Aug. 3, 2015 By Christian Murray
Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer and a number of transportation-safety advocates are calling on the police to stop car dealerships from parking their vehicles on the sidewalk along Northern Boulevard.
The cars are a danger to pedestrians, Van Bramer said, since many people are often forced to walk on the heavily trafficked Boulevard in order to get to where they are going. This problem becomes even more perilous, he said, when school starts up again and children walk to school.
Van Bramer said that he has received many reports from constitutents who are concerned about the problem and that he continues to call on the 108th and 114th precincts to enforce the law.
On Tuesday, Van Bramer along with members of Transportation Alternatives, Make Queens Safer and local parents will be going on a walking tour throughout the Woodside portion of Northern Boulevard to highlight the abuse of the public parking regulations by the dealers and auto-body shops in the area.
“This has been an issue since as long as I have been a councilman—probably for decades,” Van Bramer said. He said that there is periodic enforcement but more needs to be done.
He said his goal is not to bring hardship to the dealerships—since they hire people and help the economy. However, he said, they should not be breaking the rules.
“They should be off the sidewalks and we are drawing attention to it,” Van Bramer said.
Walking Tour:
August 4, 10:30 am
Starts: Southeast corner at the intersection of Northern Blvd and 61st Street
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9 Comments
This is also a serious problem on Queens Boulevard in the vicinity of the border between Sunnyside and Long Island City. One of the worst offenders is on the south side of QB, at the intersection with Skillman Avenue. The dealer usually has cars double-parked on the sidewalk, proving a safety threat to students coming from or going to LaGuardia College.
Your homophobic comment is entirely unpersuasive.
Van Bramer is a useless … Who the hell is walking on the sidewalks on northern blvd anyways. This idiot can’t even get garbage cans put it on skillman ave or fix up the shit hole children’s park on 39th ave and 50th street, but he’s worried about car dealerships.
I’ve never seen such a worthless idiot representing the city as this jackass. People wise up and get rid of this guy. He’s. No help to anyone except himself. There’s so much garbage and dog shit all over the streets and he doesn’t do a thing about that but he’s worried about sidewalks that have no foot traffic.
It should be across the board then. Police cars shouldn’t be parked like that either. Try walking in Long Island City.
The police need to be able to jump in their cars and serve emergencies. I think they should be allowed to park head out since they serve a purpose to the general public.
Exactly!! Let’s pick our battles!!
Van Bremer should be more worried these jerks on bikes that keep riding on the sidewalk and grabbing women’s a$$es. It happened to a dear friend of mine on Sunday night and the 108 couldn’t even be bothered to respond. That’s a much bigger quality of life issue than car dealers overstepping their bounds.
I would say they both need attention. Neither is acceptable.
Should be: Car not parked legally? Car gets towed. Dealerships would limit this stupidity if they had a real consequence for flaunting the law in this way.