A 53-ft. delivery truck has been illegally blocking Montague and Hicks streets in Brooklyn Heights, causing chaos. Here it is at the western end of Montague. Photo: Mary Frost, Brooklyn Eagle
BROOKLYN HEIGHTS — A behemoth, 53-ft. delivery truck has been unleashing chaos on the streets of Brooklyn Heights for more than a year, and residents near Montague Street, the neighborhood’s main shopping strip, are bursting with frustration at the city’s seeming inability to solve the problem.
“My family has lived in this apartment for 50 years,” said Sue, who lives at the intersection of Hicks and Montague. (She doesn’t want her full name used.) “We’ve never experienced anything like this.”
A “humongous” truck from UNFI (United Natural Foods, Inc.) has replaced smaller trucks used by a previous vendor delivering groceries to the Montague Street Key Food several times a week, usually in the early morning hours. The truck-only loading zone in front of the grocery store doesn’t go live until 6 a.m. — so UNFI’s drivers often pull onto the middle of Hicks Street or Montague Street, where they set out cones, take over the street and completely block traffic for hours while they unload as many as 50 pallets.
Besides waking neighbors with the “banging and beeping” truck lift, often starting around 5:15 a.m., the truck blocks school buses, ambulances and other vehicles. “No one can turn onto Hicks Street,” Sue said. “A fire truck would have to go three blocks to get around it.”
The truck also gets stuck on a regular basis while trying to make tight turns. Neighbors have sent videos and photos to this paper, showing it hitting and damaging parked cars as it turns from Montague onto Hicks.
“I called 311 and he said submit videos and pictures. I uploaded them and within ten minutes got an…
Read the full article here
Leave a Reply