By Anton K. Nilsson

A public art piece on the sidewalk at the corner of East Fordham Road and Webster Avenue is frequently obstructed by parked vehicles belonging to multiple city agencies, enraging officials from the borough’s biggest business improvement district. 

“Tomorrow,” the enormous wooden sculpture by the Japanese artist Akihiro Ito, towers over the passing pedestrians from its platform on the sidewalk. The eye-catching art piece dominates the busy intersection that falls within the Fordham Road Business Improvement District, where 80,000 people pass through daily.

The BID helped bring “Tomorrow” to the neighborhood this past spring after collaborating with the Department of Transportation’s art program DOT Art. Daniel Bernstein, the co-executive director of the Fordham Road BID, said the obstruction of the art piece by city vehicles is “especially annoying” because the art was partly funded by the DOT.

“We want to keep the place accessible, to be able to do tours with the artist for example,” said Bernstein. “We do a lot of stuff that is aimed at beautifying public space. And then you have certain government officials who park on the sidewalk and block access… It’s beyond me.”

One parks employee, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, shrugged over the matter, saying there’s simply “nowhere for us to park anymore.”

Parked in her city-owned, dark-green truck a few feet from the sculpture, the Parks employee blamed the DOT for pushing Parks vehicles onto the sidewalk after it worked with the MTA to create the Bx41 express bus lane on Webster Avenue.

“The city was involved. They knew when they put that bus lane there, that there would be nowhere to park. We can’t park across the street and carry our equipment back and forth through the traffic. It won’t work. It’s too bad that people cannot get to the sculpture,” she said.

Calls to the city Transportation Department were not returned.

Apart from Parks employees, officers from the MTA Police Department also take up the sidewalk. “We park there when we enter the [Fordham Metro North] station,” an MTAPD spokesman told the Norwood News. He said that the MTAPD will continue to park in front of the art piece as often as it needs to.

The fact that MTAPD vehicles are blocking access to the sculpture “doesn’t matter,” said the MTAPD representative. “We have had no complaints.”

For now, Bernstein has reached out to city agencies to voice concerns.