NUMC neighbors request parking permits

East Meadow residents who live near the Nassau University Medical Center are working with local politicians to get resident-only parking permits — an unprecedented move in Nassau County.

Parking on residential streets near the hospital has always been a problem for those who live on them, but the issue was exacerbated last summer when NUMC’s parking garage was declared structurally unsafe. NUMC President Arthur Gianelli has met with residents several times since then and promised to increase the number of parking spaces, remove the mechanical parking lifts at the hospital that employees and visitors refused to use and relocate administrative personnel to the A. Holly Patterson Extended Care facility in Uniondale. These changes were fully implemented by June, but parking problems persist.

Residents acknowledge that the hospital cannot prevent staff and visitors from parking in front of homes on public streets, so they are now working with State Sen. Kemp Hannon, a Republican from Garden City, to obtain resident-only parking permits.

Residents Yvonne Amato and Roxanne Rose collected signatures of those in favor of the permits, which include people who live north of Hempstead Turnpike on Roosevelt, Jefferson and Lincoln avenues and 1st, 2nd and 3rd streets, as well as numerous blocks south of Hempstead Turnpike. They met with Hannon on July 11.

“I’m just a facilitator trying to bring people together,” Hannon told the Herald. He explained that acquiring resident-only on-street parking permits would be a first in Nassau County because it would require a new state law. A bill would need to be approved in the State Senate and Assembly and signed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

Hannon said he expects to meet with Amato and Rose again this month. The next step is writing a proposal and circulating it among other elected officials, who would look for potential problems, he said.

While residents were hoping that the Town of Hempstead could simply erect resident-only parking signs, similar to two-hour- only parking signs currently posted on some streets, Charles Kovit, the town’s chief deputy attorney, said that the town would be unable to do anything to assist residents until a state law is passed. Resident-only parking permits would violate the state Vehicle and Traffic Law, he said. “We can’t have a priority list of people who have the right to park on a public street,” Kovit said.

He added that because the neighbors requesting the permits live near large facility that has a lot of visitors and staff, and therefore requires a lot of parking spots, “Once the law is passed, the town will do its part to make sure that resident-only provisions are put into place and enforced by Nassau County police.”

Parking permits are the “only hope,” said Nancy Falcone, who has lived in her home on 2nd Street for more than 50 years. Falcone said she noticed a problem a few years ago, but the situation got worse after the NUMC parking structure was closed and, she said, “it hasn’t subsided.” She added that NUMC employees are still parking on her block. “They’ve got their hospital tags around their necks,” she said. “You know they’re hospital people.”

The parking problems have forced Falcone’s gardener to park around the corner and walk over with his lawn mower, she said. Friends are parking down the block.

“The [parking] situation is not better,” said Falcone. “[The hospital] thinks it’s better because they gave their people sufficient parking … there’s nothing anyone can do unless someone parks in your driveway.”

“It’s a problem that’s going to be ongoing,” said James Spellman, who has lived with his family on 1st Street for 13 years. “In the morning when I go to work, I put garbage cans out front to save my spot.”

Spellman, who is also in favor of residential permits, thinks one reason parking has not improved is because visitors don’t want to pay the $5 per-day parking fee at the hospital. He added that some of the people who park nearby are “unsavory,” and that he has found trash and, a few times, syringes and blood-soaked gauze in the street in front of his home.

Nine-year resident Konstantinos Kovoros, who lives on Roosevelt Avenue, said he is also in favor of permits. “I think it would definitely help the situation,” he said, “but it depends how many they would allow you to have.” Kovoros does not want his visitors to get parking tickets, which carry a $125 fine.

Although resident-only parking permits would be a first in the County, Amato’s research into New York state parking laws revealed that neighborhoods in Eastchester, Harrison, Mamaroneck and Ithaca got approval to have resident-only parking signs. Similar to the situation in East Meadow, residents of Ithaca, which is home to Cornell University, were able to get the signs because Cornell employees were parking on residential streets near the university.