Hudson Yards Vendors Say Cops Targeted Them Despite Mayor's Ban

MIDTOWN MANHATTAN, NY — Months after the NYPD was supposed to have ceased enforcing regulations against street vendors, a group of merchants protested outside Hudson Yards on Friday, saying cops had unlawfully ticketed them for parking their pushcart outside the luxury development.

The enforcement against the three halal vendors happened on Monday and Tuesday — the latest instance in a pattern of police harassment that the vendors say they have received at the behest of Related Companies, the real estate company behind Hudson Yards.

It also comes nearly five months after street vendor enforcement was transferred from the NYPD to another city agency. That policy — part of a reform package rolled out by Mayor Bill de Blasio last June — took effect on Jan. 15, stating NYPD officers "should not take enforcement action for general or food vending violations" except in "exigent circumstances," according to an official order shared with Patch.

"I'm not gonna give up," said Mohamed Awad, one of the three vendors, during Friday's rally. "I have a very, very simple message to the Hudson Yards management: please stop playing God."

The three workers were among the 10 people displaced in March from their longtime spot on West 33rd Street by a newly installed tree pit and planter — the latter of which had not been permitted from the city. Vendors believed Related put in the planters in an effort to drive them out.

Determined to keep their spot — and the customer base they had accrued there since 2014 — three vendors custom-built a new, smaller cart that allowed them to fit on the sidewalk despite the planters, according to a spokesperson for the Street Vendor Project, which organized Friday's protest.

Police issued the four summonses this week after claiming that the sidewalk on 33rd Street between 10th and 11th avenues was only 11 feet wide — narrower than the legally required width. The vendors, however, produced a map from Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer's office showing that the sidewalk is 13 feet wide.

"I've been here since 2013. I have 3 pushcarts here legally and they've made me move over and over. the city is suppose to help us recover, not to put us out of work. I'm not going to give up."

Mohamed Awad, SVP member who's been enduring endless harassment & tickets from NYPD pic.twitter.com/Q1sbRly3xh
— StreetVendorProject (@VendorPower) May 7, 2021

Brewer, who spoke at Friday's rally, said she believed the officers who issued the tickets had been newly deployed to the neighborhood. (The city recently announced plans to send dozens of cops into Midtown to resolve safety concerns, which was met with skepticism from Brewer.)

"Don’t do this anymore, NYPD, because it’s wrong," Brewer said.

Reached for comment, an NYPD spokesperson said officers issued the tickets after giving "repeated warnings over the course of a week to vendors blocking the pedestrian walkway at Hudson Yards."

The officers, who are "dedicated to helping local businesses emerge from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic," had asked vendors to "slightly shift their operations" to better share the congested sidewalk, spokesperson Sgt. Edward D. Riley said. They issued the summonses "after the warnings went unanswered," Riley said.

The mayor's office did not respond to questions about why police have continued enforcing penalties against vendors.

A spokesperson for Related shared a statement saying vendors "must operate legally and safely and the city has clear regulations that they enforce to ensure everyone is following the law.

"Hudson Yards, the High Line and the surrounding area experience extraordinary visitation and as a result, public open space needs to be managed for pedestrian safety and FDNY access," the spokesperson said.

.@NYPDnews ticketed vendors, acting on behalf of the Hudson Yards billionaire developers Related Companies. @NYCMayorsOffice @NYCMayorsOffice @NYCMayor we demand answers! Street vendors should never be criminalized.

NYPD must be removed from street vending once and for all! pic.twitter.com/nGTxQYBgJG
— StreetVendorProject (@VendorPower) May 6, 2021

If charged the maximum allowable amounts, the vendors could be on the hook for $400 in penalties, according to the Street Vendor Project, which works to raise awareness of the plights of more than 10,000 such workers across the city.

This week's incident follows other recent cases in which police have continued to issue tickets to food vendors after de Blasio's policy change. That change, announced in the midst of last summer's George Floyd protests, came after years of advocacy by vendors, as well as a high-profile case where police handcuffed a woman selling churros in the subway.

In the middle of Friday's rally, workers from the Department of Health arrived to inspect the vendors' cart — an action that advocates also suspected had been requested by Related, according to Carina Kaufman-Gutierrez, deputy director of the SVP.

"It’s just continued harassment by the billionaire developers who are getting the NYPD to disobey the mayor’s orders of no more NYPD in street vending," she said.

Related coverage: Hudson Yards Food Vendors Protest Being Booted From Longtime Spot