Community curses curb cuts

From the Courier-Life:

A plethora of illegal curb cuts and other zoning and building code violations has local activists seeing red.

And they are equally frustrated by what appears to be the city’s inability to correct the illegal conditions, as became clear during a round table discussion hosted recently by [Brooklyn] Community Board 14, during which board members engaged in a give-and-take discussion with representatives of the mayor’s office, the Department of Buildings (DOB), the Department of City Planning (DCP), and the New York Police Department.

“You can go down any street you want,” contended CB 14 Secretary Joe Dweck, “and you know there are illegal curb cuts. This is a pandemic. The whole city is damaged. It’s deleterious to commerce, plus the fact that city streets have been destroyed. Wouldn’t it behoove us to have an enforcement team to go up the blocks and enforce?

“This needs more than a shovel,” Dweck added. “We need a backloader. We need big equipment.”

“I think this is something we understand,” remarked Charles Glover, the Brooklyn coordinator for the mayor’s Community Affairs unit. Noting that he had “pulled the 311 data” for the areas of Brooklyn he covers, Glover said, “you see that of the top three complaints, one is blocked driveways. I don’t think it’s a coincidence. It’s not a nice thing for the neighborhood if you delete green space and take away parking.”

A particular sore spot for board members was paved-over gardens that had been turned into parking pads illegally, sometimes without even cutting the curb.

In addition, members attending the meeting said they had repeatedly notified the city of problems without seeing any change in the conditions they reported.

“It’s a subject I’m involved with intensely,” noted Lawrence Hilonowitz. “I’ve reported many of these violations since 2004,” he went on, brandishing a stack of papers. Yet, he went on, the problems persist.

How about when there's no curb cut but they park there anyway? (see above)

DOB is responsible for sidewalks and should have been present at this meeting. They can correct the problem and send the bill to the owner. As for the above mess, I don't know what to say... Maybe the new Queens CAU director will do something about it. Heh.