When I become mayor, I will immediately address the Parking Authority and its ways, including the present even/odd parking system. In the 13 years I have lived in Albany, I have yet to see a sweetsweeper coming through on Mondays and Tuesdays. This means that all the frustration that comes with competing for parking spaces is all for naught.
During a snow emergency, and I mean a real one, not one where cowardly little people are scared over an inch of snow, there needs to be a parking limitation in order to let the plows through. However, in 2025, there is no need to make even/odd parking a habitual thing.
By eliminating that, perhaps we can reduce the number of citizens who are harassed by the PA with ridiculous and vindictive parking fines. Albany doesn’t really need those funds. Fines are just found money and we can easily put that money back in taxpayers’ pockets without impacting the city’s bottom line.
I will look at ways to make the PA better and more efficient, while hopefully making things more pleasant for both citizens and visitors than they are now.
These ways might include less aggressive enforcement tactics in some areas of the city. Furthermore, we can easily reduce fines as the city doesn’t count on those funds, or at the very least, it shouldn’t. Again, it’s found money that belongs in your pocket, not the city’s.