moving to park slope: keeping our car or not?

We (couple and two 3-and-6 year old children) are moving to Park Slope next month.

I have no idea if we need a car (or if we need to get rid of before moving).

Any idea?

Is it easy to park? Do we need to rent a parking (which I don%26#39;t want to)?

Thanks for the input

moving to park slope: keeping our car or not?

Parking is at a premium everywhere in NYC - Brooklyn is no exception. If the place you are moving does not have available, assigned parking, you will either have to park on the street, if you can find a place to park, or you will have to rent parking space somewhere - hopefully close to where you live.

Truth is, unless you intend to travel outside the city often you really don%26#39;t need to own a car in NYC and it may be cheaper to rent one when you need it rather than pay for parking and insurance.

moving to park slope: keeping our car or not?

witch, I hope one of our Brooklyn natives (like livetotravel) will chime in here, but it%26#39;s my understanding a LOT of people who live in Brooklyn, IF they can afford to, keep a car. I wouldn%26#39;t keep a big car, but especially with kids, you may well want to be able to get away on weekends. You should also ask the question on the Brooklyn section of this forum. It%26#39;s not as active as this one, but worth a shot.

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as nywhiz said - a lot of brooklynites keep a car. Personally, I sold mine the day I moved to brooklyn. I love not having the added expense of a car payment and insurance (which is ridiculously over priced). Up to my move to Brooklyn - I had always had a car since I was 16 and it was hard to get used to not having one at first - but I adjusted within a few weeks.

Also, if you plan on parking on the street - you may be driving around a lot to find a close parking spot (same as manhattan). Parking garages are an option, but can be expensive. Since you are a family, with kids, you may want to bring the car and work with it for a little while to see what works best.

Wendi, didn%26#39;t mean to leave you out. ;) I know livetotravel does keep a car and thought he could add his persective on why. Sorry I didn%26#39;t get a chance to meet up with the group.

I think it was Live who mentioned a few weeks ago about an inexpensive way to rent a car - sort of a by-the-hour thing or something?

Zipcar rents by the hour.

Most places in Brooklyn only have ';alternate side'; once a week. parking tickets are very expensive. If you keep the car finding a lot to keep it in will make it a lot easier.

Keeping the car gives you more options. I visit Park Slope twice a month by car and I always find a spot within 20 minutes. Now that%26#39;s not bad by NYC standards. In Kansas, not so good, but here, that%26#39;s good. Don%26#39;t rush to get rid of the car, see how it goes.

Good morning all

witch, I live in Park Slope, off of 8th Ave, 1 block from Prospect Park.

I do not own a car.

I would never own a car in Manhattan or Brooklyn, because both my wife and I work and no one is ever home to deal with the dance called alternate side of the street parking. That%26#39;s a twice weekly ritual of having to move your car for street cleaning. It is also a Park Slope ritual for frustrated angry car owners the roam the streets on Sunday nights looking for a space. A huge waste of energy and time. Parking is very, very difficult in Park Slope.

BUT, if you are planning to stay home with your 2 kids during the day, then you might be able to combat all of this by moving your car during off peak hours. Just know that there are hundreds of other stay-at-home moms in Park Slope who do the same.

I believe a car is necessary on occasion. In our situation we love to go to Fairway Market in Red Hook - so we get a car every 2 weeks and use it for shopping. We also get a car as needed to visit family in NJ and CT.

My wife and I are members of zipcar.com. It%26#39;s a type of car sharing program whereby you join for a reasonable fee and then rent cars by the hour or by the day. You pay for tolls and for milage over a minimum amount and zipcar pays for the insurance and gas. Zipcars are housed in parking garages all over the area. Within walking distance of our apartment there are a least 4 garages where I can pick up a car. The beauty of course is that you don%26#39;t own it, you don%26#39;t have to worry about parking it, and you don%26#39;t have to worry about it get stolen or having a window broken - both extremely frequent occurances of late here in Park Slope and also Prospect Heights. In fact there have been 15 1990%26#39;s model Honda%26#39;s stolen in PS in the last 2 weeks.

With zipcar, you just pick it up and drop it off when your done. Nothing could be easier. And in my estimation, nothing could be less expensive.

Good luck with your move to PS. You will love this neighborhood - jjust watch out for SUV size double wide strollers that commandeer the sidewalks on Saturdays ;-)

Excellent assessment, LTT!

Congrats, witch1373, you will love it!

i lived in Park Slope for 15 years (up until 2 years ago), and I never owned a car. But, like LTT said, I didn%26#39;t have little kids.

Most of the families I knew with kids the ages of yours had cars.

Alternate-side-of-the-street parking might end up controlling a portion of your life, so get ready for that. One strategy is circling until you find parking on the correct side of the street. Another strategy is parking on the wrong side, and getting up before 7 AM to move the car.

You%26#39;ll familiarize with the signs and the parking ';rhythms'; of each street. (I grew up near a movie theatre, and my folks would often park on incorrect sides after work, check the showtimes, and then go out later and move the car.)

Some folks I knew rent garage space in private homes one neighborhood away, since they didn%26#39;t use their cars everyday.

Another thing about driving in NYC - NO RIGHT TURN ON RED. My west coast bro-in-law forgot and got a ticket for this. Don%26#39;t forget!

:o)

Thanks for all your messages! It%26#39;s great. I%26#39;ll have more questions coming soon :-)