Wong raises Amazon delivery trucks occupying residential parking

Second question, also on DOT.

In my district, I have parking spaces that's been taken over by Amazon delivery trucks, where big trucks or packages pull in,

and then walkers, people walk up with dollies, with hand trucks, with all sorts of devices.

Pick up their packages, and they go their separate ways.

They come back and they do it again.

Here's the problem.

One, these trucks are not in these loading or unloading zones.

They are in residential streets.

They take over parking spaces.

And now let me tell you how I know about it because they chose the intersection in front of my office.

And they're there the whole day.

Like 8 o'clock all the way to 6 p.m.

And I see it as a citywide problem because I see it in Jackson Heights, Corona, other parts of Queens.

So my question to you is, are you allowing this to happen or is something you need to address because it's clearly a problem?

A problem because they're taking over our residential streets and our parking spaces.

Please answer.

Thank you, Councilmember.

Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, what we're seeing is really these trends that have accelerated, especially since the pandemic, in online shopping and online delivery

and just much higher delivery activity in residential areas than we saw historically.

And I think that highlights, you know, the need for curb space and how we provide it.

We are doing a lot of innovative work.

We have a whole freight team devoted to this.

That's part of our new curb management division.

And, you know, they're trying a few different tools across the board, both because it's a little bit, there's two things in tension, right?

We want less trucks circling all over the place to make deliveries.

But if they're not doing that, then they're going to do what you described, which is basically what we would call micro distribution, right?

Where they stop in one place and then they use maybe hand trucks or they just walk or maybe use a cargo bike to make the final delivery.

So we do have a micro hub pilot program.

We're also looking at things like shared lockers where the deliveries can be made by Amazon, for example, to one set of lockers and then residents come and get it.

That also helps with theft, avoiding theft.

So, you know, the short answer is it's very much on our radar and we're trying to explore a range of options to minimize all the truck circling and have dedicated space for deliveries.

Yeah.

And I want to point out that as soon as the truck is empty, it pulls out, another one comes, pulls in, and so forth.

People are doing a lot of online shopping.

Yeah, they're there the whole day, and that's clearly a problem, and it's a citywide issue.

Please look into it, and I'm happy to continue this discussion and come up with ideas.

That would be great.

Yeah, we're always open to ideas, but definitely it's a priority.

Thank you.

Councilor Brooks-Powers, followed by Justin Sanchez and Hanif.