Dozens of Illegal Vendors— & One Giant Ape—Reclaim Brooklyn Bridge from City

Aaannnddd... they’re back!

Just in time for the Christma rush, flocks of illegal vendors have returned to the Brooklyn Bridge and made it their bazaar. Joining the commercial fray was a giant costumed ape, presumably King Kong, or a close relative.

On the afternoon of Sunday December 8, Straus News witnessed at least forty unlicensed sellers of hats, t-shirts, decorative license plates, other knick-knacks, food (churros, fruit, candy), beverages, photos and panoramic videos and more openly hawking their wares and services.

At the same time, there were zero police posted between Brooklyn and Manhattan. On the Brooklyn side there was an empty three-wheeled NYPD golf cart formerly assigned to the 75th Precinct in East New York, with one its windows smashed out. The vandalism was recent and broken glass covered the vehicle’s seat and floor.

Persons wishing to read the plaques on the granite towers on the Bridge were either discouraged from doing so or had to push their way into the space occupied by the rogue merchants while also explaining they were uninterested in the goods being sold there.

While making an exact crowd estimate across the length of the span is difficult, Straus News estimates there were at between 1,500-2,000 people on the bridge, in addition to the dozens of vendors.

This was the capstone of at least a week of brazen disregard for the city’s Bridge rules. By late morning of Wednesday Dec. 4, there were handful of hawkers set up. By Friday, a dozen.

You didn’t have to be Hart Crane to know what would happen next.

So what’s going on here? What went wrong?

The problem isn’t a new one, but nor is it a longstanding one either. Rather, the issue arose, festered and was eventually fixed all within the last three years—which is to say, during Mayor Adams administration.

The roots of the problem predate Hizzoner, however.

Partly, it’s a law of unintended consequences—starting with the September 2021 opening of a dedicated bicycle lane (also to become an illegal moped and speeding scooter lane) on the Brooklyn Bridge.

While this generally made things safer and more pleasant for pedestrians traversing the Bridge’s walkway—no more aggressive bicyclists, e-bikers and others yelling “Bike lane! Bike lane!” as they tried to barge through crowds of unwitting tourists— their removal, was eventually taken as license for illegal vendors to make their claim on the newly expanded pedestrian space.

At first, the presence of a few souvenir vendors didn’t elicit much attention. A few people selling photos of the Manhattan skyline, or small blanket of t-shirts with fake New York license plates reading “MAFIA” were no big deal.

Things took a dramatic turn for the worse in 2023, however, possibly tied to the migrant influx and their inability to legally work.

Whether the Bridge Bazaar would have flourished without an ongoing migrant crisis is a moot question. At its inception, neither Adams nor NYPD seemed to care—despite the bridge being just steps away from both City Hall and One Police Plaza.

It’s not individual vendors or migrants (most Hispanic, with some Asians, and a few Africans and other others mixed in) that are the problem. Put 40-50-60-100 vendors up there though—some of them fighting for space, others with little regard for pedestrian safety— then that becomes a problem.

At is nadir in the summer of 2023, when a cocktail lounge under a multi-coloroed tarp opened on the bridge, it was clear an illegal weed shop wasn’t far behind. As if the six panoramic video vendors, each one blasting Jay-Z “New York State of Mind” on Bluetooth speakers on infinite repeat all day every day wasn’t crime enough!

Finally, in September 2023, the New York Post took notice with a story headlined “NYC Bridge is a Disgusting Flea Market for Illegal Vendors.”

Follow-up stories by both the Post and Straus News gradually had an effect though not before cold temperatures arrived.

Finally, Hizzoner decided to take action and, despite some pro-vendor protestations from politicians—vending has never been allowed there, nor was the idea ever suggested—a simple clean-up plan was begun.

There was an outreach program to the illegal vendors and soon NO VENDING signs were attached to the bridge and cops were posted at both entrances and on the span itself.

“Vendors booted from Brooklyn Bridge as new ban goes into effect” crowed the Post on January 3, 2024, with one witness accurately calling the difference, “like night and day.”

The joys of vendor-free strolling lasted through the spring, summer and autumn. A few souvenir Polaroid photographers were still around but they were discrete and harmless.

Sometime this late November, however, NYPD’s anti-vending plan was modified, if not wholly abandoned.

Asked about the lack of enforcement—and the absence of police officers, periods—cops on both sides of the bridge were surprised.

In Manhattan on December 8, the nearest visible officer, found near City Hall, said he thought that there was a unit up there today. In Brooklyn on December 9, an officer near the Office of Emergency Management building reacted similarly, adding that he’d recently heard bridge patrol orders over the radio himself.

Straus News has no reason to doubt either officer, both of whom were congenial. The question remains, however, what police procedures have recently changed on the Brooklyn Bridge and why?