NYC officials removing street vendor items amid new ban

NEW YORK (PIX11) -- A ban on all street vendors on the Brooklyn Bridge will be enforced beginning at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday.

PIX11 News has learned that the NYPD and City Department of Transportation crews will be on the pedestrian walkway telling vendors they must pack up. The City DOT crews will remove vending items and store them for later pickup.

The ban comes under new city Department of Transportation rules prohibiting vending in pedestrian walkways and bike lanes on all city bridges and their approaches.

Mayor Adams said Tuesday that the number of legal and illegal vendors on the pedestrian walkway on the Brooklyn Bridge is "not only a sanitary issue, it's a public safety issue."

Christine Lazzara, a personal tour guide with "Just Ask Christine," took videos last weekend that show a packed group of people climbing down from the pedestrian walkway onto the bike lanes below when the bridge became so crowded it was hard to walk.

There's "no police presence, there are people serving drinks up there, there's a bar going on up there, coffee," Lazzara told PIX11 News.

Mohamed Attia with the Street Vendor Project said they tried negotiating with the city to allow vendors in some spots on the bridge.

"Let us work on areas that are wide on the pathway, and where it is narrow, we don't need to be there," Attia told PIX11 News, vendors said.

M.D. Rahman, a licensed food vendor, said he's worked on the bridge since 2009 and has no idea what he will do now to make money.

"I have two kids, 10 years, seven years, I got to take care of these people," he said.

He told PIX11 News the city should only crack down on the vendors without licenses.

"Take care of these people, and don't come to me. I have a license, and I have a permit. Don't try to take my job away," he said.