STREET-FIGHTIN’
Man in Amazon van steals B’klyn road barriers
The fight between vehicles and pedestrians took an ugly turn in north Brooklyn when a man driving an Amazon van stole more than a dozen metal barriers used to block cars from some area streets, cops and local residents say.
The caught-on-camera heist shows a man in a red sweatsuit loading barriers into an Amazon van around 9 p.m. Monday, police said.
Community members said the man went on to steal all of the barriers used to keep cars from driving along Driggs and Russell Sts. in Greenpoint from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. each day.
Police said the theft was under investigation. Amazon officials were not immediately able to explain why the company’s van was used in the brazen heist.
It’s the latest wrinkle in a 10-month-long grudge between north Brooklynites who want the streets to be more friendly for pedestrians, and motorists who think they should be used exclusively for cars.
Mayor de Blasio and the city Department of Transportation last June launched the city’s first-ever “open streets” initiative, which allowed nonprofits, businesses and community groups to close off more than 100 streets to cars to give New Yorkers more space to social distance.
The Transportation Department at first provided wooden barriers to the groups in charge of north Brooklyn’s open streets, which include more than 1.5 miles along Berry St., Russell St., Driggs St. and Nassau Ave.
But those barriers were repeatedly stolen, damaged and vandalized in recent months, said members of those groups who asked not to be named out of fear of retaliation.
The Transportation Department sent the group managing the open streets more-sturdy metal barriers last week, but they were unusable on Sunday because vandals glued the locks used to secure them overnight, police said.
The sticky situation forced the community groups to leave Driggs and Russell Sts. open to car traffic on Sunday — and the barrier heist kept the streets open to cars Tuesday.
“It seems like not a way to solve a disagreement about the barriers,” said Valerie Reins, a north Brooklyn resident.
“I like having the barriers . ... We are still getting through difficult times during the pandemic, and if it helps local businesses have more room to operate on the sidewalk it feels like a worthy trade off for a little car inconvenience,” Reins said.
North Brooklyn’s open streets rely on roughly 200 volunteers who are overseen by a collection of community groups, an approach community members said was unsustainable without more support from the city and NYPD.
De Blasio said earlier this month the city planned to update its approach to the open streets program. His spokesman, Mitch Schwartz, condemned the theft of the barriers by the man in the van.
“Sounds like Amazon needs to remind its drivers that these barriers are here for a reason,” said Schwartz. “Stealing safety equipment from city property is a big deal, and DOT will work with [police] to conduct an investigation.”