NYCHA’s Queensbridge Auto Junkyard: State Sponsored Blight

Published on: April 4th, 2016 | Last updated: October 16, 2019 | Written by: Bad Guy Joe

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For one NYC housing project, it’s the 1970 & 80s all over again.

Back in the day, it wasn’t all that uncommon to find abandoned cars all over NYC, even in the ‘nice’ neighborhoods. Looted or junk cars would simply be dumped curbside, on sidewalks in industrial areas, in vacant lots and occasionally in the rivers.

These days it’s hard to find abandoned cars laying around NYC. However, at the Queensbridge houses in Long Island City, there is currently an entire parking lot full of abandoned vehicles.

All of these vehicles belong to the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA), which runs NYC’s ‘Housing Projects’. Many of the vehicles here are labeled for the specific NYCHA housing developments where they were assigned, representing an all-city view of their automotive fleet. Most of these vehicles have clear and obvious signs of damage or older age, while others look relatively new. There are pick up trucks here missing headlights, vans with smashed out windows, and a few with tags on them. Many of them have no license plates. Some have doors unlocked and are left wide open.

One can assume they are all going to be auctioned off eventually. It is unknown exactly when they started to show up, but many of these vehicles have been here for months, parked in a section of parking lot that has long sat vacant.

It’s also fair to assume you wouldn’t find a city owned car junkyard on the Upper East Side, or maybe in Brooklyn Heights. Instead, NYCHA deposited their junk vehicles here, in a corner of Queens where residents have little sway in stopping such blight. This parking lot is just steps away from NYCHA buildings, filled with residents who have to look at this literal automotive graveyard right outside of their windows.

Follow up October 2019:
Not all that long after we posted this story, the abandoned NYCHA vehicles were removed. No other press outlets seemed to pick up this story, and I did forward it to local city council reps who didn’t reply, but maybe they made some calls before this became a bigger story? Either way, daylight is the best disinfectant. I’m glad they are gone. Residential neighborhoods should never be used for garbage car storage.

Comments

NOTE: It sometimes takes a short while for comments to be approved - unfortunately there's a lot of spam comments that come in. I absolutely love when y'all share personal stories of friends relatives etc who worked in these places. It really helps capture what these places were like before they closed up shop.

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3 responses to “NYCHA’s Queensbridge Auto Junkyard: State Sponsored Blight”

1. alt0id says:

   April 4, 2016 at 8:59 AM

   Great post.. Live around here in LIC, was actually roaming around here the other day.

   http://imgur.com/a/uVLSd

   ..now if I can only find the 21 van alst abandoned platform on the G

2. Control says:

   April 13, 2016 at 9:05 PM

   Those are some nice shots. I should have stuck my face in some of them trucks more.

3. altoid says:

   April 13, 2016 at 11:43 PM

   thanks man..Im always exploring Queens/LIC..if you ever want to join, shoot me a message on Instagram http://www.instagram.com/_exp0sure_

   Keep up the great work

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