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Politics & Government

'No-Parking' Signs Removed

Village still divided on extended meters



Parking time limits are changing on Bell Blvd. in Bayside Village, but many shopkeepers who aren't in the dining and drinking business are still dead-set against it.

The proposal to  time limit from one to two hours has been "under study" by the city's Department of Transportation, and some meters have already been changed, according to Greg Sullivan of the .

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"The DOT sent [spokesman] Scott Gastel to our last meeting (Nov. 16) and we wanted to know what was taking so long," said Sullivan. "He said the change would be made the next week."

One week later, the meters have been changed from 35th Avenue to about 40th, and the rest should be changed all the way to Northern Blvd. by next week, according to Sullivan.

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"No Parking — Street Cleaning" signs were removed by the DOT over the weekend.

 While there is near-universal praise for the elimination of the morning parking ban on the boulevard, the business community remains largely divided on the meters.

"A lot of my contractor customers come early in the morning so that was always a problem," said George Susca at , near 41st Ave.

"But reducing turnover is bad for business," said Susca, adding, "Customers want to park right in front of the store when they're buying paint."

 "It was the restaurateurs who wanted longer parking, so their customers wouldn't skip dessert to avoid getting a ticket. It's bad for the rest of us," he said.

Sullivan insists that when he has explained how longer limits encourage shoppers to go from store to store, merchants warm to the idea.

"Greg hasn't spoken to me," said Herbert Cheng at , where the one-hour limit is still in force. "But I'm probably not going to change my mind. I don't see how two hour parking will help us. People who shop here aren't browsing other stores."

Gary Chang at the  also loved the idea of allowing parking in the morning – when he sells a lot of coffee and newspapers, but said, "One hour is definitely better."

One non-eatery fan of extended parking is Edward Teran at American Vision, also near 41st Avenue.

 "It takes a half hour to 45 minutes to do an eye exam. Sometimes there's a 15 minute wait, and then customers have to pick out frames," said Teran. "Often customers have to interrupt the exam to run out and feed the meter."

"The problem for me is that if a customer gets a ticket, I wind up paying it, to keep them as a customer." Teran suggested that the situation would be improved if permit parking was removed from the Bayside municipal lot.

"That's easy for him to say," sniffed Susca. "The lot is right around the corner from his store."

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