Questions

1. How many parking lots (and spaces) are there (now)?
There are approximately 8,743 spaces, including 7,516 parking spaces in 19 public parking lots and garages in the Yankee Stadium area and approximately 1,227 on-street spaces within a half mile radius of the Bronx Terminal Market. Of these, 5,575 spaces in six surface parking lots and two garages are being renovated for the new stadium. (This does not include numerous other area garages and lots, for example, some game-goers park in our building’s garage, and some park in the Concourse Plaza Shopping Center’s lot.) There are 3,616 spaces in two garages known as sites 3 and 8, and 1,959 spaces on surface lots at sites 7, 10, 13A, 13B, 13C and 15. Lot 13C is being reduced by 6 spaces as part of the renovations.

The parking capacity of these is as follows:

2. Where are they?

3. How many more spaces are they going to add?
3,610 new spaces will be built (reduced on August 30, 2007, from 4,735 when ESDC eliminated plans for a Garage D [planned on the site of a surface parking lot on 151^st St. bet. River & Gerard to have 949 spaces] and reducing the size of Garage B by 176 spaces)

These will be housed in

Garage A – 1,700 spaces

Garage B – 790

Garage C – 1,120

In addition, the 252 spaces on Site D will be replaced by a retail building with its own “ancillary” parking. We can assume that about 200 spaces will be lost if and when the retail is built. In addition, Lot 1 (412 spaces) will be replaced by Garage C, Lot 2 (91 spaces) will be replaced by the new stadium, and Lot 14 (231 spaces) will be placed by Garage A. Factoring these 934 subtractions in, the next increase in parking spaces is 2,676,

4. How much will parking cost?
As much as motorists are willing to pay, but not less than is enough to repay the loan taken out to build and renovate these lots and garages and to provide profit for the Standard Parking Corporation. Parking rates are to be determined based on market conditions. The revenue from parking will need to repay over 30 years $169 million in tax-exempt bonds issued by the New York City Industrial Development Authority, the financing arm of the New York City Economic Development Corporation. There are 81 regular-season games a year with which to do this. Note: the Yankees themselves will not have to pay.

5. Who will run these garages?

“CHICAGO, March 26, 2008 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- Standard Parking Corporation (Nasdaq:STAN), one of the nation's leading providers of parking management services, announced that it has been awarded contracts to provide its parking management services for the current and future Yankee Stadium in New York.

“Standard Parking was awarded a multi-year contract by the Bronx Parking Development Company and the New York City Economic Development Corporation to provide parking management and special-event services at the ten existing parking facilities currently serving Yankee Stadium plus three additional garages to be built by 2010 in conjunction with the construction of the new Yankee Stadium. These facilities, comprising 9,500 parking spaces, primarily serve the New York Yankees major league baseball team and represent the largest block of parking capacity anywhere in the City of New York. Standard Parking plans to upgrade all existing facilities and implement state-of-the-art, prepay-to-park technology to enable event customers to purchase parking online in advance. A valet parking option also will be made available at Yankee Stadium events.”

6. Who will collect the revenues?
Standard Parking, which will pay rent to the Bronx Parking Development Company. BPDC is a single-purpose entity created by the Community Initiatives Development Corporation (CIDC), of Hudson, N.Y., a 501(c)(3) non-profit entity formed in 1992 to undertake low-income housing and economic development projects. From Metro N.Y. (July 30, 2007): “The city’s pick to build parking garages at the new Yankee Stadium has already defaulted on one taxpayer-financed project. And if it defaults this time, the city could be on the hook. Despite the state’s kicking in more than $70 million, the city spent two years looking for a developer willing to take on the garages’ financial risk. In March, they settled on Community Initiatives Development Corp., a not-for-profit that would qualify for $190 million in tax-exempt financing through the city’s Industrial Development Agency. Tax-exempt bonds would allow CIDC to pay back debt at the bargain rate of 5 percent, lowering construction costs. But CIDC couldn’t cover a loan backed by $7 million in tax-exempt bonds issued by the Syracuse IDA in 1999 to build senior housing.”

On "game days" in the Bronx the cops let cars park on the sidewalk on a number of streets near the stadium. This is very annoying, and I don't know what rules govern this practice.

1. Which streets is this happening on? Who authorized it?

I’ve seen it happening on 157^th St. and 158^th St. It is condoned by the NYPD. Not sure if it is authorized.

2. Do people pay for these spaces?
?????

3. What is the impact on the sidewalks? (Is this the cause of the cracking I see and the dead trees?)

Parking on a sidewalk is certainly not good for the sidewalk, but in my experience, a car’s weight does not cause a sidewalk to crack, even when repeated with regularity. Car exhaust does not particularly harm most tree species seen frequently in NYC. I remember reading about one species that actually thrived more in NYC than in nature because of the environment here. The weight of a car compressing dirt beneath a sidewalk may be harmful to trees.

4. Is it safe? Do people have room to walk?

It’s probably pretty safe. I am not aware of any injuries or deaths caused by game day parking. The parking is generally conducted at slow speeds and is monitored by the police. Cars usually leave room to walk between the cars and the buildings.

5. Will this practice end when the new spaces are built?
We can assume that whatever deal the Yankees have with the NYPD to allow game day parking is expected to continue indefinitely. Not unless the community complains about it loudly enough.

6. How can we ensure that it ends?
Be loud. Point out the existence of all the new spaces and the taxpayer support needed to build them. Institutional inertia will prevent the NYPD from rescinding game day parking unless it is pushed hard to end it. The Yankees have deep pockets and that will influence politicians. They will fight to retain game day parking. The NYPD reports to the Mayor.

7. Can we get "game day" parking meters and charge for parking on street on game days in the legal spaces that are not on the sidewalk?
Variable-rate parking, based on demand per time of day and per location, is just now beginning to make its way into cities across the United States, thanks to Donald Shoup and his Shoupistas. This would be a great initiative for the New York City Department of Transportation, which is beginning to push for variable-rate on-street parking with a trial in the West Village.

Other questions:

1. Where else do people park on game days? What is the price? How are these spaces used during off seasons?

Wherever spaces exist. They park in our building’s garage, which is good for us as shareholders. “On sellout and nearly-sellout game days, some Yankee fan parking occurs at the Concourse Plaza Shopping Center located along the south side of East 161^st Street, one to two blocks east of the Grand Concourse. This shopping center is open 24 hours per day, seven days a week, and has a posted capacity of 1,200 spaces. Yankee fan parking takes place on the below-grade level, with several hundred parking spaces typically available on game days.”

The Gateway Center at the Bronx Terminal Market project will create 2,835 spaces to be open 7 days a week. But it will also cause the demolition of 470 spaces on the existing “House of Detention” surface lot, a/k/a “Lot #12,” for a net increase of 2,365 spaces. This will further increase the supply of parking spaces available to Yankee fans. Most of these spaces will be located on the site of the current Lot #12, in a 2,342-space garage located approximately on the orange circle on the map above in response to Question 3 (also see map below).

Total breakdown of the parking in the area is as follows.

Note: None of this takes into account other modes of travel. The 4, B and D trains provide access to the immediate area, and MTA Metro-North Railroad is building a station in the immediate area that is expected to provide service to 10,000 fans per game with service on all three lines north and east of the city. Finally, this part of the South Bronx is densely settled and well suited to allow local fans to walk or bicycle to the games.