Small Victory Won In War Against Bensonhurst’s Ceaselessly Double Parked USPS Trucks

Hannah Frishberg -
“Here is @USPS @USPSHelp ruining our community,” St. Finbar tweeted with this image back in October

After months of trouble, Saint Finbar Catholic Church has finally solved its problem with United States Postal Service trucks parking on sidewalks and double parking in front of their facilities, blocking community services including — in the most offensive moment — a funeral service.

“The larger issue is that the post office has increased it’s parcel services in Brooklyn, requiring more big box trucks,” Saint Finbar’s Father Michael Gelfant told us, going on to explain that, “the local post offices cannot handle the storage of these big trucks, so they end up storing these trucks all over the place.”

After much back and forth with USPS, and help from the 62nd Precinct, Saint Finbar was able to come to the resolution that, instead of allowing trucks to be double parked and parked on the sidewalk all over the neighborhood, they would only park by the post office, thus keeping the issue isolated.

Still, while better isolated for the time being, the trucks are still taking valuable parking spaces from the community, especially in and around local post offices.

And while Father Gelfant said the problem is under control now, it certainly shouldn’t have reached the extremes it did.

“At a 21-year-old’s funeral, we had to walk the body around the truck,” Father Gelfant lamented, further noting that USPS trucks frequently blocked fire hydrants as well.

“Ultimately the post office and the City of New York need to come to an agreement about space and move the entire parcel facility to one location,” Father Gelfant said, noting that he blames the issue largely on systemic failure.

“I feel bad for the people who live there [near the post offices],” Father Gelfant said, “Why is this allowed? The people on 19th Avenue are up in arms.”

Neither USPS nor the 62nd Precinct were immediately available for comment.

Do you live in Bensonhurst and are having trouble with double parking USPS trucks? Let us know in the comments, we want to hear your story.