Don’t fence us in!

Don’t fence us in!|Don’t fence us in!|Don’t fence us in!
by Patrick Rocchio |by Patrick Rocchio |

Where once they looked at foliage, they’re now staring through iron bars.

The owners of four homes on a street just outside the Edgewater Park enclave off Miles Avenue are in an uproar after the neighboring development built an iron fence six feet into their roadway.

The Edgewater Park Owners Cooperative is claiming that what the Prentiss Avenue homeowners believed was a city street turns out to be the coop’s property. And it’s merely taking it back.

Even though the homeowners say the city paves their street and their row of homes were built at least 50 years ago, Edgewater’s president maintains the group is within it rights, and is moving ahead to complete the fence.

Neighbors (l-r) Louis Mondelli Jr., Carmen Colon, Jamie Susi, and Anthony Susi stand on Prentiss Avenue, next to Edgewater Park’s fence that now covers part of the street surface.
Photo by Patrick Rocchio
by Patrick Rocchio

Homeowner Anthony Susi said he can no longer make an easy U-turn with his car, and is sometimes forced to back out of the block.

He is also concerned the narrowed street it will make it difficult for emergency vehicles like ambulances and fire trucks to turn down the block, as well as other problems.

“Obviously there’s a safety issue, because emergency vehicles

Patrick Rocchio can be reach via e-mail at procchio@cnglocal.com or by phone at (718) 742-3393

Seen here from the end of the fence is the gap between the what had been the street’s border and the fence where Edgewater Park’s property apparently ends.