To the Editor,
The village of Mamaroneck Board of Trustees received the initial recommendations by their appointed Ad Hoc Parking Commission. The commission’s chair, Maria DeRose, and committee member John Farris, noted that the recommendations are based upon a consensus of the committee and a poll of 500 responses, as well as personal visits to Mamaroneck Avenue merchants, where the majority of those who responded are either in favor of single-space meters or no change on Mamaroneck Avenue.
The following in part was presented to the board of trustees at its Dec. 21 meeting.
The village should develop and implement a plan to:
Install multi-space parking meters at certain off-street lots to include:
Hunter Tier Parking Deck
Phillips Park Road (adjacent to the Heithaus Walkway)
East Prospect Lot (across from House of Honda)
Spencer Lot
Emelin Theatre Lot
Establish a pilot program to test single-space “smart” parking meters on Mamaroneck Avenue.
The majority members of the Board of Trustees chose to ignore their appointed committee and the response of merchants and residents by passing a resolution to install multi-space meters along with the single-space meters on the avenue.
Led by Trustee Leon Potok, with support of trustees Illissa Miller and David Finch, all Democrats, they make a mockery of the intent of the Ad Hoc Parking Committee by continuing Potok’s original quest to have all multi-space meters on Mamaroneck Avenue and potential license plate readers and limited time in the village.
I believe, along with Deputy Mayor Louis Santoro, that this is a formula for economic and community development disaster at the expense of the residents, merchants, visitors and shoppers in the village. This blind support by Potok, Miller and Finch flies in the face of facts that many communities are reversing the use of multi-space meters in favor of single-space meters.
This certainly will tarnish the image of a “friendly village” to one that many will choose to shop and dine elsewhere. The obvious impact on seniors, drivers with small children, the disabled and weather factors clearly demand the support of the parking committee recommendations to help assure the continued viability of the “friendly village” as the prime destination it has become and should continue to be.
The democratic process avails all who live, work and visit the “friendly village” of Mamaroneck to contact the three trustees Potok, Finch and Miller—lpotok@vomny.org, imiller@vomny.org and dfinch@vomny.org, respectively—to support the recommendations of their own ad hoc committee and the best interests of the continued vibrancy of the village of Mamaroneck
