After years of complaints, the city has finally responded to a group of Maspeth residents who are fed up with their street being used as a junk yard.
Last week, the Department of Consumer Affairs suspended American Auto Body & Recovery, at 60-05 Flushing Avenue, from its Directed Accident Response Program (DARP), which allows tow companies to remove vehicles from accident scenes on a rotating basis.
The suspension and a hearing to be held July 14 were in response to numerous violations issued to the tow company for improper storage of vehicles and failing to disclose call records in relation to the DARP program. For years, residents have been complaining that the street in front of American Auto Body has been littered with junked cars and trucks.
The shop’s inclusion in the DARP program was questioned by local civic leaders when they discovered that the DCA had issued 86 citations to the shop in the first three months of the year.
Tony Nunziato, a Maspeth business leader, said the shop has illegally parked towed vehicles in the street for years. “We kept reporting it to the police, and they would go out and give them warnings,” he said. “Nothing was going on, they occasionally gave tickets, but the cars were still there. … We don’t want to hurt any businesses, but businesses should not hurt the neighborhood. They were definitely hurting the neighborhood.”
Today, the street is cleaner. Nunziato said there are no more beat-up cars without license plates or stray bumpers on the sidewalk, but civic leaders are still unsure the cars are being stored legally.
“That is the entrance to Maspeth, no one wants it littered with abandoned cars,” Nunziato said. “Cars should be stored on lots, not in the street. We don’t know where they moved the cars, but we’re trying to find out.”
“It’s a total victory for the community,” he added.
While it is a victory, one of the shop’s neighbors, Edison Bonifaz said problems with the shop persist. There are still towed cars parked in the street, though rarely overnight, but the shop’s commercial vehicles are left out. Additionally, cars are double parked and left running in front of the shop throughout the day, he said.
Bonifaz, who has lived on the block for 10 years, said the situation has improved only moderately, and that the only solution is for American Auto Body to leave the neighborhood.
“The neighbors are very happy because we want our neighborhood to be nice … and the city is finally doing something,” he said. “But [American Auto Body] doesn’t care because they don’t live here. … The owner is never there so they do whatever they want. They only care about making money.”
A petition is being drafted by Bonifaz and fellow neighbors to have American Auto Body’s business license revoked. They are planning a community meeting for next month, and will be circulating the petition soon.
“I just want them out of the neighborhood,” he said.
Polina Loumakos, co-owner of American Auto Body, could not be reached despite numerous calls to American Auto Body. She did tell the Daily News that the city “just caught us on a bad day” and that “everything is done correctly at [her] shop.”
Loumakos added that she felt the media was trying to attack her and that they only came during business hours.
According to Bonifaz, Channel 11 News visited his block Monday night. He said it was late, and he did not go out, but from his window he could see junked cars double parked.
The DCA has two programs that contract tow companies, DARP, and the rotation tow program (ROTOW), which regulates fees for recovered or abandoned stolen cars. Both mandate fees for towing and storage. Companies can take part in the programs after holding a DCA tow permit for one year.
According to the DCA, American Auto Body is not enrolled in the ROTOW program.
Currently, there are 140 companies participating in DARP. According to a DCA spokesperson, the department has conducted 680 inspections this year, issued 153 violations and revoked 16 licenses.
by David J. Harvey
