Tuesday, July 26, 2011

DOT killing small businesses in Ozone Park

From the Daily News:

A city plan to boost safety for pedestrians on a busy commercial street in Ozone Park is turning into a slow death sentence for nearby stores, merchants said.

The Department of Transportation made Liberty Ave. one-way eastbound between 93rd St. and Cross Bay Blvd. in November as part of a project to alleviate congestion.

The agency put bollards on Liberty Ave., forcing motorists to turn right onto Cross Bay Blvd. Now, the once-bustling block between 93rd St. and Cross Bay Blvd. is deserted, locals said.

"This is a dead block now," said Fabian Niaupari, owner of Terra Nova Bakery on Liberty Ave. "I had to let go of three employees a month after the change and things keep getting worse."

Niaupari, who bought the bakery four years ago, said drivers used to stop for breakfast and continue on to Rockaway Blvd. "Now they have to go around and drive four blocks to get there. Nobody wants to do that," he said.

Mukesh Patel, owner of Ram Stationary, a greeting card store, said his business is down 50% since the change.

"If the DOT wanted to make things better, they should have adjusted the traffic lights in the intersection," he said.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

How many drivers park a day to get to this bakery? When we drive to Liberty Ave we usually have to park up to 5-6 blocks away.

I mean, there's virtually no way to stop, pick something up and be on your way while you're driving in liberty ave unless you're double parking. If you're one of the lucky that gets a spot near the bakery/restaurant, you're probably not one of many.

In the morning that intersection already is crazy with morning rush. There is just no way. Businessmen like to blame everyone for the poor economy it seems.

With the bus dropoffs on crossbay blvd, he's probably got more business off the passengers looking for a quick bite before hitting up the A train.

As for the greeting card store?! LOL. It's a greeting card store - who buys those anymore? All the greeting card stores along Atlantic Avenue and Jamaica Avenue have already dried up. The ones who stay afloat....well, we all know they're fronts for drugs - let's get serious...

Anonymous said...

The block is in Ozone Park so why is a Richmond Hill Economic Council guy getting interviewed?

Anonymous said...

The Richmond Hill EDC is honestly all about the indo-carribean people living along that strip from Liberty Ave - Van Wyck until Liberty Ave & Crossbay Blvd.

It's less of a Richmond Hill thing and more of that. Since Richmond Hill takes up most of that Liberty Ave strip, he's being interviewed.

The Richmond Hill EDC is unfortunately pretty exclusive to the indo-carribean business owners.

Anonymous said...

The Richmond Hill EDC may want to rethink its focus since the survey, aka the census table SF1_P9, says that the 2 zip codes of Ozone Park together have a population that is over 69% either Hispanic, Black, or White leaving no more than 31% that could be Asian or a combination of Asian and something else. The census also says that the 2 zip codes that make up Richmond Hill together have a population that is about 55% that is either Hispanic, Black or White leaving a possibility that 45% could be Asian or a combination.