CBS2 Demands Answers, Gets Results After Brooklyn Residents Complain About Junk Cars
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A Brooklyn block has been turned into a junkyard where public parking spaces are filled with wrecked and damaged cars.
Calls to 311 went unanswered. So CBS2 demanded answers and got action.
A frustrated Sheepshead Bay resident took CBS2's Political Reporter Marcia Kramer on a tour of his block. He said he and his neighbors have been unable to park in public spaces for years because they're filled with junked cars, like one with no motor and no doors. He said more than 40 to 50 calls to the city for help have fallen on deaf ears.
"They say they're going to send somebody out… but no one shows up," he said.
The block was filled with damaged cars and apparent attempts to beat the system by leaving cars on the streets with no license plates or registrations scraped off.
Kramer demanded answers from the owners of the nearby auto body shops and called both the Department of Sanitation and the NYPD. There were a lot of excuses, she reported.
"How do you know that it belongs to me?" one shop owner said.
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A red Nissan with red plates and a sign that said it's a disabled vehicle was parked in an alternate side of the street parking spot. The excuse for leaving it there for three weeks?
"A customer took the car three weeks ago and took the key. I have no control over that," said Ralph Czeisler, of Emil's Tire. "I told him to pick it up. I can't force somebody to pick something up."
He also said he's allowed to double-park his cars in the street every day.
"Who allows us to double-park? I can't give names, I don't have names," he said.
Kramer asked Lt. Paul Toronto, of the sanitation police, if he would allow cars to double-park.
"Double-parking is a violation – plain and simple. He doesn't have my permission," he replied.
The lieutenant also told Czeisler it was a violation to leave cars on the street without plates and gave him a ticket for doing so. He said other cars without plates will be towed.
CBS2 also called the NYPD to report the damaged cars on the street that did have license plates, which is their responsibility. A spokesperson said one owner had been contacted and ordered to pick up the vehicle, another car was being towed.