Sammy Ikbara, the burly new owner of Sammy’s Fashions on 161st Street,   watches as cars slow down in front of his store.  He has plastered his windows with big red “Sale” signs, hoping to persuade people to stop in and buy a pair of Nikes marked down from $110 to $40.  But the cars don’t stop. 

Maybe the drivers don’t want shoes.  Or maybe they do, but can’t find parking anymore in front of Sammy’s Fashions.

“If people can’t pull up and stop,” says Ikbara, leaning with his hands on the glass counter, “they just keep on going.”

John Pryor, one of about 10 customers milling about the store on a recent Monday afternoon, stood by the counter looking at a discounted pair of Nikes.  He was the only customer in the store at that time to have arrived by car. “I drove around for 30, 40 minutes just to find a spot,” he said.

Parking has become a major issue for the businesses up and down a long stretch of 161st Street, an area already home to the sprawling Criminal Court Complex, and now the site of construction for the new Yankee Stadium.   Both 161st Street and part of Grand Concourse have been torn up to widen lanes, ease traffic congestion, and “add more open space to the neighborhood,” according to the New York City Department of Transportation.  

All the construction has wiped out a hefty number of metered parking spaces, leaving business owners and their customers to circle block after block, sometimes for as long as  an hour, just to find a spot.

Pat Canale, president of the 161st Street Merchants Association and the owner of the Italian Hero Shop just off of 161st, pointed to the timing of all the construction as the problem.

“There is no parking on 161st Street because there was no coordination,” Canale said.  “They [Department of Transportation] did all this construction in one shot.”

Canale said at least one business in his merchants association, the Supreme Gourmet Deli, had to close from lack of parking.  “Some businesses are suffering,” he said.  “This is a rough time for merchants on 161st Street.”

John Katsihtis, manager of the Crown Diner, which is located next to the new Yankee Stadium site on 161st Street, sees all the construction as both a blessing and a curse.

“Business has been great,” said an excited Katsihtis.  “The union workers come in every day for breakfast, hand us a long list of what they want.  That’s Monday through Friday, breakfast and lunch.”

But the money he and his staff are making in tips, Katsihtis added, often goes right back to the city in the form of parking tickets.

“You can’t find anything around here,” he said, motioning toward Gerard Street, which runs along the diner’s east side.  “The lawyers and the judges are taking all the good spots.”

The Bronx Borough Courthouse, on the southwest corner of 161st and Grand Concourse, used to have a plethora of parking in front and along the Concourse from 159th to 163rd Streets.

Then in January of 2006 construction started.  Now  court officers snatch the metered spaces on the smaller streets off 161st early in the morning and leave their cars all day, since they are exempt from feeding the meters.

A spokesman for the Department of Transportation said that most of the parking meters would be reinstated incrementally as construction continues.  But because part of the construction is for a new design of the open-air Lou Gehrig plaza in front of the courthouse, some meters will not be back.

“I drive in every day,” Katsihtis said, jabbing his index finger into the booth tabletop. 

“I’ve had as many as three tickets in one day because I can’t spend time moving my car for sanitation and double parking for an hour and a half.  I’ve got a business to run.”

Katsihtis said the lack of parking also messes up food deliveries at the diner.  “We’ve had problems where they miss things on the order because they don’t want another $115 ticket,” he said. “Then they have to come back, block part of the street again, and risk another ticket, he said.

David Mojica, district manager of community board four, which covers Yankee Stadium, said the community board has tried to work with the city and find creative approaches to the lack of parking during construction.

“It’s a balancing act,” he said in a phone interview.  “Can the city do better?  Absolutely.  They could encourage city workers to use public transportation.  But it [the street work] is major capital improvement, so there are going to be some parking problems.”

Mojica said that parking is worst during Yankee games.

 “There should be some incentives where you push Yankee folks to come in by train,” he said. 

Yankee Stadium spokesman Michael Margolis said that while the team doesn’t offer incentives for fans to use public transportation,  it does print a disclaimer on pocket schedules informing fans that there is heavy construction in the area, and asking them to consider taking public transportation.

Ikbara has decided to temporarily close down Sammy’s Fashion for renovations, he said, while construction in front of his store continues.  Both the new Yankee Stadium and the work along 161st Street are scheduled for completion in 2009, with additional parks around the stadium slated to be finished sometime in 2010.  But that may not be soon enough for some businesses.

“If you survive today, that’s OK,” Pat Canale said.  “Later on, I’m going to make a lot of money.  But later on might be too late.”