Seven Avenue Chunk of 86th Street To Be Reserved For Tour Buses This Holiday Season
They paved paradise, put up a parking lot — for tour buses.
Neighbors are up in arms regarding no parking signs signs posted by the police department along 86th Street between 7th and 14th Avenues, reserving area parking for “tour buses only” for over a month, from 3 p.m. to midnight November 28 to January 3. The signs, a blinding pink, are adorned with two clip art images of tow trucks.
“What are we supposed to do on the holidays with family coming, tell people they have to park 10 blocks away?” one distraught resident asked in a Facebook post with an image of the photo. She went on to demand the signs be taken down.
Other area residents felt similarly outraged, with a general consensus that the signs are meant to benefit tour groups who visit the area to look at the area’s famed Christmas light displays.
We have confirmed with the 68th Precinct that the signs are valid.
Community activism has had success in the past having no parking signs removed, as in the case of PS 101, The Verrazano School, on 2360 Benson Avenue. It may have taken a full decade’s worth of complaints to convince the Department of Transportation to remove the “No Standing” and “No Parking” signs causing traffic problems near the school and forcing teachers and students alike to park blocks away, but the community accomplished it. Hopefully the city will be significantly faster acting in this case.
Oh the irony of creating something wonderful in your community — the Christmas lights display — so that area residents lose parking to outsiders coming in to ogle. We feel you, neighbors. We’ll get to the bottom of this. Updates to follow.
