The Mazzone surname is familiar to many Carroll Gardens residents, being associated with the neighborhood’s Ace Hardware store on Court Street, in operation for three-quarters of a century.
Like many longtime establishments, it’s impossible to be immune to challenges while doing business for 75 years. It’s dealt with a franchise swap, severe supply chain issues and a changing clientele. Now, the legacy store on the corner of Fourth Place is embroiled in a battle familiar to many Brooklyn corridors: the issue of street redesigns meant to calm traffic.
We sat down with the store’s owner, Matt Mazzone, who says that the redesign of Court Street hasn’t brought much calm at all.
“I think making a change like this has made this neighborhood look more and more like every neighborhood in Manhattan with commercial parking, congestion, horn-blowing and ambulance sirens,” said Mazzone, noting that on Court Street, all of those actions have increased since the street changes were made.
Not against bike lanes
Mazzone said he wants to set the record straight: he’s not against change.
“As a driver and a cyclist, I do think Court Street could benefit from a bike lane and I firmly believe that,” said Mazzone.
Mazzone said he is against the way the change was made, as he claims DOT’s outreach to the businesses on Court Street was not sufficient.
“We have so far about 40 or so businesses that I’ve spoken to and no one has any knowledge of DOT ever contacting them,” said Mazzone. “Wouldn’t you go to those businesses that you know are getting 53-foot trucks and say, ‘Hey, how do we solve this problem?’ so that it works for all.”
Court Street now has dedicated loading zones near corners for trucks making deliveries. The hardware store is one of these businesses that receives its inventory from delivery trucks, and since the redesign, Mazzone said it’s been a challenge getting supplies offloaded and into the store.
“We are actually putting our forklift and pallets in the street to block parking so the truck could pull in,” adding that on Court and Fourth Place, the amount of loading zone space dedicated to delivery trucks isn’t enough, leading to businesses having to compete for it.
Mazzone explained that the presence of large trucks is necessary because of the bulky items the store carries, from soil to ice melt to pallets of paint and racks of plants. For him, a compromise for smaller trucks making multiple trips wouldn’t be an ideal solution to the parking dilemma.
“At the end of the day, these companies are driving in from whether it be Pennsylvania or New Jersey — I don’t think they’re going to want to make three, four trips in a day to make one delivery.”
CB6 not cooperating with local businesses
In searching for the right compromise, Mazzone has reached out to several local politicians, Community Board 6, and, helped revive the Court Street Merchants Association.
“As soon as this hit, all the businesses were really up in arms about coming together and working together to try to get this resolved,” said Mazzone. “At some point, it became obvious that the city was unwilling to work with us. So we said, ‘Well, we have no choice now but to sue.’”
As of December, the merchants association’s lawsuit to reverse the work on Court Street is pending a decision from New York State Supreme Court Justice Inga O’Neale.
Meanwhile, Mazzone said that aside from the local assemblywoman, Jo Anne Simon, other community representatives haven’t met with the association.
“Absolutely zero faith in any of them to help us, especially Shahana Hanif, especially our community board, especially the borough president,” said Mazzone, who later told the Star-Revue that Simon hasn’t followed up with the group since their meeting in early November.
While the Carroll Gardens hardware store has a sense of security, as Mazzone owns the property, he said the redesign still affects employee operations.
Had to lay off workers
“We’ve laid off one, we’ve lost one, we’re losing another, and we’ve made the decision not to rehire right now because of the decline in business that we’re seeing,” said Mazzone, adding that an employee of 25 years recently decided to move to Florida, noting her discontent with the street changes.
Adding to the business trouble, Mazzone said he’s received threatening phone calls and negative online reviews in response to his pushback on Court Street’s redesign.
One user on Google Reviews threatened to stop supporting the business, saying, “After seeing you are protesting the city putting in the bike lane which is benefiting members of our community, I will not step foot inside.”
Mazzone said the comments aren’t fair, especially since the business has a history of community giveback. In the fall, the store hosts an annual family-friendly “Pumpkinfest” on Fourth Place, which raises money for the Cohen Children’s Medical Center.
“If anyone would just pick up the phone and have a conversation, I think they would understand that our heart is in the right place,” said Mazzone. “We want safety for all.”
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6 Comments
The one lane of traffic is completely inadequate for a street with so many businesses that require big truck deliveries. The bike lane is extremely dangerous for pedestrians as bikes come from both directions at high speeds. Then pedestrians have to cross from between parked cars which is also dangerous. Extremely bad idea. Stop forcing bike lanes where they shouldn’t be. This is a very high pedestrian street. Bikes also do not use the bike lanes as they find them to crowded or restrictive and they don’t follow traffic laws. This is true all over the city. Bikes are outlaws.
I live on Court St and am really happy about the changes. To me, this is primarily about safety, and the double parking that was constant before this went in made the street very unsafe for pedestrians, cyclists, and drivers alike. Most people around here rarely drive and there is very high bike traffic, so this organizes the road for how it is actually used much better than it was before. While I commiserate with the business’ loading concerns to an extent, I think they are likely to be transient as everyone adjusts, and I don’t think that warrants entirely ripping out what’s already proving to be a huge safety improvement.
I also note that 53-foot trucks are always illegal on Court St, no business should be receiving deliveries using them, regardless of the road design.
I would say that at the time you moved to Court Street it was already a busy commercial corridor, and yet you chose to live on it. I would also say that if it weren’t for the shoppers who come from elsewhere, there wouldn’t be very many stores on Court Street and your problems would be solved.
Delivery vehicles and local pedestrian/bike traffic don’t need to be at odds with each other with the current re-design. The issue is all the non-local car traffic that is merely using court st. as a way to get to the expressway or to bypass traffic on the BQE. It may take some more time and work before old habits are changed and more people get out of their cars and onto alternate forms of transportation.
This is stenography, not journalism. Matt Mazzone is lying (to you and possibly to himself) and you’re printing it.
I’ve seen a lot of complaints about the redesign hurting businesses, without clearly articulating why. This is another one. Is it because saying out loud would be to admit “our business relied on people/trucks double-parking and making Court Street so chaotic and dangerous folks saw it as a good case for a safety redesign?”