By Joe Anuta
Business owners along Jamaica Avenue in Woodhaven said their profits have plummeted because of construction crews that block off long stretches of parking spots, even when no work is being done.
For the last several weeks, crews hired by the city have been repainting the support structure of the elevated J/Z train tracks that runs above the avenue. Before the crews paint, they post yellow no parking signs on all the meters for several blocks that are effective for sometimes as long as a week, but according to business owners and workers on the avenue, they do not work each of those days.
“Nobody gives a hoot for the working people,” said Larry Giove, who works at Elita Beauty Salon, at 95-01 Jamaica Ave.
During the first week in October, he said the crews did not show up for two days and no one came to take down the no parking signs.
Customers who would normally have visited the salon did not show up either.
“I can’t lose money because they don’t want to take away the signs,” he said.
The process proceeds in four phases, according to the city Metropolitan Transportation Authority. First the crews strip off the old paint, then they apply a protective coat to the metal, then a primer, then several coats of green paint.
The whole process takes about 10 days, said a spokesman for the MTA, who countered that crews are working on the avenue seven days a week in some capacity.
As far as the parking signs are concerned, it takes at least a day to clear all the parked cars out of the area, the spokesman said, which is why crews leave the signs up even when it appears they are not working.
“You need the time to clean out the area of parked cars before they can start working,” the spokesman said.
Mark Gallagher is the owner of Manor Deli, at 94-12 Jamaica Ave., which has been open for 90 years.
“Our sales are down about 50 percent,” he said.
Most of his customers drive in from other neighborhoods, and the intermittent parking ban on the avenue as well as the crews parking vehicles in front of his store, is crippling his business, Gallagher said.
Since the parking restrictions have been in place for several weeks, he fears that loyal shoppers are fed up with the parking situation and will not even return once the railway painting is completed.
“Now you’re prone to go to another place, you’re changing your spending habits,” he said.
To make matters worse, more construction crews were repairing utilities earlier in the month on each of the side streets that flank Manor Deli. Both sides of those streets were closed for parking, which means Gallagher’s customers had to search for parking even farther away.
Some owners called the office of state Assemblyman Michael Miller (D-Woodhaven) and asked for help.
Miller had to walk a fine line, since the neighborhood has been waiting for the tracks to be painted for 40 years, he said.
“It needs to get painted,” he said, but added that the MTA still had a responsibility to business owners.
“When there is no painting, somebody is supposed to come and take the signs down,” he said.
Reach reporter Joe Anuta by e-mail at januta@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4566.
