Should There Be Bilingual Parking Signs In Downtown Bay Shore?

BAY SHORE, NY - Some Bay Shore businesses are claiming that the English-only parking signs in the downtown area are diverting Spanish-speaking customers.

Last year, the Town of Islip implemented a new parking parking program which changed the parking rules in several areas in downtown Bay Shore.

The plan included:

• Installing parking meters in lots behind Main Street which would be become active after 6 p.m. on weekdays rather than at 9 a.m.
• Running meters on weekends from 9 a.m. on Saturdays and 1 p.m. on Sundays.
• Creating more weekday parking spaces in Lot B behind Main Street at Mechanicsville Road
• Adding additional employee spaces behind the YMCA Boulton Center for the Performing Arts on Main Street.

Since then, several businesses such as the Quest Medical Center are stating that less customers have been coming in since the new parking plan was put in place and that may be due to a language barrier.

"We used to see between 100, 200 patients a day, now we're down to 70," Dr. Estella Vanegas of Quest Medical Center told ABC7.

As a result the business has also had to lay off several employees, ABC7 reports.

“The Spanish-speaking population can’t understand, and the area is largely bilingual,” the clinic's office manager, Doreen Woolford,told Newsday. “A few people had to lose their jobs over it.”

A total of 25 percent of Bay Shore's population is Spanish-speaking.

The town states they are working with Cale American Inc., a pay station vendor to make signs in other languages and that the digital meters have the option to select a different language, according to Newsday.

However, not all businesses are claiming that the lack of bilingual signs are a problem.

Taco Guacamole manager, Kenner Hernandez, who is bilingual, told Newsday that he has" not heard of the English-only signs causing a problem."

What do you think? Should the parking signs in downtown Bay Shore be bilingual?