Derelict and unregistered cars plague Mill Basin and Flatlands, but locals say the cure would be worse than the disease.
Slobs have been leaving cars with expired plates — and sometimes no plates at all — all over the bedroom community, residents say. Instituting alternate-side parking rules would help weed out the junkers, but the weekly chore is more than locals are willing to handle, an area leader said.
“The thing really would help cure that is alternate-side parking, but the community doesn’t want it,” said Community Board 18 district manager Dorothy Turano.
The general problem extends throughout Brooklyn, but it’s more manageable in areas where drivers have to move their cars on a regular basis, because abandoned cars accrue tickets for failing to move for the street sweeper, making them a target for city tow trucks, a local pol said.
“We don’t have as big a problem in Canarsie where they have to move their cars,” said Councilman Alan Maisel (D–Mill Basin), who agreed the regulations would help remove derelict cars from Mill Basin streets. “I was at one meeting [in Mill Basin] some time ago, and I asked how many people here would want alternate-side parking, and nobody raised their hand. The silence was thunderous.”
One area resident said she would be willing to do the city-mandated parking dance if it meant fewer derelict cars taking up precious parking spaces on his block.
“I can’t move my car, because I know I won’t be able to find parking, and it’s getting worse and worse,” said Diallo Johnson, a 10-year resident of Avenue K near E. 54th Street. “There’s not alternate-side parking and that’s the problem. I know it affects me, but it would help so much.”
The sanitation department hauls vehicles with no license plates, and the city hires tow trucks to drag off cars with lapsed tags or with tags meant for another vehicle, Maisel said.
