Parking Permits in Brooklyn?

Fugghedaboutit. Or, maybe not. The Downtown Brooklyn Council says there is great interest in many Brooklyn nabes including Brooklyn Heights, Fort Greene, Boerum Hill, Park Slope, Prospect Heights, Sunset Park and Bay Ridge, to name a few.

The idea certainly has appeal in nabes where the half-life of an open parking space is approximately 1.75 seconds during peak times and people drive a block-and-a-half in reverse to get to a space they've spotted opening up via their rearview mirror. Come on, you know who you are--you have the predatory ability to spot a car starting from 300 yards away and to know instinctively which pedestrians are going to their car and which are not. It is likely to be less popular with the very same people if they need to go to neighborhoods other than the one in which they live and for which they possess a parking permit.

Other cities, like Washington, have long had parking permit systems, (which, by the way, not every resident loves), but they idea has never gotten much traction in New York. DOT's study found that permits are feasible in downtown Brooklyn, but would be problematic because there are more cars registered than parking spaces. Community forums are planned, according to the Daily News.

Gowanus Lounge predicts endless debate on this idea. Until, the new reality of Brooklyn with tens of thousands of new units of housing sinks in and projects like Atlantic Yards become reality. After that, when parking goes from Olympic Sport to Death Match 2012, we'll have permit parking.