Morris Park is set to get some new wheels.
A new car service company has been blessed by the local Community Board and could begin serving the neighborhood with at least ten cabs as soon as February.
Dash Car Service is only a Taxi and Limousine license away from kicking off operations from a base at 1354 Stillwell Ave., said the business owner, Nancy Hall.
Hall hopes to fill a need in a nabe filled with medical employees looking for a ride to and from work.
The city’s new green outer borough cabs, which are allowed to pick up street hails, have barely made it out to Morris Park, she said.
“Ask around, and people around here say it’s hard to hail a cab,” she said, whose cars are not allowed to pick up hails.
Parking Concerns
Community Board 11 cast a resounding “vote of no objection” to Dash’s application at its Nov. 21 meeting, after peppering Hall with questions over the last few months.
The Board’s transportation committee was concerned that the cars would occupy parking spaces in an area where space is precious.
A former car service company in Morris Park was forced to shut down after its vehicles loitered in front of their base shop, said Vinnie Prezioso, who serves on the committee.
Hall promised that won’t happen with her cabs.
“They don’t make money hanging out at the base,” she said. “They make money out there on the road.”
The drivers will receive alerts on a GPS-like screen attached to their dashboard.
The new technology is key —the livery cars clustered in front of past car service bases did so to ensure that their two-way radio signals would function, David Leavitt, the board’s economic development chair, said at the meeting.
Hall also stressed that since she does not own the cars themselves, drivers would take their cars home at the end of their shift, instead of parking on local streets.
Most of the board supported Dash and claimed that it will fill a local need.
“We don’t really have a car service in that immediate area,” Prezioso said. “We had a bunch of requirements, and in the end we were satisfied with what they did and how they did it.”
There was some dissent.
Board member Mahendra Patel was concerned that adding another car-related business to the area could increase traffic.
“The majority of stores in that part of Stillwell Avenue are car repair shops. Did you consider the impact of having one more car company in that area?” asked Patel.
Expansion Plans
City law requires any car service to provide indoor, off-street parking for half of its fleet. Dash currently can house 10 cars at its Stillwell Avenue lot, meaning that it can have no more than 20 cars out in the street.
If the business takes off, Hall would like to expand to a larger number of cars. But first she has more important tasks to take care of.
The company’s signature Dash logo remains a work in progress.
