Deflating: Kingsbridge residents say city is ignoring 311 calls about illegal businesses

New York City residents are told to call 311 to report quality-of-life concerns. But what happens when the problems persist? A group of frustrated Kingsbridge residents is asking this question, and is finding fewer and fewer places to turn for help.

In late May, a blue minibus advertising roadside mobile tire repairs set up shop on the corner of West 230th Street and Bailey Avenue. It’s the latest addition to the stretch between that corner and West 225th Street, a strip that’s become a hotbed for automotive services offered by unmarked vans. 

 “We’re angry,” Elizabeth Samaro, who lives across from an unlicensed car wash and the minibus, said. “[The people operating those businesses] just feel they can do whatever they want. It degrades the neighborhood. It puts a blight on the neighborhood.”

For residents, many of whom have lived on Bailey Avenue for decades, it’s more than just an eyesore. What was once a place where “everybody knew everybody” and neighbors congregated on stoops into the wee hours of the morning is now a neglected neighborhood, deteriorating at a place that shows no sign of slowing. 

Despite numerous violations of city law in plain sight, enforcement has been minimal. While speaking to residents, The Press observed a New York Police Department vehicle pass by the mobile tire bus without stopping or slowing.

Among the most pressing concerns is what Samaro described as a blatant disregard for safety, a sentiment several neighbors sitting alongside her echoed. The vehicles, they said, are almost always parked illegally and routinely block fire hydrants.

“Our homes are over 100 years old,” Samaro said. “If there’s a fire, we need access to that hydrant. But instead, we have people sitting there washing cars. It’s ridiculous. It’s dangerous.”

But the neighbors’ escalating pleas aren’t just about blocked hydrants or double-parked cars being serviced in the street. Residents said the makeshift detailing racket reflects something bigger, a city that’s turned a blind eye for too long.

The arrival of the blue bus was just the last straw.

“If there’s something bothering you in your community, you have to vocalize it,” Samaro said. “You don’t stop complaining. You do something.”

Within days of the bus’s arrival, she filed five 311 complaints about it. Neighbors Julie Zoulis and Irene Bravado also rang the hotline. However, 311 records show all but one complaint was marked closed, with no indication any action had been taken.

The only time 311 officials followed up was in response to a June 6 complaint of an illegally parked vehicle blocking a hydrant. By 10:21 a.m., 56 minutes after she called, Samaro received an email indicating her service request was closed. The email simply read, “The police department responded to the complaint and took action to fix the condition.”

According to 311 records, on at least two occasions — one reporting an illegally parked vehicle blocking a hydrant, and another an illegally parked vehicle with a temporary paper license plate — the agency took more than 24 hours to close the cases, and gave no explanation on how, and if, the city addressed the issue.

Shady business went on as usual. But Samaro didn’t stop there.

Her next step was contacting Community Board 8 and elected officials, including state Assemblyman Jeffery Dinowitz and Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson.

In response to an email Samaro wrote to him, Dinowitz sent her written account, photos and contact information to the 50th precinct’s neighborhood coordination officer on June 3. As it stands, no one from the NYPD has reached out to her.

Although the precinct’s website lists three phone numbers for the community affairs officer, multiple residents said their calls went unanswered. The Press also called those numbers and did not reach anyone.

On June 6, there was a slight breakthrough.

“One criminal summons [was] issued for unlicensed general vendor to one individual in the vicinity of Bailey Avenue and West 230th Street,” a NYPD spokesperson told The Press. “One generator was taken into police custody and vouchered as arrest evidence.”

Still, residents said it wasn’t enough. Those who witnessed the police action noted the mobile tire repair was present at the time but was untouched by the NYPD. As of June 8, it continues to occupy its corner spot.

For Samaro, this means another day of fighting, and she doesn’t plan to stop until the tire operations cease.

“I think I’m so myopic regarding the bus across the street from my house that I see red,” she said. “In this case, I’m seeing blue, royal blue. And it just makes me incensed.”