Store Owners Protest Lost Fordham Road Business
To view our videos, you need to
enable JavaScript. Learn how.
install Adobe Flash 9 or above. Install now.
Then come back here and refresh the page.
Owners of some stores on Bronx’s East Fordham Road held a City Hall rally Wednesday to say the select bus service program has harmed their business.
The business owners and Community Board 6 called on the city to put meters back on the street.
The new program, implemented in June, allows buses to drive in red painted lanes along Fordham Road and Pelham Parkway that are off-limits to other vehicles.
But store owners said they can no longer load or unload merchandise and customers are having trouble finding parking.
"Fordham Road became a ghost town now,” said local employee Edwin Vargas. “All the businesses are closing. I been working there 30 years, they cut back two days on me because there's not enough business.”
“Stores sign a multi-year lease expecting to have meters outside, and all of a sudden they lose the meters, they lose the parking and their customers," said David Rose, whose company owns several local stores.
In a letter to Community Board 6, the Bronx borough commissioner said the bus lanes will not be removed, but 19 parking meters have been added on side streets, and at least 25 more will be added soon.