Trucks and trash: W.H. residents fed up with illegal parking, messy curbs

Tommy Mascia narrowly escaped a head-on collision on Hempstead Gardens Drive in West Hempstead two weeks ago. He was driving southbound, trying to navigate the road’s sharp curve, when a northbound driver suddenly appeared in front of him.

“She was coming right at him,” said Tommy’s sister, Regina Mascia. “Tommy said that he had to swerve to avoid hitting her.”

Tommy’s near-miss was just one of several, according to his sister, who claims that illegally parked trucks and tractor-trailers limit visibility at the north end of Hempstead Gardens Drive. Regina, director of the West Hempstead Public Library, has repeatedly lodged complaints against D-Best Carting, at 77 Hempstead Gardens Drive — right where the road curves sharply — which she said parks its vehicles on both sides of the road. Idling and parking are not permitted on the southbound side of the street.

The problem has persisted for at least two years, Mascia said, since she and her mother, Julia Mascia, moved into their home on Gruber Street. Tommy and his wife, Dorothy, who live two houses over, said it has been going on even longer.

“We’ve called the 5th Precinct, we’ve called 911, nobody comes down,” Regina Mascia recently told the Herald. “They should be ticketing those trucks for parking on that side of the street. They’re parked half on the sidewalk — I’m sure if I parked on the sidewalk, I’d get a ticket for it.”

The illegal parking also poses a safety hazard for pedestrians, Mascia said. “If you want to walk there, you can’t walk on the sidewalk,” she said. “You have to walk in the street. And the cars coming around can’t see each other.”

The Herald called the 5th Precinct, described the situation and asked whether it was being addressed. The female officer who answered the phone said only that she would send a patrol car to “check it out.”

Calls to D-Best Carting were not returned as of press time.