital visitors, and picnickers/fishermen, and the parking restrictions will not change the situation significantly. Moreover, because we residents are mindful of the fact that there are many wheelchair users in the vicinity, we drive carefully. The occasional visitors present much more of a problem in this regard. In addition, the roadway is wide in this area, so there is plenty of room for delivery trucks, busses and wheelchairs, for that matter.

4. People are taking advantage of the situation and parking at Goldwater for extended periods for free. I think it is perfectly legitimate and desirable for RIOC to prohibit parking on weekdays to prevent residents from parking there permanently. Public Safety should ticket the cars of those who do.

Finally, the parking restrictions do not simply create an unnecessary inconvenience for the residents who park there each weekend to save time, they add to the traffic on Main Street. Most of the time, when we take our autos from Motorgate, we drive back to our buildings to pick up our children and our parcels before heading off the island. If we can park nearby between trips, we will not need to disturb our neighbors in the WIRE buildings by constantly driving back and forth.

In summary, we in Southtown demand that the recently imposed parking restrictions on the Queens side of Goldwater Hospital be rescinded. Parking availability will only get worse in Southtown when the two new buildings are fully occupied. This is especially important, because RIOC did not grant permission for Hudson/Related to build the parking garage they requested for their buildings, unlike that granted to the Octagon’s developer. Moreover, there is a gravel lot near Lighthouse Park that residents and visitors on the North end of the island use on weekends. It is clearly discriminatory that the situation should it be different at our end of the island.

In response, RIOC President Steve Shane replied:

The signs were a replacement of the old faded signs which, at the request of hospital personnel, state "no parking except for authorized vehicles". Since the perimeter streets are under RIOC's jurisdiction, necessary for the signs to be posted by RIOC. The hospital is concerned with availability of parking for staff and visitors. A joint meeting produced the instant signs.

Anyone who parks there, weekends or otherwise, does so at their own risk.

I followed up with this:

I am told that the parking spots on the Queens side of the Hospital are not usually used by Hospital staff or visitors on weekends which is why some from Southtown have been able to park there.

As to anyone parking there "at their own risk" - what does that mean? Will RIOC ticket these cars? Since this area is not part of RIOC's jurisdiction, is Public Safety authorized to do so?

Mr. Shane replied:

Yes, rioc can issue tickets wherever it is unlawful to park.

In an effort to be a good neighbor, Goldwater Hospital might want to reconsider their decision to ban Roosevelt Islanders from parking on their adjacent street and/or parking lot on weekends when they are empty.


Above, Queens Side Coler Street And Lot Empty Of Parking On Weekends, but below

crowded with employees and visitors during the week.