The city is moving to ban all vendors on the Brooklyn Bridge to make more space for pedestrians despite licensed peddlers' complaints that they’re being unfairly given the boot.
The Department of Transportation held a hearing on the new rule earlier this month. Among those opposed to the change was Tyrone Lopez, who is one of a handful of military veterans with a license to sell New York City-themed tchotchkes, shirts and other merchandise.
“We have a license, and there’s a lot more people out here who don’t have a license. But the bad part about it is, everybody’s going to suffer for it. I think it’s unfair for us veterans to even have to go through the same thing,” he told Gothamist. “The crowding of the bridge - we have nothing to do with that.”
The city has long given privileges to veterans applying for vendor licenses.
The new rule is the city’s latest effort to improve conditions on the Brooklyn Bridge's walkway, which more than 34,000 pedestrians visited on a typical fall weekend last year, according to city statistics. In 2021, the city opened a bike lane on the bridge’s roadway, addressing harrowing conditions that forced cyclists and tourists to share space on the walkway.
But with cyclists gone, a large number of vendors have moved in. The Department of Sanitation, which enforces street vending rules, said inspectors visit the Brooklyn Bridge throughout the day, looking for violations that “impede the pedestrian experience.”
Since April 2023, the department has issued 240 violations on the Brooklyn Bridge.
During a recent visit to the Manhattan side of the bridge, dozens of vendors lined one side of the narrow and bustling boardwalk selling New York Yankees caps, NYC license plates, bobbleheads of former President Donald Trump and other trinkets. Scattered throughout the bridge were photo booths where tourists can film a 360-degree video of themselves with Jay-Z’s “Empire State of Mind” playing in the background for $10.
Joel Rodriguez, who recently came to the city from Venezuela, said in Spanish that the photo booth was a way for him to make money, pay for rent and food and send money to family back home. He didn’t say whether he had a permit.
Bobby Velsor, who has been street vending since returning home from the Vietnam War in 1974, recently relocated to the Brooklyn Bridge after being ousted from Main Street in Flushing, Queens.
Velsor said the city should allow only licensed vendors on the bridge, instead of banning everyone. He blamed those who don’t have a license or pay sales tax for taking up space.
“We are being punished for the non-licenses,” he said. “It’s not fair for the veterans who willingly put their life on the line so we can have what we have today. I’m 70 years old - where am I going to go?”
He added, “Don’t take that out on the licensed vendors who are doing it legally."
The proposed rule says “no peddler, vendor, hawker or huckster” shall stop on the bridge’s elevated pedestrian walkway or bicycle lane. It applies to all city bridges.
Trinkets like this will soon no longer be for sale on the Brooklyn Bridge if the vendor ban goes into effect as expected.
“The Brooklyn Bridge has been called America’s Eiffel Tower, and it’s important that all New Yorkers and the millions of people who visit our city each year can enjoy it without impediments to safety and pedestrian mobility,” DOT Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez said in a statement.
By law, the agency must consider all comments from the public hearing and then issue a final rule, which will go into effect 30 days later.
Councilmember Lincoln Restler, who represents the area on the Brooklyn side of the bridge, said that many of his constituents have told him they fear for their safety when walking or running across the bridge.
“I support vending, but it has to be in a safe place and the Brooklyn Bridge just isn’t it,” Restler said. “We should preserve the landmarks, the breathtakingly beautiful pathway of the Brooklyn Bridge, for pedestrians and runners to enjoy the space.”
Restler suggested creating a “vendor plaza” at the entrances to the bridge.
But vendors said there are not many legal spots where they can move to. Street vending has become more common as asylum seekers try to make ends meet without work permits. Vending hubs in Sunset Park, Brooklyn and Corona Plaza and Flushing’s Main Street in Queens have recently faced crackdowns.
“Street vendors are New York City’s smallest businesses, but among the most heavily regulated and enforced,” said Matthew Shapiro, legal director for the nonprofit Street Vendor Project.
Roberta Castanheiro, a Brazilian tourist visiting the bridge, saw street vendors as part of the experience.
“We kind of hope that if you are in a famous spot, you’ll have people selling things,” she said.
