EVER since the car muscled out the horse and garages supplanted stables, New York City has had a conflicted relationship with the automobile. In recent years, the car has been on the losing side. Whether it is the addition of bike lines or pedestrian plazas, a push for congestion pricing or rising tolls, the once-exalted automobile is under siege.

In Manhattan the car faces yet another threat, as parking lots and garages are being snapped up to make way for all sorts of development, especially luxury condominiums. In most cases, the lost public spaces are not replaced, because zoning rules discourage developers from adding parking to new residential buildings.

The spaces that do get built are likely to be in luxury condominiums — and to go to the highest bidder.

But many people still keep cars in Manhattan, and they are left to mourn a favorite parking lot suddenly surrounded by a construction fence, to swallow hard when the cost of monthly parking goes up again, or to engage in an exasperating hunt for a spot at the curb.