Press Release - Rep. Anthony D. Weiner - Rep. Weiner Slams New Broad Channel Parking Restrictions - "City Hall Just Doesn’t Get it," Weiner Says
Broad Channel residents are facing a new battle in a 40-year parking war with the city.
"No Parking Anytime" signs were recently placed around the neighborhood, but many of them have mysteriously disappeared in the past few weeks, locals said.
Residents argue that they have no place to park their cars - but the city Transportation Department contends that the new signs were installed to enforce parking regulations on the books since the 1960s.
Agency officials said the signs are needed so that emergency vehicles can access some of the neighborhood's narrow roads - primarily on the west side of Cross Bay Blvd.
"Some of the streets are as narrow as 21 feet," said DOT spokesman Seth Solomonow. "These signs are replacements for signs that have already been taken down. They were installed upwards of 40 years ago."
Some residents have banded together and are circulating a petition asking the city to officially remove the signs.
"I simply can't park in front of my house because of these signs," said Dawn McIntyre, 41, who has lived in Broad Channel her entire life and is knocking on her neighbors' doors to recruit them for the petition. "We're still gathering signatures. We're not going to give up."
If the no-parking regulations are enforced, hundreds of car owners will be unable to park near their homes.
Parking along Cross Bay Blvd. would become nearly impossible, and many residents would be forced to leave their cars in Howard Beach or Rockaway, McIntyre said.
"What are we going to do with approximately 500 cars?" asked Eddie O'Hare, president of the Broad Channel Volunteer Fire Department. "There's no big multiple lot where we could park our cars and walk to our houses."
Many of the neighborhood's elected officials, including Rep. Anthony Weiner, Assemblywoman Audrey Pheffer and City Councilman Joe Addabbo, have contacted the DOT, urging it to reconsider the regulation.
Because Broad Channel is prone to flooding, residents regularly have to park on the Cross Bay Blvd. median to avoid having their cars submerged.
The DOT sent inspectors to the neighborhood after a recent complaint to city hotline 311 and found signs "missing all over the place," an agency official said.
"We need to keep an adequate width of the street for access for emergency vehicles," Solomonow said. "There's not enough room to fit a fire truck down those lanes."
O'Hare said that the volunteer fire department makes hundreds of trips on Broad Channel streets to check fire extinguishers and respond to emergencies.
"We've never had a problem, never had an accident," he said. "We've had no problems going up and down the block. This is a waste of taxpayer's money. There is no safety situation here."
