Washington Heights Pedestrian Plaza Stokes Parking Fears

WASHINGTON HEIGHTS, NY — Some Washington Heights residents are voicing their displeasure with a plan to transform a neighborhood street into a public plaza by claiming that the new plaza would exacerbate a lack of parking spaces in the neighborhood.

Columbia University Medical Center applied for the plaza through the city Department of Transportation's plaza program, which seeks to repurpose underutilized public land into an asset for community use and programming, university officials said at a community workshop this week. The plaza would limit car traffic on the street to hospital drop offs and would eliminate 17 legal parking spots, city officials said.

While the city took suggestions this week on how to replacing the 17 parking spots lost on Haven Avenue by updating parking regulations on nearby streets, some community members see the plaza proposal as Columbia University attempting to encroach further into the neighborhood.

"We feel like Columbia is trying to force us out," Washington Heights resident Nelson Sepulveda told Patch.

Sepulveda said that many Washington Heights residents feel that the hospital's presence in the neighborhood is contributing to gentrification of the area. Other residents said that the public plaza will be a space more for Columbia students and employees rather than longtime residents.

But the plaza has plenty of supporters as well. At least 15 community organizations representing a variety of causes have pledged support to the plaza, which will give residents a place to plan events, enjoy green space and simply relax on a street without having to worry about cars, university and city officials said. The plaza will host arts performances, a greenmarket and health and wellness events organized by Columbia University Medical Center.

The fate of the plaza ultimately lies with Community Board 12, which represents the Washington Heights and Inwood neighborhoods. If the Community Board votes down the proposal, the city Department of Transportation will likely abandon the project, city officials said this week.

The community board postponed this month's vote on the plaza to November, and Community Board 12 member Mary Anderson said this week that the board would likely oppose the project if the 17 lost parking spots are not regained elsewhere in the neighborhood. Other members of the board are also trying to drum up opposition to the plan.

Ayisha Oglivie, chair of the board's housing and human services committee, has led a crusade against the plaza because of parking concerns, Streetsblog first reported. Oglivie told Streetsblog that she isn't acting in her capacity as a community board member to drum up opposition to the plan, but that she also wouldn't support any plan unless it preserved all the lost parking spots on Haven Avenue.

Oglivie told Streetsblog that her decision will not take into account the majority of Washington Heights residents who do not own cars.

"You can come and look at the block surrounding the perimeter of the plaza," Oglivie told Streetsblog. "Apparently those people own cars. So whoever doesn’t own a car in the district seems to be quite irrelevant to me right now."

Community Board 12's next meeting of the traffic and transportation committee will be held Nov. 6.

Photo of Haven Avenue by Patch