Sunset Parkers have a few more parking options thanks to an outspoken business leader — and this newspaper.
The city adjusted the times that drivers can leave their cars in a truck-loading zone on Fifth Avenue between 41st and 42nd streets after this paper published a local’s gripe that the previous regulations were hurting local business. The change by the Department of Transportation has opened up two additional parking spots during key shopping hours, the thankful business booster said.
“I have to thank you for covering the story about DOT and the loading zones,” said Sunset Park Business Improvement District director Renee Giordano. “The loading zone took up about two spots so it will give us back those.”
The loading zones provide commercial trucks a place to sit so drivers don’t double-park while making deliveries, but they also take up parking spots shoppers would otherwise use while perusing local businesses, Giordano said.
Previously, the city barred motorists from using the spots any time between 8:30 am and 7 pm every day except Sunday. That’s 63 hours a week that Fifth Avenue shoppers couldn’t park there — and all during business hours. Now drivers are only banned from parking there from 7 am to noon, Monday through Friday — just 25 hours a week.
But the city still hasn’t addressed Giordano’s main gripe. The Department of Transportation is poised to create four new truck loading zones between 45th and 55th streets in October — but it didn’t consult local business and is even refusing to tell anyone where the new zones will be.
Giordano just wants to be in on the conversation when the city makes changes that affect the business district, she said.
“For us, this is really frustrating,” she said. “When it comes to working together, there’s no discussion. Us being [on Fifth Avenue], we might have a different viewpoint and have a better idea of why one location would work better than another. We’re here all the time.”
The Department of Transportation did not respond to a request for comment.
