Millman: Parking Permits 'Not Coming Anytime Soon'

If there were any doubts that the over the prospect of Residential Permit Parking in Brooklyn was just beginnning, Assemblywoman Joan Millman, D-Cobble Hill, dispelled them at Wednesday night's Community Board 2 monthly general meeting.

"It's not so cut and dry. If it has to happen, it's not happening for awhile," said Millman, who first proposed legslation in the Assembly clearing the way for RPPs in Brooklyn Heights in 2008.

Millman's remarks made it increasingly unclear about whether any parking permit system would be in place in time for the scheduled opening of Barclays Center in September.

According to the seven-term legislator, in the years since RPPs were first proposed the issue has never been 'calendared' for discussion by the Assembly Transportation Committee—merely the first step before debate and an eventual vote on any bill in Albany.

And in the state Senate the prospects for any RPP legislation were considerably darker.

This week, state Sen. Martin Golden, R-Bay Ridge, joined other legislators from South Brooklyn in on Brooklyn streets.

Considering likely Republican opposition to the plan in the GOP-led upper chamber, Millman said that support from Mayor Michael Bloomberg was crucial.

"If he doesn't support it, I don't see it ever coming out of the Senate," she said of Bloomberg, a key campaign contributor for the Republican majority.

In order for the RPPs to be enacted in the five boroughs, legislation granting the City Council the power to set up a parking system needs to pass both houses and be signed into law by Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

Only then can the City Council debate the specifics of any RPP plan, which includes pricing, days and times where permit parking would be in effect and, perhaps most importantly for the streets around Barclays Center, which neighborhoods would be included.