City hall building side parking will be freed up for residents, says councilman | Paterson Times Paterson Times

City hall building side parking will be freed up for residents, says councilman

By Jayed Rahman
Published: June 29, 2014

city-council-reserved-washington-street-parking

Scarcity of parking struck a chord with a councilman after a regular city council meeting attendee repeatedly requested council members to give up reserved parking spaces along Washington Street.

Waheedah Muhammad, former school board member, has been scolding council members in public meetings for being avaricious over parking for the past year. Muhammad argued that council members already have ample parking space in the city’s parking lot behind the city hall building.

“You should give up those parking [spaces] over on the side of this building for people that are coming to do business in this building because you have parking space over there in that lot,” stated Muhammad to council members on Tuesday evening.

“I already put in a request to have that parking removed from the city,” answered Kenneth Morris, councilman at-large.

Muhammad said the freed parking can be utilized by elderly tax payers who sometimes must park their vehicles blocks away from the city hall for a trip to the tax office. Indeed, parking is extremely scarce during business hours and especially so around the city hall building.

Even after six o’clock, when downtown businesses begin closing shop, there remains a scarcity of parking.

Often residents who attend council meeting circle around blocks in search of parking. When a spot is found it is often multiple blocks away bringing to mind safety risks whilst returning to the vehicle following a meeting.

Morris said the city is looking to free up more parking spaces on nearby Main Street by adding additional meters.


Copyright © 2012-2024 Paterson Times all rights reserved.