PrimoSpot

When I visit the city -- anyone who lives outside Manhattan call it that -- I'm generally visiting my Mom in Chinatown. I drive my car and know where I can park for free on the streets or in a cheap parking garage--$10, can't beat that in the city. When I have to visit anywhere else in the city, I would park my car in Jersey and take the bus into Port Authority.

I got adventurous last year for a book launch at Border's in Columbus Circle and drove my car into the city. As it was my nephew's neighborhood, I asked him what the parking situation was up there. I got there, drove around for a bit and found a spot to park. As there was another book launch at the same place last week, I had no qualms about driving in a getting a spot.

Last year, when I attended NY Comic Con, I did my park and bus thing for two days and had my BIL transport me back and forth on Sunday as he drives to work on Sundays. This year, given my success with parking for the book launch, I wanted to drive my car into the city.

I did some homework on the internet to see if there were cheap parking garages around Jacob Javit Center and came across this brillant site -- PrimoSpot. It gives all the parking signage for the areas in Manhattan I'm interested in. I was able to find free parking on the street for all two of the days I spent in the city. The first day I parked and took the ferry across.

PrimoSpot kind of helped me out again when I went into the city this week to see Wicked. The spots I looked at were not free. As the parking spot I used for the book launch was midpoint between the theatre and the bookstore, I was able to find the same spot free.

In these times, gotta find a way to save the dollars for something else.

Note: NYC is constantly changing it parking regulations so PrimoSpot is good as people helping them keep up to date. Since NYC has starting using those dratted Muni-meters, they can change a block into paid parking very quickly. You have to paid the Muni-meter to get a parking slip to put into your car. City is gradually moving away from inidiviaul parking meter.