BRONX W www.BXTimes.com EEKLY January 13, 2019 2
SAME DAY
SERVICE
AVAILABLE
SERVING BRONX
AND THE ENTIRE
TRI-STATE AREA
ANTIQUES & ESTATE BUYERS
Military
Collections
Wanted
Swords,
Knives,
Helmets, etc.
ANTIQUE & ESTATE BUYERS
We buy anything old. One piece or house full.
WILL TRAVEL. HOUSE CALLS.
WILL TRAVEL
ENTIRE
TRI-STATE!
FREE
Estimates!
We Pay $CASH$ For
Paintings, Clocks, Watches,
Estate Jewelry & Fine China,
From Single Items
to Entire Estates!
Coin & Stamp Collections
Costume Jewelry
Antique Furniture Lamps
Bronzes Paintings Prints
Chinese & Japanese
Artwork & Porcelain
Sports Collectibles
Comic Books Old Toys Records
Cameras Sterling Flatware Sets
HUMMELS & LLADROS
TOP $ PAID
FOR JUDAICA
COLLECTIBLES
HOUSE
CALLS
MOVING or
DOWNSIZING?
CALL
US!
Top $ Paid
for Antique
Sterling!
SEE OUR AD EVERY SUNDAY IN THE POST
516-974-6528
WILL TRAVEL. WE MAKE HOUSE CALLS.
1029 WEST JERICHO TURNPIKE, SMITHTOWN, L.I.
HOUSE
CALLS
ASK FOR CHRISTOPHER
Belmont BID looks to buy Arthur
Ave. parking lot from NYC
Frank Franz (l) in the Arthur Avenue Retail Market. Schneps Community News Group/ Alex Mitchell
BY ALEX MITCHELL
It’s no shock that parking
in and around Arthur
Avenue can be diffi cult to
come by.
To address this issue, the
Belmont Business Improvement
District has launched
an ambitious plan that will
have shoppers thinking
more about where they’re
buying their tasty Italian
delicacies or dining at one
of the many popular restaurants,
than their parking
meter expiring.
The BID has embarked
on a plan to purchase the
city owned, municipal parking
lot between Arthur Avenue
and Hoffman Street,
and in the process expanding
the number of cars it can
accommodate.
In December, the BID
began collecting petition
signatures from distressed
drivers in search of parking.
Since the start of the campaign
on Christmas Eve, the
BID has already amassed
1,000 signatures.
Currently, the threehour
parking limit lot offers
47 spaces. However, Belmont
BID treasurer Frank Franz
believes the lot is capable of
holding a lot more cars than
that - perhaps up tripling its
current capacity.
“What the BID would
do is install lift decks that
would expand the lot’s capacity,
and do away with a
three hour parking limit,”
Franz said, noting that each
spot turns over 16 times a
day on average.
“One spot (in that lot) results
in about a $1,000 spent
by the end of the day. The
only factor that limits (our)
businesses is limited parking,”
the treasurer added.
Naturally, adding more
spaces to the lot would be an
ideal way to boost business,
since the bulk of Arthur Avenue’s
customers come by
car, according to Franz.
Not to mention the needs
of the hundreds of people
that work in and around Arthur
Avenue as well.
“Much of our business
comes from the suburbs
like Westchester and Long
Island. People come from
hours away and they’re
certainly not taking public
transit,” he said, adding that
the area isn’t convenient to
public transportation.
As it is, the Belmont BID
maintains the city’s lot in a
variety of ways to ease parking
woes: it places a security
guard in the lot to address
safety, assigns a worker to
keep the lot clean and adds
traffi c directors to help coordinate
entries and exits
during the busy periods.
Since the meter fares are
the only revenue the city collects
from the comparatively
small lot, Franz said that it’s
“not the city’s biggest moneymaker.”
Parking in the lot became
more burdensome when
Mayor de Blasio unveiled
his CarShare program that
reserved four spaces for car
sharers.
Community Board 6 district
manager John Sanchez
took issue with the mayor’s
plan, complaining that the
board was not informed
when the CarShare program
was initiated. The car-sharing
program is also costing
the borough’s Little Italy a
minimum of $4,000 a day in
potential sales, according to
BID estimates.
Next to the NYPD, the
BID interacts with the NYC
Department of Transportation
more than any other
government agency, mainly
handling issues with parking,
Franz says.
As more drivers add
their names to the petition,
the BID plans to meet with
DOT and the mayor’s offi ce
to essentially start negotiating
a purchase price.
“There’s no doubt we
could utilize the lot better,”
Franz said.
/www.BXTimes.com
/www.BXTimes.com
/www.BXTimes.com
/www.BXTimes.com