Brick-and-mortar business owners say Illegal street vending has proliferated across the city this year and a lack of enforcement and direction by Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration is making the situation worse.
Businesses in Brooklyn have reported an explosion in illegal street vending near commercial centers, according to Randy Peers, president of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce. The vendors are selling everything from fruit and vegetables to clothing, cellphone accessories and personal protective equipment.
“The amount of illegal street vending has increased dramatically in the last few months,” said Daniel Estrada, executive director of the Sunset Park Business Improvement District in Brooklyn.
Critics trace the problem back to June 7, when the mayor announced he would be transitioning the Police Department away from enforcing street-vendor regulations. The moved followed widespread protests after the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd.
“We will shift certain responsibilities away from the NYPD, including street vendor enforcement,” de Blasio wrote in a tweet. “Civilian agencies will move into the lead, de-escalating these interactions that overwhelmingly affect immigrants and communities of color.”
The move surprised business owners, who said they have seen a marked increase in the amount of illegal street vending outside their stores.
“We’re just befuddled,” said Nick D’Agostino, owner of D’Agostino and Gristedes grocery stores. “We’ve gotten no enforcement, and it’s getting worse and worse every day.”
Nearly five months since the mayor’s Twitter announcement, neither a civilian agency nor a task force has been set up to fill the gap of coordination and enforcement typically reserved for the NYPD.
“We’re still in a transition period,” said Julia Arredondo, a spokeswoman for the mayor. “You can say we’re transitioning from enforcement out of the Police Department to city agencies.”
In a later statement, the mayor’s office said that while the transition is taking place, the NYPD will continue to respond to 311 service requests and 911 calls related to vendors.
One reason for the dysfunctional transition into a new form of oversight is the fact that prior to de Blasio’s ad hoc announcement, multiple city agencies took the reins of enforcing different street-vending regulations.
While the NYPD received 311 calls, the Department of Health was in charge of monitoring food vendors. The Department of Transportation handled violations with food trucks. The Department of Sanitation would be called in for sanitation violations. The Parks Department oversaw issues with vendors that took place in parks. Even the Fire Department would occasionally write tickets, as would the Department of Consumer Affairs.
The situation has grown more confusing without clear direction from the de Blasio administration.
“The fact is the Health Department points the finger at Consumer Affairs, and they point their finger at police, and the police shrug and say City Hall pulled them off,” said Rob Byrnes, president of the East Midtown Partnership. “Nobody wants to do anything right now.”
Critics said it is unclear if some vendors have licenses and if they are operating within the law.
Owners of brick-and-mortar grocery stores—such as D’Agostino, who pays a 3.9% commercial rent tax—said they’ve watched their business get poached by vendors who set up shop right outside their stores, sometimes in street carts longer than the 5-by-10-foot regulation size.
“They’re getting bigger, and they’re selling more and more stuff,” D’Agostino said.
The Street Vendor Project, which advocates for vendors, argued that different customers want different products at different times—a situation no different from eating at a food truck instead of dining in a restaurant.
“There’s competition, but it’s not unfair competition,” said Shapiro, the group’s legal director. “Food vendors are engaged in a different business model.”
There are roughly 3,000 licensed street vendors in the city, a number capped by 1983 legislation. But there are an additional 2,100 licenses made available for seasonal permits, green carts for certain neighborhoods, borough-specific permits, and veterans and disabled vendors, for a total of 5,100, Shapiro said. His group estimates there are more than 10,000 illegal street vendors across the city.
The Street Vendor Project is supporting City Council legislation that would add 4,000 vendor licenses and create an independent enforcement agency. The bill has garnered 30 co-sponsors and the support of Speaker Corey Johnson.
Vendors have been left in limbo without a clear-cut plan of organization from City Hall, Shapiro said, and they have been left to question regulation and enforcement together with the hundreds of brick-and-mortar businesses they compete with.
“We were taken by surprise,” Shapiro said. “It was a blanket statement. We haven’t received specific guidance from the administration, and we’ve talked to different people.”
“The city has done one of the worst things it can do,” Estrada said. “Even if the old system needed improvement, they’ve thrown it on the rocks without coming up with anything new that would be an important way to manage public space. Especially with the onset of the pandemic, a lot of people are out vending on the street, illegally, for survival.”
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Mayor Bill de Blasio administration creates street vendor chaos for brick and mortar businesses - Crain's New York Business
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