More Than 400 Abandoned Cars Are Sitting On Bayside's Streets

BAYSIDE, QUEENS — More cars have been abandoned on the streets of Bayside during the first nine months of this year than in all of 2019 or 2020, records show.

All told, 430 Baysiders have reported abandoned vehicles to 311 since the start of this year, amounting to 10-plus more calls than all of 2020 and nearly 20 more calls than pre-pandemic 2019 — before the coronavirus emptied New York City's roadways and relaxed alternate side parking rules.

And, Baysiders aren’t alone. The number of busted cars littering the streets of Queens has skyrocketed in 2021, as compared to the last two years, making the borough a veritable dumping ground for more than 15,000 reportedly abandoned cars.

In northwest Queens, one blue BMW sat on a street corner for nearly a year with an expired registration and three flat tires. Nearby, in Astoria, another car was parked on an Open Street for almost three months until neighbors complained on Twitter and the police finally towed it.

Reports of abandoned cars in Bayside span the entire neighborhood — from one cluster of complaints in the north, around the Clearview Park Golf Course, to another in central Bayside, by the LIRR station.

Patch mapped the complaints in Bayside to show where abandoned cars were dumped across the neighborhood. Click through the map below to explore each abandoned car complaint.

This isn’t the first time that car-related complaints took center stage among locals in Bayside — a suburban-like corner of Queens where many people depend on cars, especially since the area is not connected to the city’s subway system.

In June, Bayside’s community board voted against a school proposal partially on the basis that it would limit neighborhood parking spots, and many locals are known to detest the city’s ever-expanding speed camera program.

Also, during the pandemic, drag racing complaints have increased in Bayside — making it the neighborhood in the borough that saw the most racing complaints earlier this year.