It’s the one free thing he doesn’t love.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration will be considering converting the city’s free on-street parking areas to metered parking as the Big Apple grapples with a $5.4 billion budget gap fueled by Hizzoner’s socialist programs.
First Deputy Mayor Dean Fuleihan said last week that the controversial policy proposal “needs to be discussed” when asked whether charging for currently free parking or instituting “dynamic pricing” that changes according to demand could help close the shortfall.
“Yes, we should be looking at all those things,’ Fuleihan said at Thursday’s CityLaw breakfast event.
“But it’s not going to address the $5.4 billion problem,” he acknowledged.
“I said it’s a very good policy question, and one that needs to be discussed,” he later clarified of the meter issue.
The Center for an Urban Future think tank has estimated that increasing the number of parking meters in the city could yield up to $1.3 billion dollars a year.
Locals have slammed the idea to The Post.
“This is a money grab to pay for the free items that are promised, and as usual, at the expense of the poorer neighborhood!” said 56-year-old Marcel Crandon, the manager of a Bed-Stuy based extermination company.
Around 25%%, or 800,000, of the Big Apple’ s more than 3 million street parking spots are metered, according to the report.
The study argued that 750,000 additional parking spots would need to become metered to rake in the dough and also help relieve congestion.
Outerborough pols slammed City Hall’s willingness to even entertain the idea.
“Like the Mayor’s proposal to hike our property taxes, this is just another way to shakedown outerborough working and middle class households, who need cars to get around because they don’t have adequate transportation options. ” said Staten Island GOP City Councilman David Carr.
Mamdani has threatened to raise property taxes on everyone by nearly 10% if Gov. Kathy Hochul does not hike taxes on the wealthy to help pay for his freebie-filled agenda.
“How exactly would this make New York City more affordable?” Carr continued.
Queens Republican Councilwoman Joann Ariola called the paid-meter proposal “another tax on the middle and working classes.
“Not every New Yorker has the luxury of living in places like Astoria or Manhattan where there are plenty of transit options available,” she said.
“Some of us rely on our cars to get around, and I encourage the Mayor to come out to South and Southeastern Queens and take a look around before he decides to levy this burden on working families who just want to park near their homes.”
Mamdani said in a statement to The Post that he is still committed to filling the budget gap through a tax hike on the rich.
“Our administration is committed to filling the budget gap by ending the drain on New York City and taxing the rich,” the mayor said.
“As my First Deputy Mayor said yesterday, you do not fill a $5.4 billion budget gap through parking meters, we need structural change at the scale necessary to put our city back on firm financial footing.”
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