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COURIER L 4 IFE, SEPT. 27-OCT. 3, 2019
Out-of-state drivers, car
dealers hogging south
Bklyn parking spots
A camper that’s been clogging up parking on Fillmore Avenue for months.
Photo by Derrick Watterson
BY CHANDLER KIDD
Southern Brooklyn drivers are circling
the block looking for parking
because of unscrupulous car dealers,
who are stashing the unsold inventory
on side streets throughout the neighborhood,
according to the local city
councilman.
“When you see a car on your block
that has been there for six months —
it is upsetting,” said Alan Maisel (D—
Canarsie). “While we are waiting for
the cars to be taken off the streets,
they are taking up parking spots.”
The car-dense neighborhoods of
Marine Park, Mill Basin, and Flatlands
have seen an infl ux of vehicles
with out-of-state plates parking on residential
blocks, which are sitting unmoved
for months at a time, according
to one civic leader.
“Last Tuesday morning... I counted
30 cars with out-of-state plates,” said
Ed Jaworski, the president of the Madison
Marine-Homecrest Civic Association.
“These cars had plates from Colorado
and other far states.”
This reporter joined Councilman
Alan Maisel on Fillmore Avenue between
E. 49th Street and Utica Avenue
on Tuesday, where we counted four
cars with out-of-state plates.
The situation is made worse by the
infl ow of luxury apartment buildings
into southern Brooklyn, which replace
used-car lots and force dealers to fi nd
storage on city streets, said Maisel.
“Everything has an impact on
something else,” he said. “Nothing is
in a vacuum.”
The congestion caused by car dealers’
selfi sh storage strategy has been a
long-simmering problem in the area,
where numerous dealerships have set
up shop in close proximity to one another.
And in addition to for-sale cars hogging
parking spaces, many other locals
complain of abandoned cars sitting
unnoticed for months.
Police often struggle to get deserted
vehicles off the southern
Brooklyn streets because the area
lacks alternate-side parking restrictions
— meaning cars can remain unmoved
for indefi nite periods of time,
said Maisel.
“There are more abandoned cars
where there isn’t an alternate parking,”
he said. “We need more places to
tow the cars, along with more companies
to do the towing.”
One local worried about the consequences
if fi rst responders were hamstrung
by cars abandoned in front of
fi re hydrants.
“God forbid there’s a fi re, there are
fi ve hydrants between Avenue S and
Avenue T,” said Bernadette Morissey.
“I guarantee that there is going to be
a fi re with three hydrants covered by
cars.”
Police Department honchos — who
claim to have towed over 30 vehicles
over the summer — urged locals to report
any abandoned or illegally parked
vehicles to their local police precincts.
“The Commanding Offi cers of the
61st and 63rd precincts are aware of
the illegally parked vehicles and are
working to correct the condition,” said
Detective Annette Shelton.