Bayonne, New Jersey, officials handed hard-working truckers a double whammy by banning street parking and giving the thumbs down to a private facility.
Residents of the once proud blue-collar community voiced dissent for the way the men and women who haul 72 percent of America’s goods and materials are being treated in the New Jersey municipality.
“Why are we pushing our guys out of town? Why are we saying no commercial vehicles can sit on the street overnight? Then these guys are leaving early in the morning and they’re not going to do anything to you guys during the day. A lot of them live in town and have property in town, I being one of them,” Patrick McManus reportedly said at a City Council meeting.
Before the ban, “truck tractors, trailers, and vehicles exceeding 16,000 pounds, gross weight” were allowed to park overnight in designated areas. These reportedly included East 22nd Street, New Hook Road, Hook Road, Pier Street, Ingham Avenue, and Pulaski Street. The roads are all located in industrial land-use districts east of Route 440.
Truck owners applied to the Director of Public Safety for a permit. The decals were free to residents with non-residents paying $500 annually. The City Council voted unanimously to ban truck parking throughout the community in August, and decals are not being renewed.
As if adding insult to injury, the Bayonne Zoning Board blocked a private truck parking project. Developers known as The L Group requested approval to open a truck parking facility off Route 440 at East 22nd Street and New Hook Road.
This would effectively provide safe overnight spaces for truckers now displaced by the street parking ban within the industrial-zoned area. And a parking lot had once operated at a nearby former warehouse property, also off Route 440. The L Group appealed the zoning officer’s denial for a variance, only to have the Zoning Board of Adjustment reject the truck parking solution.
“I know that we’re looking to redevelop all the tankers down at Hook Road. It’s hard to see trucks in your town. If you don’t like seeing trucks, go to Morris County. You’re not going to see them. You’re going to be in your happy Mayberry neighborhoods,” McManus reportedly said at a public hearing. “This is the town that blue-collar workers built. Right now, they’re rolling in their graves… At least 17 truckers that I know are rushing with less than two weeks to find a place to park. Some are saying I’m going to park and I’m going to pay the tickets. Now you’re going to write them and take more of their livelihood.”
Municipalities such as New York City and Bexar County, Texas, are also following the urban and suburban trend to ban truck drivers from street parking. New York, like Bayonne, offers no viable solution for truckers who must pull over once their hours of service have expired.
Sources: foxsanantonio.com, hudsonreporter.com
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