Ditto… [and character addition…]
I, of course, had to walk to school 3 miles - you know, and uphill both ways. Even barefoot in the snow.
Ok - truth be told. It was only about 1/2 mile, and to the bus not the school - and I had shoes. But it was uphill both ways. On the way to the bus we went downhill…then waaay uphill, then waay downhill. The reverse on the way back. So at least the way to the bus was a little more downhill than up.
Oh, but - if someone was on their way out in a CAR - sometimes we could hop a ride.
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I interviewed for a job a job at an engineering services job in lower Manhattan in 1974. The HR guy I talked with said that owning a car was impractical in Manhattan. He suggested I find an apartment in Midtown and take the subway to work. The cost for leasing a parking spot at the port authority and driving around the city was so expensive that I could have taken a taxi to and from work, then taken a taxi each night for fun and still had a lot of money left over.
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Owning a car in Manhattan is impractical, inconvenient, and very expensive. Even in the Outer Boroughs, it can be pricey, with a parking permit for a municipal parking lot in less-congested Brooklyn costing $2,500 per year. Parking a car in Manhattan costs more than apartment rental in rural areas of the US.
For those who can’t imagine what it’s like to own–and to park–a car in a congested urban area, here is what it’s like for a friend of mine, who lives in Hoboken, NJ. That town is extremely congested, due to the incredibly-high population density (48,000 people per sq mile), but the streets are not nearly as congested as in Manhattan.
He bought a Scion IQ because its very small size makes it more possible to find a parking space on the street. He has to go to City Hall once each year in order to get a Resident Parking sticker. There are still some non-residents who park on the street in order to avoid pricey parking garages, but those stickers do cut-down on “outsiders”, due to the hefty fines for violations.
Because parking spaces are at a premium, he only drives his car once a week, during the time period when the street has to be cleared for street cleaning. So, his routine is to do his shopping on Tuesday mornings between 9-12. He times his return trip so that he can cruise up to the curb just as the parking restriction ends, and then his car sits in that space for a week until he has to move it again. The only way to avoid this hassle is to pay for a spot in a parking garage, and that fee in his town starts at $150 per month. Most parking garages charge far more.
If it’s like this in Hoboken, just imagine how much worse it is across the river in Manhattan
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I have distance cousins who own a law-firm in the Bronx. Started by their grandfather and then their 4 uncles took it over, now there are 12+ cousins (lawyers) who own the firm. I think only half of them even have a driver’s license. No need and very costly. The firm is in a large building which they bought decades ago. 5-6 of the families live in the luxury 4,000 sq/ft apartments above the firm. If I had that situation - I’d never own a car. Just an expense you don’t need.
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In my posting earlier joking about the Jerry Seinfled episode where Kramer borrows Jerry’s car so he will not lose his parking space, but in real life, Jerry lives in New York City and he is a bit of a car collector. He paid over one million dollars for an old plumber’s building and then spend millions more renovating it to his liking…
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Clearly you tend to understatement!
Seinfeld owns an estimate of 100+ collector cars. Many worth well in excess of $1M. When your net worth is north of a billion dollars, spending a couple million to house your collection of priceless cars is nothing.
Jerry owns the 3rd of 5 1953 Porsche 550s and the first to be equipped with Porsche’s first 4-cam racing engine. It is one of the approximately 90 550s ever built. The museum I volunteer for owns #1. Porsche has #4 in its own museum
He also owns a 1949 Porsche 356. It is the 40th of first 50 production 356 cars known as the Gmund Porsches because they have aluminum bodies and they were built in Gmund, Austria rather than Stuttgart, Germany. He has the first 1964 911 imported to the US (my museum has the 2nd but it is the first 911 to a class win in a road race - the 1966 24 hours of Daytona) a series of special 911s, a 959 and many more. He also owns a Lamborghini Muira, and a Countach and lots of other interesting rides.
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I wonder where he keeps the 95–or more–cars that don’t fit into his Manhattan garage. I’m guessing that the ones he actually drives are kept in Manhattan, with the others housed… somewhere else.
Most are in a hanger somewhere near LA, a few on Long Island.
This definitely sounds extravagant, but probably makes sense dollar-wise for someone in his income bracket . There’s no income he has to pay tax on as long as he doesn’t sell them. And the expenses of keeping them stored and maintained, maybe even buying more, may well be deductible from his current income, again saving him money. Plus he can enjoy tinkering w/ his cars. Better than keeping the money in the bank or investment account, boring. Just need a good tax accountant is all … lol …
You also have the option of NOT entering the Congestion Zone.
You are only “punished” (paying your fee…) if you add to the congestion.
So…don’t!
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What about someone who already lives or works there?
Jerry is not an investment car collector. He collects what he likes, not what wil. Make him money. He owns a BMW Isetta… not an investment car, a fun car.
I’ve wonder what the profit would be if you purchased 6 relatively inexpensive, widely sold vehicles in 1965, Ford Galaxy, F100 ,Chevy & Dodge versions, and the like, didn’t drive them at all, except to put them immediately into a climate controlled storage facility, do as required to keep the bearings wet & lubed, then sell them now, in showroom oem numbers-matching condition, 65 years later?
They would sell for less than you paid for them…adjusted for inflation… and then you’d have the extreme storage costs over that 65 years
Collecting those types of cars is so dependent on the age of the collector. They buy what they could not afford when they lusted after that car. 70 year olds buy 69 Camaros. But when the 70 year olds get too old to enjoy them or die, the demand drops and so does the price. Only the most significant and rare examples might maintain their value.
Model Ts were worth $10k in the 70s. They are still worth $10k…adjusted for inflation means they actual value of that 1970 $10k is only $1700 in today’s money. There isn’t much of a market left…they all died.
I drove my car in Manhattan for IBM in the 80’s. My territory was from 96th to Riverdale. Even then I would never consider driving in the “congestion grid”. If I needed to go there I would park for free somewhere in my territory and take a subway. I don’t think the $9 is unreasonable. It is going to keep the tourists out, but not anyone driving for business. Even back then IBM paid for any tolls I encountered.
I will miss going through Manhattan on the weekends. After visiting family on LI many times on a Sunday morning I would take the Midtown tunnel to Manhattan, cross across, and take the Lincoln tunnel to NJ and points south. I’ll avoid Manhattan from now on.