Tag Archives: New York

PlumValet Launch in New York

Sunday February 15th, Madison Square Garden, New York City. The end of the NBA All-Star game weekend. It is also the day that ParkJockey has chosen to launch PlumValet, its valet parking service, in New York. What a challenge for a launch: 8 professional valets from our partner, Elegant Valet, 30 reserved parking spots at a Rapid Park nearby, the lowest temperatures in 20 years, and a lot of traffic! But the team is ready. As soon as the first car arrives everything kicks in:

– “Thanks for using PlumValet, my name is Carlos I will look after your vehicle”

– “Use our app to request your car back, please give us 15 min notice”

– “Thank you for using PlumValet. Sign up on PlumValet.com and get your next booking free”

The launch is a success. The users are delighted, they could stop right in front of the Arena and avoid the freezing windchill. All cars were returned safely and there was no need to use our $2 million insurance policy.

We are really proud that all our users trusted us with their cars. That you drop off a brand new Porsche Carrera 4S or a 2005 Toyota Camry, we understand that your car is special to you and therefore it has to be special to our team.

Let us park you next time you are in town and enjoy life more!

Follow @PlumValet on Twitter.

The Radio City Christmas Spectacular

With Thanksgiving and its festivities coming to a close this week, everyone is moving their attention to the coming holiday season. Throughout New York City, stores are putting up holiday window displays, soon Rockefeller Center will have its annual Christmas Tree lighting ceremony, and Bryant Park is opening its ice rink.

But nothing really brings in the holiday spirit quite like the Radio City Christmas Spectacular, starring the Rockettes.

The Radio City Christmas Spectacular takes place in the beautiful Radio City Music Hall at 6th Avenue and 50th Street. The building was constructed in 1929 with funding support from John D. Rockefeller, Jr. and the Radio Corporation of America. After construction was completed, S.L. “Roxy” Rothafel was brought on as impresario of the Music Hall. Roxy developed a reputation as a theatrical genius by combining vaudeville, movies, and razzle-dazzle décor to revive struggling theaters in the wake of the stock market crash.

The legend of the Rockettes began in 1925 with a group called the “Missouri Rockets”. They had been tapping and making high kicks since 1925 under the direction of Russell Markert. The Missouri Rockets were invited by Roxy Rothafel to perform at Radio City’s opening night on December 27th, 1932, using the name the “Roxyettes.” They were one of 17 diverse acts including the Flying Wallendas, Ray Bolger, and Martha Graham. Despite the competition, they were invited back the following year to headline and were renamed the “Rockettes.” In the 80 years since then, the Radio City Christmas Spectacular has become the #1 holiday production in America. It has toured 74 different cities outside of New York, such as Nashville, Chicago, Dallas, and St. Louis. However, its home will always be the Radio City Music Hall.

So come into the city and see the show that truly celebrates the holiday season in style. Performances run throughout the month of December. And when you plan your trip to see this spectacular show, make sure to book with ParkJockey so you don’t find yourself missing everything because you can’t find parking. We have locations all over New York City, from Midtown, to the Upper East Side, to SoHo, and the financial district. Wherever your travels take you, ParkJockey’s got you covered.

Book now using the promo code “ROCKETTES” and get a discount off your next booking.

A Veterans Day to Remember

On Tuesday, November 11th, the 95th annual New York City Veterans Day Parade, aptly titled “America’s Parade,” will be honoring the men and women who have served and protected our country by marching up 5th Avenue from 26th to 52nd street. Veterans Today describes this Parade as “the largest Veterans Day Event in the nation”. This year, the parade’s theme will be “’Land of the Free/Home of the Brave,’ in honor of the 200th Anniversary of the writing of the Star Spangled Banner. The Featured Service Branch will be the U.S. Marine Corps.

The Parade first started in 1919 after Woodrow Wilson declared Armistice Day a national holiday on Nov. 11. Over the years, Armistice Day became Veterans Day and started to get the serious attention and support that it gets today (over 20,000 participants each year) when the United War Veterans Council formed, taking on the responsibility of organizing the Veteran’s Day Parades in 1945 shortly after World War II.

America’s Parade has become a long standing tradition of honoring our men and women in uniform. However, if you are unable to make the trip into New York City for the Parade, the New York City Veterans Community is organizing the third annual “Veterans Week NYC.” According to Veterans Today, the Week consists of activities like the “Patriots Tour”, which visits war monuments throughout the 5 boroughs, the “Veterans Mass” at St. Patrick’s Cathedral on November 9th, and the “Band of Pride” concert in Times Square on November 10th. Make sure to come into the city to check these events out and support our troops.

Now comes the tricky part. With thousands of people coming into the city to attend these events, finding parking will be very difficult. You can make your trip easier by booking your parking ahead of time with ParkJockey. We have parking in NOMAD by the Parade’s starting point as well as parking in Midtown, Flatiron, and all throughout New York City.

Book now using promo code “VETERANS” and get 10% off your booking.

Save Your Millions, New York!

Soho Scene Earlier this month, The New York Times reported on parking spaces in a SoHo condominium that are selling for a whopping $1 Million. Holy COW! When your parking space costs 10 times more than your Maserati, you know you have a parking problem. In fact, the average price for a residential parking spot in New York is about $136,000. That is almost as much as the average price of a home in the United States.

It makes sense that these private spots are so expensive, given that Manhattan had only 102,000 off-street parking spaces in 2010 (down from 127,000 spaces in 1978) and over 700,000 registered drivers. It is easy to feel overwhelmed by the numbers. Luckily New York’s drivers and commuters have a friend in ParkJockey. With all of this competition, New Yorkers need a professional to jockey for them, and that’s were we come in. We can guarantee you one of those increasingly elusive off street parking spots and save you money doing it.

Good news, New York: You don’t need $1 Million to guarantee your parking anymore!

Running in Place

How You Can Waste Years in Traffic Looking For Parking

Wait….How Much Time?

Waiting in traffic sucks. In fact, it only gets worse once you reach your destination and then have to find a place to park your vehicle. It’s a vicious cycle of circling the block and looking for parking until you realize that’s no use, and with the clock ticking, you move on to the lots you passed by earlier only to find the ones closest to your destination are full and you have to circle back to a different lot. Did you know the average motorist will spend 8,325 hours looking for a parking space? In terms of days, that’s 347 days of your life getting stressed that you can’t get back. In terms of gas, that’s 47,000 gallons of wasted gas, or nearly “38 trips around the Earth,” all while essentially going nowhere.

How Slow Can You Go?

With 30% of most traffic in major metropolitan areas coming from people looking for parking spots, it’s no wonder that we all move at a snail’s pace. According to the New York Times, a study showed that weekday traffic in Midtown Manhattan moves at an average of 9.5 miles per hour. That’s “about the speed of a farmyard chicken at full gallop.”

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When To Avoid Traffic

And if you have a case of the Mondays, having to go back to work after the weekend, think again. With respect to traffic in New York City, it’s a case of the Wednesdays, as Wednesdays are the days when traffic is at its worst.

To add insult to injury, late September, when the U.N. General Assembly is in session, coincides with the 25 slowest traffic days of the year when the average speed in Manhattan ranges from 8.6 to 6.9 MPH. Not surprisingly, other large clusters of traffic hover in New York City in November and December, when out-of-towners flood the streets to be part of the magical winter season (and bring their cars with them).

But if you want to know when the traffic is the lightest, then enjoy Manhattan on the weekends, or the Fourth of July when everyone has flocked to the Hamptons.

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More Strife, Less Life

The influx of vehicles into any metropolitan area, let alone NYC, leads to an influx of traffic. According to the NYC Department of Transportation, most cars coming into the central business district of Manhattan come from 60^th Street bridge, aka the Queensboro Bridge. This gateway adds to the nearly 778,000 cars, which can be found below 60^th Street each day. With all these cars on the road, if you don’t have a game plan for where you’ll be parking once you reach your destination, then good luck to you! Have fun sitting in traffic for hours and being late to your meeting 🙂 Instead, avoid the strife and get back to your life. Get back the time you waste trying to find parking and book ahead instead. Alliterations aside, life is too short to waste, so don’t.