By Nathan Duke
Nearly 60 business owners on Vernon Boulevard have signed a petition which calls on the city to reinstate parking between the Queensboro and Triborough bridges along the western Queens strip.
Merchants said their regular customers are now shopping elsewhere after having been repeatedly hit with parking tickets from meter maids after parking on side streets near their stores.
“The city is putting us out of business,” said Peter Mignano, owner of Pietra Stone Works Inc., a marble and granite fabrication business at 37-21 Vernon Blvd. “Our clients have no place to park all day long, so we are losing business every day.”
The city completely eliminated parking along the western side of Vernon Boulevard, replacing it with a bicycle lane in late June. Business owners on the street said they have been losing customers steadily because the neighborhood does not have adequate public transportation.
On a recent Thursday, it took 40 minutes to find a parking spot on a side street near Vernon Boulevard.
A DOT spokesman said the agency had not yet received the business owners' petition.
“We looked at the area and did studies about how many parking spaces are actually used,” he said. “We did not take away any parking from commercial areas.”
But Mignano said neither side of the street is available for parking on Tuesday mornings during street cleaning hours and that the new bicycle lane is under-used.
“You're lucky if you see one or two bikes per week come through here because it's a dangerous street,” he said. “It's mostly trucks and tractor trailers driving down the street.”
Sean Cash, owner of neighboring construction equipment business Garlock East, said he is considering moving his business from its current site, where it has been for 13 years. He said seven to 10 of his customers get parking violations each day and that he received two last week.
“My lease is up in April,” he said. “This is the perfect location, but I gotta leave. The customers are not coming back because they are getting tickets.”
Cash said he now pays one of his employees to stand with customers' vehicles to ensure that they do not get ticketed.
George Konstantakakos, owner of United Cabinets Shop Inc., said he has not lost too much business because he allows his customers to park in his store's driveway.
But he said some customers have been forced to drive around for long periods of time to find a space if the driveway is full.
Reach reporter Nathan Duke by e-mail at news@timesledger.com or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 156.
