Postal workers illegal parking
hurting Park Slope businesses
A postal worker left a USPS shirt in the window to keep their ride from being ticketed. Photo by Ben Verde
COURIER LIFE, DEC. 6-12, 2019 3
BY BEN VERDE AND JOE HITI
Ninth Street business owners
say their bottom line is suffering
due to a lack of parking
spaces on the two-way strip,
thanks in part to rampant illegal
parking by United States
Postal Service employees and
a new road design that restricts
double parking.
“There should be a lot of
cars pulling in and out on that
block, but we walk down the
block and every other car has
a postal hat and shirts in the
window,” said Lauren Kotsis,
owner of the Bagel Pup, which
is located one door down from
the Ninth Street post offi ce.
The parking spaces on
Ninth Street are metered, but
USPS employees – whose placard
abuse along the east-west
thoroughfare has been well
documented in the Brooklyn
Paper – skirt regulations by
displaying agency merchandise
on their dashboards, leading
NYPD meter maids to give
them a pass and creating an
unfair system that is harming
small businesses, according to
Kotsis.
“We’re paying $300 for a
parking space so we don’t illegally
park or double park,” she
said. “They should get to work
early like everybody else.”
USPS previously stripped
Ninth Street employees of
their placards after the Brooklyn
Paper uncovered widespread
abuse – but employees
have now resorted to leaving
hats or patches in their windows.
Jacob Tupper, a 29-yearold
Greenpoint resident who
passed by the Post Offi ce on
Wednesday, was outraged
when he noticed USPS employees
hogging spots on Ninth
Street.
“It makes it harder for
business to get done,” he said.
“I mean I believe in getting
the mail, but taking advantage
of it makes it harder for
everyone who lives and works
there.”
A Post Offi ce rep told
Councilman Brad Lander’s
(D–Park Slope) offi ce that local
USPS management would
double down on internal enforcement
and reprimand employees
who parked illegally,
according a spokeswoman for
the lawmaker.
The USPS and the NYPD
did not respond to requests for
comment by deadline.
Further complicating
things, a 2018 road redesign
added a bike lane and narrowed
the driving lane, making
it impossible to double
park and quickly run into a
business.
“Nobody can even pull
over anymore,” said Larry,
the owner of Fifth Avenue Key
Store, located on Ninth Street,
who would only give his fi rst
name. “I used to have customers
that would say ‘all-right,
wait in the car for a minute
while I get a key.’ They can’t
do that anymore.”
The protected bike lane on
Ninth Street was upgraded
from a standard bike lane
in 2018, as part of a series of
safety upgrades the city implemented
after a horrifi c
crash at Fifth Avenue left two
children dead and sent three
adults — including a pregnant
woman who later miscarried
— to the hospital.
Larry said he’s not against
a bike lane in front of the
store, but that he wishes the
road design had left space for
double parking. Ever since the
redesign, Larry says traffi c to
his store has dropped off dramatically.
“They don’t come in no
more because there’s no place
to park,” he said. “This used
to be one of the busiest stores
in this area. If they can’t stop
for just a second they’re not
gonna come in.”
—With Colin Mixson
BY TODD MAISEL
Shooters wounded four
people in two separate incidents
in Flatbush and
Brownsville on Monday.
A woman shot a 39-yearold
man in the gut on E.
52nd Street near Clarendon
Road at 11:50 am on Dec. 2,
according to police.
Officers with the 67th
Precinct found the victim
slipping into and out of consciousness,
and paramedics
rushed him to Kings
County Hospital in serious
condition, cops said.
Later that day at 3:50 pm,
two shooters waged a gun
battle on Howard Avenue
and Dean Street, wounding
three men whom paramedics
rushed to Brooklyn University
Medical Center, according
to police.
All victims of both
shootings are expected to
live, cops said.
No arrests have been
made in either case. Police
believe the second shooting
was gang related, according
to sources.
Dermot Shea was sworn in as the 44th NYPD Commissioner at a ceremony
at Police Plaza this morning. Photo by Todd Maisel
Four wounded in two shootings