NEW YORK — A new effort is underway to put the brakes on truck drivers taking advantage of parking in neighborhoods around the city.
Trucks left parked overnight has been an issue for years, and city officials say it’s only getting worse, CBS2’s Ali Bauman reported Monday.
Trucks are not allowed to park on residential streets between 9 p.m. and 5 a.m., and yet they do night after night. It is an issue that has plagued southeastern Queens for years, and city officials say it has only gotten worse during the COVID-19 pandemic. It now impacts neighborhoods from Staten Island up to the Bronx.
Mayor Eric Adams is putting his foot down, or should we say his boot down, on 18 wheelers that use the city streets as their own personal parking lots.
“This type of parking is not happening in affluent areas. This is a residential community. They deserve the same level of quality of life that we give to other parts of the city,” Adams said.
The mayor joined the NYPD on Monday night in Springfield Gardens to tout their overnight enforcement crackdown on commercial vehicles in residential neighborhoods.
Since launching Operation Heavy Duty Enforcement on Aug. 15, the NYPD has issued nearly 600 summonses, booted 89 wheels, and towed 55 trucks.
“It’s disrespectful to our neighbors. It’s dangerous and, honestly, it’s just outright dumb,” Queens Borough President Donovan Richards said.
For years, CBS2 has been covering this issue in Queens — residents complaining of 18 wheelers parking illegally in their neighborhoods night after night, taking up space and causing blind spots for drivers.
City officials say it has gotten worse during COVID, with the boom in e-commerce.
“We recognize there is a capacity issue with parking of vehicles. We recognize the economic situations where more people in the trucking industry, so our holistic solution is to make sure we find capacity for trucks to park, we inform truckers where they can park, and we get trucks out of open spaces,” community activist Bill Perkins said.
The mayor says there are parking facilities around the city that can accommodate large trucks and he plans to work with the companies to find safe, legal locations for the trucks to go.
