FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT www.qns.com june 16, 2016 • The Queens Courier 3 THE COURIER/Photo by Brianna Ellis NYC Loves Coffee street truck is receiving complaints from local businesses in Bayside. Tension is brewing between a coffee truck and brick-andmortar Bayside businesses By Briana Ellis bellis@qns.com/@briinformed A new coffee truck in Bayside has been serving plenty of warm drinks, but the newcomer is also receiving the cold shoulder from some local businesses. The NYC Loves Coffee street truck arrived on the Bell Boulevard strip last week, but local businesses are concerned about their latest competition. The mobile merchant that serves coffees, lattes, espressos and more is parked in front of the Bayside’s Long Island Rail Road station near 41st Avenue, which is a prime location for commuters to grab their cappuccinos and go. Billy “Laser,” a Whitestone resident who works at the NYC Loves Coffee truck in Bayside, told The Courier that he has received several complaints from local business owners who call police and pump up the pressure to drive him out of town. “Most police officers don’t want to be bothered. They want to be out there for real crimes,” Billy said. The employee added that officers who work the morning shift have confronted him and issued a ticket as early as 9 a.m. According to Laser, one police sergeant forced the mobile truck to leave around 3 p.m., despite Billy’s desire to gain business during the rush hour traffic. “All the customers who want us and it’s these people … but it’s scary because it creates a stress level for me and I get depressed. I do. This is a love truck, not a hate truck, and they make me feel so bad,” Billy said. He also told The Courier that one anonymous individual threatened to call 311 every hour until the truck leaves and warned that “something will happen” if he refuses to move. “I’m never out to hurt local businesses ... everybody’s got coffee but our coffee is not packaged and shipped. It’s roasted right here in Brooklyn. It’s our brand, our brand is coffee,” said NYC Loves Coffee owner Douglas Gray, a Bayside native who operates other trucks in Manhattan locations like Wall Street and Prospect Park. He assured The Courier that the coffee truck is equipped with a citywide permit that enables him to conduct business in the local area. The truck has not been seen on Bell since June 10, but a truck worker told The Courier that business would likely resume the week of June 20; the truck is currently catering at another location in the city. However, Lyle Sclair, executive director of the Bayside Village BID, told The Courier that the BID filed a 311 complaint against the NYC Loves Coffee street truck, due to a violation against NYC Department of Transportation Traffic Rules Section 4-08 (h)(8) that states, “No peddler, vendor, hawker or huckster shall park a vehicle at a metered parking space for purposes of displaying, selling, storing or offering merchandise for sale from the vehicle.” According to Sclair, vendors are prohibited from parking at a muni-meter after 9 a.m. in accordance to these regulations. “Donating $2 every hour to the meter does not negate parking laws,” Sclair said. He clarified that the Bayside truck is not an isolated incident but aims to combat “meter feeding for everyone,” as a result of the lack of parking space on Bell Boulevard. Open from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Monday through Friday, the truck has even inspired Bayside residents to create a “Save the Love Truck” petition that urges supporters to help solidify its spot on Bell. A nearby business, Martha’s Country Bakery, dislikes the new coffee truck. “It keeps taking a couple of our customers and I think it’s affecting the business,” Frey Escobar, manager at Martha’s Country Bakery, told The Courier. “Eventually if we see that he’s taking our business away, then I guess we’ll have to report it … All the customers that take the Long Island Rail Road in the morning, they would come here. Now it’s possible for them to get coffee from there.” Other businesses like 7-Eleven and Top Bagel didn’t have much to say about the new kid on the block. “No, actually this year we are slow. Last year was busy, this year is slow,” said Rehana Haque, manager at Dunkin’ Donuts, who told The Courier that she does not notice any negative impact by the coffee truck in particular. More trash bins for northeast Queens The streets of northeast Queens will hopefully be cleaner than before, thanks to funding allocations by one City Council member. Using $10,000 allocated by the New York City Department of Sanitation, Councilman Paul Vallone provided 30 brand-new waste bins to areas of Whitestone, Bayside, College Point and Little Neck. According to Vallone’s press release, the locations for these new waste baskets include five bins in Whitestone Village along the 150th Street corridor; five containers on Bell Boulevard between Northern Boulevard and 33rd Avenue; five cans around the College Point Boulevard corridor; and eight more by Northern Boulevard between 168th Street and Little Neck Parkway. “These new trash receptacles will go a long way towards improving the cleanliness of our community,” Vallone said in a press release. “By increasing their availability in commercial areas, people will be encouraged to use them and I look forward to seeing less trash littering our streets.” Brianna Ellis Runway fix may add jet noise in Queens Queens residents may face the burden of more airplane noise due to a new plan for Newark Liberty International Airport that might involve an additional runway. Flushing-based Congresswoman Grace Meng expressed her opposition in a letter to the head of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on June 9, stating that the New Jersey airport’s plan to use another runway for incoming flights may increase air traffic over Queens. “The people of Queens for too long have dealt with excessive aircraft noise; we have worked too hard to address these issues to allow further changes to the airspace that would have a detrimental effect on our constituents,” Meng said, addressing her concerns to Michael Huerta, administrator of FAA. Brianna Ellis New b-ball courts at Woodside Houses Kids at the Woodside Houses now have newly-renovated basketball courts for their pickup games. Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer and the Woodside Tenants Association cut the ribbon on June 13 on the new basketball courts, which were recently renovated at a $500,000 price tag. The courts had become deteriorated in recent years, Van Bramer said, and it put young people at risk of serious injury. “Young people in the Woodside Houses deserve safe, modern outdoor spaces, not dilapidated, run-down courts,” Van Bramer said. The legislator and association members played the first game on the new courts, which will feature a youth basketball tournament later this year. Robert Pozarycki
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