City lets vendors exploit vets, says pol
A Brooklyn city councilman is planning to sue the city after an aide to Mayor de Blasio suggested that the city won’t crack down on pesky food vendors because it would be a bad look.
At issue is a recently passed law that bars businesses from selling ice cream and other food in Dyker Heights when thousands of tourists flock to the neighborhood for residents’ storied holiday light displays.
Most vendors got the message, but the owner of two ice cream trucks dug his heels in, saying he’s exempt from the law because he works with disabled veterans. Many city restrictions on vending don’t apply to veteran entrepreneurs.
But City Councilman Justin Brannan (D-Brooklyn) and locals disputed vendor Eddie Cumart’s claim, saying he’s exploiting vets by hiring them to sit around and do nothing while the owner cashes in — and annoying residents with noise, trash and pollution from the two ice cream trucks that were idling 10 hours a day on 11th Ave. Two other trucks selling popcorn were also spotted in the area during the holidays.
“These vendors are not disabled veterans and the fact that the city knows that this is completely illegal and is afraid to enforce it is just completely insane,” Brannan fumed to the Daily News. “It’s completely insane that we have to sue the city to make them do their job.”
Cecil Henry, general counsel for the Mayor’s Office of City Legislative Affairs, suggested to Brannan that the city was effectively giving the ice cream trucks a pass.
“The city will not get into the unenviable position of targeting disabled veteran food vendors for this enforcement,” Henry wrote in a Dec. 19 email.
The owner of the ice cream trucks, which have left Dyker Heights with the end of the holiday season, told news outlets he was allowed to do business because his partner is a vet. “I know the law better than Justin Brannan,” Cumart boasted to the Brooklyn Paper last month. He could not be reached for comment Monday.
But the only vets employed by Cumart either sat in a truck’s front seat or on a nearby crate during shifts, according to Brannan and Community Board 10 District Manager Josephine Beckmann.
“It’s terrible. Here you have a corporation that is using veterans knowing that the Police Department would not enforce if there was a veteran onsite,” said Beckmann. “That’s an exploitation.”
“The city enforced the law appropriately,” de Blasio spokeswoman Laura Feyer said in a Monday statement. “City agencies conducted inspections throughout the holiday season and took appropriate enforcement action when necessary. Disabled veteran vendors are specifically protected by state law.”
Brannan said he’s getting plaintiffs together to file the suit by the end of the month.
“It’s actually taking money away from the veterans,” he said of the city’s alleged dereliction of duty. “The veterans could be making real money if they were doing the vending. They’re not; they’re being used.”