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Lack Of Parking Destroying Columbus Avenue Business

NEW YORK (WCBS 880) – When the Department of Transportation installed a bike lane on Columbus Avenue in November, it changed the whole street design and took away parking spaces.

That lack of parking spaces is now wreaking havoc on local businesses.

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 LISTEN: WCBS 880's Peter Haskell reports

Ivan Pharmacy owner Ivan Jordan said his business has declined by 25 percent and the major cause is the parking trouble.

"The decline in business was the most immediate because people got frustrated looking for a parking spot that they just went elsewhere," Jordan said.

The resign took away about four parking spaces, Jordan said. Now he said the spaces can only fit about three or four cars.

After community complaints, the DOT now said it will look to add parking spaces and to improve signage.

Borough president Scott Stringer thinks the city should have sought more input from the beginning.

"You cannot design a street, design a community simply by having downtown experts tell us what should be in the street grid," said Stringer, who was able to lobby for some changes. "They are going to restore parking on select block lanes without heavy left hand turn volume. They're going to cut back loading zone hours and increase customer parking, which was a very big issue."

Stringer said he'll try to bring these changes to other neighborhoods in the city.

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