Monday, February 14, 2011

Cabs hog the parking in Astoria

From the Times Ledger:

At the end of the N and Q lines, the merchants near 31st [Street] and Ditmars Boulevard say while the area sees a lot of traffic, few of the cars parked beneath the subway train belong to customers visiting their businesses.

“We’re terrorized by the livery cab drivers,” said Harry Panagiotopoulos, owner of the Igloo CafĂ© at 22-26 31st St.

Panagiotopoulos said livery cabs often park on the streets in front of the restaurants, taking up spots for hours at a time. This is just one of the problems Panagiotopoulos said plagues the merchants on the block, whom he said have faced blackouts and unfair competition from vendors who set up shop across the street from their businesses.

While he has discussed these problems with City Councilman Peter Vallone Jr. (D-Astoria) and state Sen. Michael Gianaris (D-Astoria), both of whom have offices near the intersection and have worked to get the issues resolved, little has changed long-term.

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

At the end of the N and Q lines, the merchants near 31st Avenue and Ditmars Boulevard ...
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that's 31 STREET and Ditmars

(at the link, the location in the Times Ledger headline says 31 Street, which is correct, but the article says 31 Avenue, which is wrong)

Anonymous said...

THey are livery cars ,not cabs.They can't legally pick up street hails.Put some rookie cops there for 2 weeks to write some c summonses.

Detective McNutty said...

Why would Vallone do anything about the parking problem in that area? He is a contributor to the problem when he doesn't feed the meter or his old man double parks the gold Cadillac.

Unless he has some personal interest in a local problem he will not get involved. For example he helped get a traffic light installed near the Vallone senior housing building on 21st ST. Though the bigger traffic problem is the corner one block away, where kids from the Boys Club are reckless when crossing the street.

Anonymous said...

driving and parking anywhere in astoria sucks. it's like driving in a third world country, and living there isn't far off from that either.

Anonymous said...

“We’re terrorized by the livery cab drivers,” said Harry PANAGIOTOPOULOUS

He can always move to whatever 3rd world country he came from, most likely Greece.

Anonymous said...

“We’re terrorized by the livery cab drivers,” said Harry PANAGIOTOPOULOUS

Terrorized? Don't you just love the hyperbole?

Anonymous said...

This is all true, all along 31st treet, under the El in Astoria, the cabbies having been doing this for years!!!

Anonymous said...

He can always move to whatever 3rd world country he came from, most likely Greece.
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AND YOU CAN MOVE TO WHATEVER COUNTRY YOU CAME FROM!!! Everyone in the US came from some other country. Its getting trite to say this but the only Americans are Native Americans. Yes, sir/madam, even your parents or grandparents or great grandparents immigrated here!

Anonymous said...

Yes, sir/madam, even your parents or grandparents or great grandparents immigrated here!

Yes, they did, but they learned English, and assimilated, rather than isolating themselves and only speaking in their native tongue. My grandparents were proud to be AMERICAN and flew the American flag, not the flag of where they came from.

Anonymous said...

Anon No. 5:

Since when is Greece a third world country?

Anonymous said...

"AND YOU CAN MOVE TO WHATEVER COUNTRY YOU CAME FROM!!!"

My ancestors are Native South Americans. We have inhabited this hemisphere 14,000 years ago from what is now Canada and migrating as far south as Argentina. Your parents immigrated here, NOT MINE. Unless you count the asiatic movements during the ice age

Anonymous said...

You people are hilarious. The United States has been a sovereign country since 1776. We aren't talking about 14,000 years ago, or the ice age. We own the land now. Deal with it.

Anonymous said...

You people are hilarious. The United States has been a sovereign country since 1776. We aren't talking about 14,000 years ago, or the ice age. We own the land now. Deal with it.
___________________
We make up the majority of the population in Astoria. Deal with it. Cest La Vie!!

Anonymous said...

The majority of the population in Astoria is Mexican as per the US census. Deal with that!

Anonymous said...

"My ancestors are Native South Americans...Your parents immigrated here, NOT MINE."

That is one of the most asinine and hilarious statements I have ever read.

Anonymous said...

^^^I concur with you. I laughed so hard, so I chose not to answer it.

and YOU! ahaha

Yes, they did, but they learned English, and assimilated, rather than isolating themselves and only speaking in their native tongue. My grandparents were proud to be AMERICAN and flew the American flag, not the flag of where they came from.

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Have you had a thought that some people don't want to isolate themselves but that people discriminate against them? And so what about the flag? You're going to silence them by restricting their freedom of speech; that's not very patriotic. It's like saying, "(Insert name), you can eat whatever you want for lunch. But you must eat a hotdog."
^^^ok that was a bad anology but it is like that!

Queens Crapper said...

It's more the attitude than actually flying another flag. When people used to come here for the most part they left home behind. Now they bring the whole country with them. If you must fly the flag of your own country, at least have enough respect for your new home that you fly it under the American flag.

Anonymous said...

The illegal parking problem there has been going on for

15 YEARS AT LEAST

Do you REALLY think ANYTHING will be done? And to make matters worse, the street is filthy with litter that these stores DO NOT clean and ARE NOT fined for not cleaning.

Shall I continue?

MAYBE if there were street garbage cans there would be NO litter problem. Take a walk from 31st street to 21st street. There are NO garbage cans. NONE. Do you think people have an incentive to keep the neighborhood clean? If the neighborhood is filthy, do you think ANYONE cares about illegal parking?

There is a garbage can ON EVERY CORNER in the Vernon / Jackson millionaire's condo area, all lined with green plastic garbage bags. Why? Because they are all Wall Street SCUM.

New money is power in this cesspool of a city. And the rest of suffer, while these PIGS vote for Bloomberg every 4 FUCKING YEARS!

PIGS ALL OF THEM!

Blame it on the absentee landlords who DO NOT live in the neighborhood anymore and just sit back and collect rent from kids who have NO interest in preserving the neighborhood and simply DO NOT CARE because MOMMY and DADDY are paying the bills from Connecticut.

Astoria, the hell hole.