By Stephen Witt
Complaints about a local ambulette service utilizing residential streets for overnight parking have opened the dikes to a flood of illegal parking complaints. The complaints came out of a recent executive meeting of the Futurama Civic Association, according to the organization’s president, Eileen Cullen. Cullen alleged that BLP Transportation of NY, 1739 Utica Avenue, utilizes local residential streets to park their ambulettes overnight, leaving local residents to hunt for the remaining parking places. “When I left for work at a quarter after six in the morning, there were six of them [ambulettes] parked – three on Avenue K and the others on East 51st Street, which is a residential block,” said Cullen A spokesperson for BLP Transportation said the ambulettes all have TLC [Taxi and Limousine Commission] license plates and are legally able to park on residential streets. It is commercial plates that are illegal to park on residential streets, the spokesperson said. Community Board 18 District Manager Dorothy Turano confirmed that when she called the 63rd Precinct about the problem, she was told there was nothing that could be done about the ambulettes. However, Turano said the community board is barraged by complaints about illegal parking throughout the district. “We call the 63rd Precinct, and in many instances they tell us they’re allowed. Then they tell us they don’t have the equipment to remove them. All of our efforts even to Police Borough Patrol South go without any results,” said Turano. Turano said among the hot spots for illegal parking are all along Ralph Avenue where 18-wheelers park overnight and on weekends. There are also cars parked with no license plates and ‘For Sale’ signs on them along this corridor, she said. Turano said the trucks on Ralph Avenue are so brazen they take the cab part of the truck off and sell South Carolina furniture out of the storage back part of the vehicle. “The police tell us they’re allowed and they have a million and one excuses. I would bet if I was to park in my own driveway I’d get a summons,” she said. Turano said the tractor-trailers also park along Avenue U, Mill Avenue, and Kimball and Hendrickson Streets. Turano also alleged that several car rentals, and car and motorcycle dealerships, flout the law and park unregistered vehicles on streets reserved for residential parking. Patrol Borough Brooklyn South Community Affairs Officer Lt. James Woods said he spoke to 63rd Precinct commanding officer Dep. Inspector Frank Cangiarella specifically about the ambulettes, and unfortunately they have a right to park on residential streets. However, the precinct enforces all other rules with the ambulettes such as not parking in crosswalks or near fire hydrants, Woods said. Woods said the inspector and the precinct is very aggressive in enforcing all illegal parking violations. “They [the precinct] has a dedicated conditions unit that handles this kind of thing and do a yeoman’s job out there and issue a lot of summons,” said Woods. Woods said unfortunately a lot of truckers feel it’s cheaper to park on the street and pay a summons rather than pay for spots to park in the city.
