pile grew back to its monstrous size within weeks,<\/a> The Post reported last year.<\/p>\nIzabela Padula says the e-bikes and lingering deliveristas make her feel unsafe in her neighborhood. Georgett Roberts for NY Post<\/p>\n
Renzi witnessed as many as 400 bikes \u201cblocking sidewalks and causing mayhem\u201d at any given time, she said \u2014 with deliveristas treating the corner as a waiting room between Uber Eats and Seamless orders.<\/p>\n
The hordes of lingering men have made Izabela Padula fearful of walking around her own neighborhood with her baby, saying she no longer feels safe.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis block used to be much safer. Now with all these people here day and night, I feel scared and when I come home at night, I [don\u2019t] feel comfortable walking past hundreds of men outside my doorstep,\u201d Padula, 30, an office manager, said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to walk out of my home with my baby and feel safe and comfortable [within] my own neighborhood.\u201d<\/p>\n
The deliveristas hang out at the corner when they\u2019re between orders, residents say. Steven Hirsch for NY Post<\/p>\n
But advocates argue that the deliveristas have been forced into the East Village because their bikes have been stolen when they\u2019ve parked in other neighborhoods, like Union Square. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe guys are parking there for the safety of their bikes. They don\u2019t have anywhere to park,\u201d said Danny of Cafe Wal, a volunteer-run restaurant that offers free training.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to work with the community to help solve the problem.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some locals, however, say the problem won\u2019t be solved until the streets are unclogged. <\/p>\n
Mike Paredes says he was forced to close his store on the block because the hordes of deliveristas \u201changing out\u201d at the e-bike pile were deterring pedestrian customers.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeing a small business, you didn\u2019t have a budget for promoting \u2026 so we kind of depended on pedestrian traffic, as well as the window display. These bikes and these people hanging out in front of the shop, it kind of took that away,\u201d said Paredes, who is now an MTA bus driver.<\/p>\n
Similarly, Robert Zerilli says business at Veniero Pasticceria & Caffe has taken a hit over the past two years. <\/p>\n
The clogged sidewalks have deterred pedestrian traffic, causing businesses to plummet. Steven Hirsch for NY Post<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery closed storefront means more than one business disappearing. It means the end of jobs, the end of someone\u2019s small business dream, and one less reason for people to visit this block,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The overcrowding has also caused a surge in litter \u2014 igniting a plague of rats.<\/p>\n
Super Hector Duran, who has worked on the block for 27 years, has been filling burrow holes with concrete in an effort to thwart the rodents, but cannot keep up with the trash-tossing deliveristas. <\/p>\n
When he tries to talk with them, \u201cthey try to fight with me,\u201d he claims.<\/p>\n
\u201cI understand they have to work, they make some deliveries but they have to follow the rules. They are not following the rules.\u201d<\/p>\n
The NYPD had been patrolling the area since Wednesday and plans to continue enforcement in the following days, a move that was ushered in by complaints that the bikes\u2019 lithium-ion batteries could ignite and cause a fire like the fatal blaze that killed a young boy and his family in the Bronx Wednesday. <\/a><\/p>\nCops, along with Sanitation workers, removed 11 bikes this week after initially giving deliveristas a two-week grace period to remove the bikes themselves, at the behest of deliverista advocates.<\/p>\n
Neither City Hall nor the Department of Transportation immediately responded to The Post\u2019s request for comment.<\/p>\n
\u2014 additional reporting by Amanda Woods<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The city is not delivering. Fed-up East Villagers demanded Thursday that the Big Apple finally terminate a crowded…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":388206,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[1159,7624,35407,57,3411,9,56,63,65,64,58],"class_list":["post-388205","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-e-bikes","tag-east-village","tag-food-delivery","tag-metro","tag-migrants","tag-new-york","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388205","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=388205"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388205\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/388206"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=388205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=388205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=388205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}