Parking for First Arena in downtown Elmira
The parking rules downtown are the city’s rather than the arena’s, and they have outlasted the hockey club.
Section one
On the street
Metered and unmetered streets
Parking is allowed on any city street where a sign does not say otherwise. The downtown district is metered, so the meter instructions apply, as do the New York State parking regulations.
Downtown Elmira is small enough that street parking within a few minutes’ walk of North Main Street is usually available, and on a weeknight it is rarely contested. The constraint is not space so much as the meters: they are enforced during the working day, and a Friday evening game starts late enough that most of them have stopped charging by the time the doors open.
The city lots
The City of Elmira owns lots at 122 West Water Street and 237 West Water Street. At 122 West Water Street payment goes into the dropbox when you park. At 237 West Water Street the spaces are metered and are paid like any other meter. Both sit west of the arena, a short walk along Water Street, and both are open to anyone rather than reserved for events.
Event parking
For events at First Arena, the Clemens Center, Wisner Park or the other downtown venues, the city-owned garage charged a flat event rate. Nearby businesses open their own lots during events at their own prices. Private lots and plazas — Langdon Plaza among them — are not open to event traffic, and cars left in them were towed at the owner’s expense.
The arena shares this arrangement with the Clemens Center a few blocks away, which matters on the nights both have something on. A concert and a hockey game starting within an hour of each other fills the garage, and the overflow goes to the street.
Getting out afterwards
The advantage of a small building is the exit. Three thousand people clear a downtown grid far faster than they clear a motorway junction, and the streets around North Main empty within fifteen or twenty minutes of a final whistle. Anyone parked on Water Street or in one of the two municipal lots is pointing away from the arena traffic rather than into it, which is the single most useful thing to know before choosing a space.
The walk from the far end of Water Street to the doors is under five minutes and level the whole way, so parking further out costs almost nothing in time and takes the exit problem away entirely.
Questions
Parking downtown
Common questions about parking at First Arena
Is there a car park at First Arena itself?
No dedicated arena car park. Parking is the city’s: metered streets, two municipal lots on West Water Street, and the city-owned garage, which charged a flat event rate.
How do I pay at the West Water Street lots?
At 122 West Water Street payment goes into the dropbox when you park. At 237 West Water Street the spaces are metered and are paid like any other meter.
Can I park in a shop’s car park during an event?
Only where that business has opened its lot for events, which several downtown businesses did at their own prices. Private lots and plazas that have not are enforced by towing.
Are the meters enforced in the evening?
Downtown meters are enforced during the working day. Check the plate on the meter itself — the rules are the city’s and they change independently of anything on this page.
Where exactly is the arena?
First Arena stands at 155 North Main Street, on the corner of North Main and West Gray in downtown Elmira. The directions page has the routes in.