Rose, colleagues want DOT to let postal trucks park in front overnight
There is a serious parking crunch on the streets outside the Dyker Heights Post Office that is showing no signs of easing up, according to U.S. Rep. Max Rose, who has organized a group of elected officials to push the city for new parking regulations outside the facility.
Rose and four of his colleagues, state Sen. Andrew Gounardes, Assemblymembers Peter Abbate and Mathylde Frontus and Councilmember Justin Brannan, are calling on the Department of Transportation to establish a “No Standing Except for USPS Vehicles” zone on 13th Avenue between 83rd and 84th streets to accompany the 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. metered parking that already exists there.
The new regulation would allow postal workers to park their U.S. Postal Service trucks on the street outside the post office overnight instead of parking on surrounding streets and taking parking spaces away from local residents, Rose said.
The post office, located at 8320 13th Ave., has no garage to store the trucks overnight.
“This is checkers, not chess. If commonsense prevails, I truly believe we can help improve parking around the Dyker Heights Post Office in a way that’s a win-win for both residents and mail carriers,” Rose said in a statement.
Residents have complained to elected officials and to Community Board 10 about postal workers hogging parking spaces in the neighborhood.
“It’s been a problem for a long time,” Dyker Heights Civic Association President Fran Vella-Marrone told the Home Reporter. “It’s very frustrating. I have even tried to find parking spaces for them myself. But every idea I have, the post office turns down.”
The elected officials have written a letter to DOT Commissioner Polly Trottenberg requesting the “No Standing” zone.
“USPS carriers’ struggle to find parking will be eased and residents and small business owners will no longer have their property impeded by commercial vehicles. We hope to open discussions with your department in efforts to implement this plan and request a meeting immediately to do so. This is an opportunity to show our constituents that government can function with common sense. It is within the interests within the community, the Department of Transportation, and the USPS to find a quick resolution to this issue,” the lawmakers wrote.
It’s not clear if the request will be granted. CB 10 asked DOT for a similar parking restriction in front of the post office in 2017 and was rejected.
Adding to the parking problem is the fact that the USPS has had to increase the number of trucks it uses at the Dyker Heights Post Office because of an increase in deliveries generated by Amazon, according to a postal worker.
“We went from three trucks to seven trucks,” the postal worker told the Home Reporter last year.
Everyone, it seems, loves to order merchandise from Amazon and get their merchandise delivered right to their doorstep.
The same postal worker estimated that employees operating out of the Dyker Heights Post Office handle 3,000 parcels a day, much of from Amazon.
Vella-Marrone said Dyker Heights isn’t the only neighborhood with parking problems stemming from post offices. “It’s a problem you see in a lot of neighborhoods. The postal trucks park on the streets and the residents can’t park there. It’s a problem that calls for a wider solution,” she said.
DOT officials did not return numerous messages.
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