[RBS] PARKING Update - SUCCESS, at Least in the Interim

[Aryeh Sonnenberg]

BS"D

We had a wonderful meeting today with R' Moshe Montag and R' Shmuel
Greenberg from the city council, as well as representatives from most of 
the rental car companies.

SUMMARY (for more details, see http://www.luzguestsuite.com/mercazparking.html):

The iriyah has decided to "crack down" on the excessive use of the 
Mercaz parking by the rental car companies, and at the same time has 
suggested solutions that would allow them to continue to service our 
community.

Each rental car company will receive 2-4 "allocated" spaces near their
storefront, but OUTSIDE the confines of the actual mercaz parking lot.


Any overflow cars will be allowed to park, either at the bottom of 
Nachal Arugot (past the residential buildings), or on Kishon, past Ayalon all the way up HaYarkon (on the side across the street from the residential buildings) to HaYarden.

Any cars parked outside of these areas will be in violation.

There are several details that are not included in this summary.

It should be understood that:

A. Absolutely nothing that was agreed upon in the meeting is set in 
stone until the city approves and it goes through the requisite vaadot. 
This can take several months.

B. The agreements reached deal exclusively with the rental car parking
issue, not the cars for sale, advertisement vehicles, or residents who 
have parking spots within the Merkaz buildings.

When asked if the suggestion of painting the area blue and white and
charging for parking, the answer given was, "that discussion is not for 
now, but we would be happy to invite you for that if it comes up." The 
idea was that if these suggestions solve the problem, then there would 
not be a need for such a measure. I am very skeptical about that.

So, we seem to have won the battle, but the "paid parking" war still 
looms ahead.

There is NO doubt that this solution was created in no small part by the
over 1,000 residents who put their signatures on the paper and on-line
petitions. YeYasher Kochachem to you for that, as well to those who 
wrote in to the city officials begging for a solution.

Thank you to Aryeh Koenigsberg for signing people up to the paper 
petition on a busy Friday morning.
Thank you and Yeyasher Kochachem to Zecie Maltz and to Ephrayim Naiman 
for their support, guidance, work, and attendance at today's meeting.

Keep up the good work!

Aryeh Sonnenberg