A Fresh Direct truck on Amsterdam Avenue at 90th street. Photo by Rob.
Complaints about trucks from food delivery service Fresh Direct double-parking on the Upper West Side have escalated in recent weeks, and the community board will take a look at the issue on Tuesday night. At 90th street and Amsterdam Avenue, Fresh Direct trucks park all day as they make deliveries.
But it’s rankled some locals (we were cc’d on one of the email chains).
Rob, a local who has spoken up about the issue, listed his complaints below.
“1. double parking, never to receive any traffic tickets
2. blocking car from parking in legitimate spots with there carts. Last I knew you cannot reserve public parking
3. Blocking open spots till the rest of the vehicles move so that they can move there vehicle into a three car space. Again illegal however, traffic cops just seem to walk past them as if there is some sort of city side deal going on
4. truck carts casually and dangerously left on crosswalk causing families and children to be blocked..clear a dangerous situation
5. trucks blocking the crosswalk…another very dangerous situation for families and children…these corners must be made clear and safe…again a situation that the traffic officers just continue to walk by with blinders
6. Fresh Direct employees laundering the corner, sitting , smoking etc”
The community board’s Transportation Committee will meet Tuesday night at 7 p.m. at 250 West 87th street to discuss the issue. Below, check out the full agenda for the evening:
Transportation Committee, Andrew Albert and Dan Zweig, Co-Chairpersons
Tuesday, May 10, 7:00 PM
1. Discussion with Fresh Direct on operations on the Upper West Side.
2. A request to the NYC Department of Transportation to restrict north-bound left turns from Central Park West
onto West 93rd Street, from 7am to 9am, Monday through Friday, as a mitigation to traffic congestion around Columbia Grammar & Prep School.
3. Discussion with Friends of Stryker Park on plans for plaza events on the north side of West 97th Street,
Columbus-Amsterdam Avenues, on June 11, 18, and 25 from 10am to 3pm. (Subject to confirmation.)
obviously donators to the Bull Deblasio campaign fund
*donors
Sounds like you’ve been smoking your name
And yet, this has been going on since Bloomberg.
Thanks, and play again!
Fresh Direct employees laundering the corner, sitting , smoking etc
Didn’t know FD did laundry….but they are always parked in front of the laundromat between 91/92 on Amsterdam.
The city has always been filled with delivery trucks. Are people suddenly being affected by this? So where are they supposed to park if they don’t double park or take up 3 spaces?
1. double parking, never to receive any traffic tickets
2. blocking car from parking in legitimate spots with there carts. Last I knew you cannot reserve public parking
3. Blocking open spots till the rest of the vehicles move so that they can move there vehicle into a three car space.
It is acceptable and understood for a delivery van or truck to park or idle for the delivery it is tasked to do. But the FD trucks come at 9 AM and stay parked in the same space all day until at least 6. That is the problem.
Btw, how old is this photo? There are still phone booths on this street. 😉
2. blocking car from parking in legitimate spots with there carts. Last I knew you cannot reserve public parking
WSR, I’ve asked time and again. PLEASE hire a copy editor! “there carts” should be “their.” This is literally elementary grammar. I like to take you guys seriously as a news source for my nabe, but this is just embarrassing.
Anyone who wants to contribute to the writer’s salary can impose conditions on his employment.
So far, he is reporting fairly and accurately and allowing his readers to post their own comments. If you don’t like what the commentators have posted, then either (a) respond to the commentators, (b) ignore their spelling errors, or (c) move on.
But in any event thank WSR for making this great service available for us. And don’t pick on him for not doing even more than he already does. He does plenty.
Thanks, WSR.
Jeremy wrote,
“Any responsible journalist would not unilaterally correct grammar in a written quote.”
That is my understanding as well. I find the complaints against WSR here quite bizarre.
I will mention, thought, that I have regularly noticed grammatical errors in WSR’s own writing. WSR is far from alone here, however. Alas, I have found the Internet to be rife with grammatical, spelling and all types of other errors– even at some of the most well-respected and prestigious sites. (And I don’t mean only in comment sections.)
anonymous wrote,
“use [sic] to indicate you’re keeping someone else’s typos intact”
I also think that would have been in order here.
(BTW anonymous, how about using proper capitalization and punctuation?)
Well said, though technically there should be quotation marks around “[sic]” to show that it is only being mentioned, not used.
The commentor’s sentence should have read “use ‘[sic]’ to indicate you’re keeping someone else’s typos intact”, since the “[sic]” here is not meant to suggest an editorial difference with the preceding word, “use”.
This is verbatim from the complaint! WSR
What an awful excuse. “I didn’t do it!”
Fair enough. You should stone us in public for crimes against grammar. WSR
Um, Siddhartha, “[sic]” is not a correction. A correction is a correction. And a correction in a quote is wildly inappropriate unless it has been discussed with the subject. Nice try, tho.
@Jeremy — Um, yes actually most respectable news sources do. That’s the point of using [sic].
Don’t give in! 🙂
Any responsible journalist would not unilaterally correct grammar in a written quote. You’re in the right.
No. No one should “stone you” publicly or privately for publishing blatant errors like using “there” instead of “their.” You should simply correct the errors.
If you didn’t hide behind your anonymity, I would!
Another reason to be anonymous!
The fact that a resident has spelling or grammatical issues doesn’t mean that the West Side Rag has to accept these errors as holy. Is Rob going to sue the West Side Rag for changing “there” to “their” in his quoted text? Is a court going to award major damages? Will readers be upset if they somehow learn that you have corrected spelling and grammatical errors in quoted text? No, no, and no.
OMG! Wow! Really??? Who cares! Unbelievable what people complain about!! There are more important issues and comments to be made other then (Ha!) grammatical errors, like there and their. Please take your petty gripes elsewhere!
use [sic] to indicate you’re keeping someone else’s typos intact
6. Fresh Direct employees laundering the corner, sitting , smoking etc
??
I would hope they were laundering the street! I think you meant to LOITER. And is there some law against smoking on the street? I think not…
You “would” hope that? Under what circumstances, different from the present, “would” you hope that?
Or perhaps you meant to say that you actually *do* “hope” that, in present time?
If so, you might want to pick up a basic text on grammar (if you can spare the time from dissecting other posters’ failings, of course).
Cato: You didn’t seem to understand that I was making a joke. You’ve passed grammar class, now on to reading comprehension!
Believe me, I know a joke when I see one.
But in any event, please write in English. You’ve already presented yourself as the be-all-and-end-all authority, so hold yourself to the same standards.
The rest of us will.
Cato, once again being all too reasonable. Well put.
this is quite the complaint. I live right near here and see these supposed “violations” all the time.
the crosswalks are rarely blocked and there aren’t carts “dangerously” left on the sidewalk. Its called, walk around the cart if its blocking your way. As I often do with people who carelessly push their strollers in my path.
and people are upset about the employees “laundering” on the corner. What are they supposed to do or go on their break?
So mean people can be.
They leave their carts in the bike lane and sometimes block the lane with their trucks all day.
Not to mention that in order to keep the food refrigerated, the truck has to run all day long, spewing contaminant into the air. Isn’t there a law against idling??
As someone else stated, there has always been delivery trucks in NYC. True. The difference here is that Fresh Direct stays in the same spot all day. Most trucks unload and leave. I walk by the Fresh Direct truck that used to be next to Rite Aid around 70th St. It now parks a block over. The workers hang around it like a clubhouse. They have claimed that area as their own day after day. Can’t do that. Move on. Sadly, in a couple hours I’ll have to walk by them again. Like the sun rising everyday, so to is the Fresh Direct truck taking up their claimed area.
“there has always been delivery trucks”
^
“has” should be have
Frankly, having the truck parked there all day is the lesser of two evils. It would be far worse to have the truck going from red light to red light all day long causing more traffic and pollution.
Ideally Fresh Direct would set up a distribution center in the city and use smaller vehicles like vans or even maybe bicycles (OMG I said bicycles!) to do their runs. But I doubt that will ever happen since there has been a systematic approach to eliminate such industry in the city in lieu of new residential developments. Which in turn require more deliveries like Fresh Direct. A self feeding system of sorts.
I can’t wait to see Fresh Direct people riding in the bike lanes…
Anyone wanna place a bet that Fresh Direct delivery people using bicycles would ride in the bike lanes in the proper direction?
Zulu, I like the way you think!
Yes, food distribution has been moved away from the city center. Stay tuned for this crisis in-the-making.
Please accept my apologies, dannyboy. I honestly thought you were being sarcastic.
Why the snide, sarcastic response, dannyboy?
Zulu’s post was intelligent, thoughtful, reasonable and well-written.
Can’t you respond in-kind, even if you disagree or take exception?
Independant: You misread my Comment. Read it literally.
Did we all forget you can now drink and urinate on city sidewalks without getting arrested? I’m hardly concerned about a few people laundering (sic) and smoking on their break.
“NotEightyAndCranky”: The disdain for the elderly exhibited in your posting handle is offensive.
Do you deserve to be arrested for taking a piss? No, I don’t think so. It’s totally unpleasant, but such a waste of resources for our city to send people to jail for it. Give them a $200 fine, and be on your way. Cheaper and more effective.
And for drinking on the street, have you been to any European city? They’ve been doing it for a long time with no problems.
What happens if, as I suspect would often be the case, the offender simply doesn’t have the money to pay the fine? Community service?
Yes, you DO need to be arrested for peeing on the sidewalk. In what world do we live in where someone actually doesn’t agree that you should be arrested for that kind of behavior?? This is progressive nonsense. If you take out your penis and point it at the sidewalk and urinate, you should be locked up. Come on people.
I’m more concerned with drivers getting away with murder, frankly.
I didn’t say it was a crime that shouldn’t be prosecuted, I merely said that ticketing was an effective deterrent, without using taxpayer money to send someone through the justice system.
I’d rather have the pisser pay me, than me pay for the pisser to be fed, housed, clothed, etc.
But oh, how we all want our groceries delivered to our apartment door, and within a two-hour time frame…
Are you suggesting that the people complaining are Fresh Direct customers? Do you have any evidence of that?
Maybe not the complainers, but their neighbors, friends and family.
Maybe complain to those instead of in the WSR?
Please explain to me why these Food Direct trucks are an issue? Commerce is changing in 2016. Why is there a side tangent on the correct use of the English language? I think there is a generational divide here on
how and when we shop.
Is it a generational difference that explains that many people prefer to go out in public and interact with others?
I thought that it was just how social a person is?
This way we have always done it so fall in line at your local (dirty) Sloans or Red Apple.
I didn’t know there were still any Sloan’s or Red Apples still in business – where are they located?
Oh my god! I’ve been shopping at Fresh Direct and Whole Foods for so long that I didn’t notice that those nasty places are gone. Now, let’s talk about Associated and Gristedes.
I have a bigger problem with their boxes. This week we got ahuge box and plastic wrap for a measly carton of strawberries–and then another giant box for blueberries!
Amazon Prime is doing a much better job with their delivery service–insulated bags that go back to the truck with the driver. I have a feeling Fresh Direct is going down.
Fresh Direct is being taken down by Amazon Prime? Just out of curiosity, I looked at their site to see if they had fresh salmon and got this message: “Arrives between May 16-19.
Ships from MD, United States.” I prefer to get my food fresh the next day, and I’ve never had a problem with packaging. Why not complain directly to FD? Maybe they’d like to know if something isn’t being done as efficiently as possible. They have been a life saver for me.
This is a difficult issue. They are breaking parking regulations. However, they are doing so as a consequence of the community clearly wanting the service that is being provided. What ever might be lost in parking meter revenue is more than gained by tax revenue.
The company built a warehouse and employees hundreds of people. I can’t understand why the community boards involved have never sat down with the company and reached a solution to this issue.
“The company built a warehouse and employees hundreds of people.”
employs
The majority of the community does not use Fresh Direct.
If the majority of the community does not use Fresh Direct then why are the trucks parked in the neighborhood all day?
That is the discussion here. The trucks are here all day to profit from the minority in the neighborhood who use Fresh Direct.
The issue is that public space is being used and abused for their profit and the servicing of that neighborhood minority. Prompting the CB7 Agenda item.
Stuart,
You incorrectly applied my logic in your Comment. It’s preferable for you to use your own logic, no matter what it is.
My logic, if applied to bike lanes would conclude that CB7 should place Bike Lines on their Agenda before creating them. Which they did.
Taking your logic to the next level to those who post on this site, do the majority of the population ride bikes, which necessitates the creation of bike lanes? Or are bike riders in the minority? I believe the majority in our neighborhood are using mass transit. So, following your logic, the bike lanes should be removed.
So basically at the bottom of all this are a few disgruntled car owners who are angry at losing a parking spot. We also know that they shop at Stu Leonard’s on the weekend and not local.
But the majority of the complaints involve: blocking pedestrian crosswalks, loitering on street corners, exhausting emission fumes, and blocking bike lanes.
Speaking of “laundering the sidewalk”, the portion seen in the photo looks like it could use some “laundering”.
Why are so many commenters crabby nitpickers? Don’t read this blog if you hate and complain about it so much! I refuse to read comments anymore.
If you “refuse to read comments anymore”, how do you know that “so many commenters [are] crabby nitpickers?”
Just saying….
Feeling the love.
Fresh Direct trucks do not pollute as much as the numerous Mr. Softee trucks parked on every other street on the upper westside.
Not only do they dispense the worst soggy cottonball-tasting ice cream, their noise and exhaust are killing us!
Make them get electric refrigeration or tell them to beat it.
Please, these guys are harmless. Minding their business and doing their job. Are they that scary?
OMG! And somehow none of you made it to the meeting in question. Luckily, WSR did! Stay tuned …
How could you know that none of the individuals who had posted here were present at last night’s meeting?
The guy in the blue shirt! It’s you!
I’m just kibbitzing on this one; don’t have a dog in this fight.
“don’t have a dog in this fight”
Your other comments strongly suggest otherwise.
Stating,
,
as you did just above, hardly makes you sound like a neutral or objective observer here.
That IS the issue being discussed. You don’t represent my views./
Why wouldn’t they make a loading zone there so the trucks can be there safely without blocking traffic and crosswalks?
This is definitely dangerous situations; however, do only
children and families live on the UWS. It’s clearly
an unsafe situation for everyone who lives on the UWS!
It seems that anytime Fresh Direct or Amazon Prime/Fresh is mentioned, we see expressions of disdain and contempt for anyone who uses these services. I would like to address the individuals who make such comments directly:
Have you considered that there are people for whom shopping locally (at least for whatever they purchase online) is just not a practical or viable option? Such individuals include, but are not limited-to, the elderly, the disabled and those who are juggling work, family and any number of other responsibilities and pressures? Have you considered that the generally much higher prices in local stores can be difficult or even impossible for many people to afford? Or the often vast difference in availability between local stores and an online vendor such as Amazon?
Or even people who simply do not enjoy battling crowds in the often impossibly narrow aisles that are typical of local stores, where one inevitably finds oneself constantly in the way of others and must continually duck, swerve and deftly maneuver in order to get their shopping done while remaining in one piece. And, on top of that, having to pay for this privilege, in the form of prices that can be as much as double those at the online competitor(s) in-question. Some people just don’t enjoy that kind of thing nor find it a worthwhile use of what is, for many people, their most valuable commodity: time. To suggest that such people must be less-than-properly or healthily social, as one poster in this thread just did, is, it should go without saying, obnoxiously condescending.
There are any number of legitimate concerns about online businesses such as Amazon and Fresh Direct and how they effect local communities (both positively as well as negatively; the matter is not black-and-white the way many characterize it). One should be able to raise and discuss these concerns– and even voice criticisms of and objections to said merchants– without condemning, attacking or insulting the many people who are Amazon and Fresh Direct customers– a group that no doubt includes many of your neighbors and fellow members of your community.
(On the positive side, let me note that all of the deliverymen I have had from both Fresh Direct as well as Amazon Fresh have, by all appearances, been fellow countrymen, whom I am happy to see employed. How many local grocers can the same be said about?)
Not One of Eighty-Two Comments are “expressions of disdain and contempt for anyone who uses these services.”
We’re discussing trucks, carts, and their drivers.
@ dannyboy:
There was at least one:
https://www.westsiderag.com/2016/05/10/tuesday-community-board-to-address-fresh-direct-complaints#comment-325390
You clearly implied that people who prefer to shop online are anti-social (or at least, as I wrote in my post, less-than-properly or healthily social). In characterizing that as an expression of disdain and contempt, I am surely not alone.
Two other examples that may not rise to the level of contempt and disdain but come across as condescending, presumptuous and judgmental, are,
“Upper West Side Wally”s,
“But oh, how we all want our groceries delivered to our apartment door, and within a two-hour time frame…”
in this thread,
( https://www.westsiderag.com/2016/05/10/tuesday-community-board-to-address-fresh-direct-complaints#comment-325316 )
and, in the May 3rd thread on Helen Rosenthal’s proposal to implement “Barnes Dances”, one commentor’s writing of,
“the increase in trucks and service vehicles due to development and instant gratification/Amazon/Fresh direct etc delivery”
[bold-text as well as italic emphases mine- Ind.]
( https://www.westsiderag.com/2016/05/03/rosenthal-considering-traffic-system-that-stops-traffic-all-four-ways-for-pedestrians#comment-325122 )
In both cases, the (blanket, unqualified) implication is that the people who use such services are frivolously and selfishly indulgent.
I have seen other examples, too, both in other threads as well as on other sites– all of which I had in mind when I made the statement of mine in-question.
——————–
@ Stuart: Thank you. I’m glad, not only that you appreciated my post but also that you took the time to let me know.
Independent, you just hut a home run with your comment.-whoever you are, I want to kiss you.
What about the noise level. We already live in a high noise area. We can distinctly hear their motor running constantly. Also, a traffic lane is being used as a parking spot for their truck at Sherman Square between 70 and 71 Street on Broadway. I have never seen a parking ticket issued. Is the city collecting money from the company to use this space?
Unfortunately, I did not know of this meeting until this morning, Wednesday, too late to attend. Fresh Direct is also a nuisance in its 24 hours 7 days a week parking in a traffic lane on southbound Broadway, on the eastern border of Sherman Square. Additional trucks pull up to unload goods onto the parked truck, a team of deliverers and their hand trucks take up the sidewalk, and when the Fresh Direct trucks leaves for a time, a unlabeled van pulls in simultaneously to hold the spot for the next Fresh Direct truck’s arrival. Sometimes two lanes of south Broadway are blocked, one at the curbside and the other in the middle lane or the far lane as they wait to switch or unload. Who gave these trucks permission to occupy the streets and why? I would really appreciate hearing about the results of the Community Board’s discussion of the issue on Tuesday night, and I hope it was not limited to 90th Street but dealt with more generally, as Fresh Direct undoubtedly is doing this all over the City. Thank you.
2. *their carts
3. * their vehicle
4. * clearly a dangerous…
6. * laundering? Got me on that one
How can you take an issue seriously when the person writing it has errors in 4 of his 6 points? If they didn’t care enough to proofread his/her work, then why should we think that the issue has merit?
“How can you take an issue seriously when the person writing it has errors in 4 of his 6 points? If they didn’t care enough to proofread his/her work, then why should we think that the issue has merit?”
Who are the multiple persons to whom the pronoun “they” refers in the second sentence? From the context I would have thought you meant to refer to “the person” mentioned in the immediately preceding sentence, but of course you would not have used the plural pronoun “they” to refer to the singular “person” — would you??
And how does the plural “they” relate to the singular (if cumbersome) “his/her”?
And, frankly, how do you even know that “the person writing it has errors” at all? Perhaps the *comment posted* by that person has errors, but the person him- or herself? How do you know that about the writer??
I mean, after all, how can we take your posting seriously when the person writing it has [included] such basic, fundamental errors?
Now, can we all please stop this holier-than-thou game of Grammar Police? So far most of those arrogating that status to themselves have shown themselves unqualified to post what they’ve been posting. How about if we instead just respect people’s clear meanings instead of picking on them — anonymously, no less — for a flub of the keyboard?
I believe that a person is entitled to his/her voice even if not in perfect English.
Rather then dwell on grammatical errors, “there vs their” or “laundering vs loiter” how about the main issue…I have seen this specific corner being referenced and, FD is in fact a serious issue. The problem is they find the need to park at the corner and into the crosswalk , rather then in a spot that is less a threat to pedestrians. They double park and, as a vehicle leaves a secured spot, FD quickly reserves those spots with handheld trucks. In addition, the FD employees are rude, loud, dirty, sit on ground smoking and have little regard for anyone (adults and children) who frequent this corner. I see that the police have actually stepped in and due to fines, have forced FD to vacate this specific spot. Well done to whomever brought this to the attention of the police otherwise, FD would just continue. It was time FD finally got what they deserved….the boot!!
Isn’t Sherman Square the ‘mall’ where McDonald’s is located? The police and National Guard are a constant presence there because of the violence between the high school kids who hang out there. I live one block away and find this a lot more threatening that the FD trucks. Back to my original statement; I really don’t understand why anyone is complaining about delivery trucks when the entire city operates this way (unless you happen to live on Park Avenue). I’ve never seen FD blocking the sidewalk or creating a dangerous situation with their materials, nor have I seen any of the delivery people behaving badly. Can’t wait to read the details of the meeting.