Transportation
The E-Commerce Boom Hits Brooklyn’s Cobblestone Streets
In the race to deliver orders faster, Amazon, UPS, FedEx and others push deeper into cities, causing congestion, noise and more woes.
A truck drives along Van Brunt Street in the Red Hook neighborhood of Brooklyn.
Photographer: Jeenah Moon/Bloomberg
Red Hook, a sleepy neighborhood on Brooklyn’s waterfront, is gearing up for a trucking problem that it’s not built to handle.
The area has become a magnet for e-commerce distribution centers over the past few years, thanks to its cheaper real estate and easy highway access. Its cobblestone roads are already crumbling with all the added congestion, and it’s only going to get worse for residents, with at least four new facilities opening as early as 2021, including several leased by Amazon.com Inc.