Canarsie Residents Finally Get Relief From Eyesore
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A year-long battle over a car is over.
Frustrated residents at a New York public housing complex have been complaining for months about an abandoned car, parked in a disabled parking spot.
CBS 2's Derricke Dennis got the problem solved.
It's been more than an eyesore.
A Buick Regal -- a royal pain -- for drivers with legitimate disability placards.
"I got handicapped kids. My kids have the wheelchair. They are handicapped. They come on the bus in a little while," resident Ray Vassell told Dennis.
The car is sitting in a prime spot at the Bayview Homes housing complex in Canarsie. It's missing a license plate. It has been ticketed numerous times. Shana Karlsen, a disabled resident for 34 years, has made call after call to the city, and has still been forced to park her own car farther away.
"I've had multiple surgeries for various things. I've had 10 surgeries in eight years," Karlsen said.
Neighbors said the Buick belonged to an elderly couple, who died one after the other last year, and despite their pleas, was never removed.
That is, until CBS 2 made some calls and pressed officials for a solution. We got action.
"I have never been happy to see a tow truck in my life, pretty much never," Karlsen said.
And that really didn't take long. A couple of phone calls were made to the city, and the car was towed, after more than a year of tickets piling up.
Karlsen celebrated the empty space.
"Now I have a place where I can park my car again," she said.
It was a year's worth of frustration, towed away.
"I'm so happy, thank you, thank you," she said.
Praise for a problem solved, that simply took too long.
The city's department of Housing has offered no explanation as to why it took so long for the car to be towed, and only after CBS 2 made calls.
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