Brooklyn Bridge vendor-free
NYC’s new ban intended to ease overcrowding on the famed East River crossing
NEW YORK — Steven Heng visited the Brooklyn Bridge on Tuesday not just to take in the celebrated peaked arches, the trellis of wire rope and the panoramic views. He also came to shop — before it was too late.
Tuesday was the last day for scores of souvenir vendors who sprung up illegally along the footpath, turning the bridge into a 6,000-foot-long mall across the East River. New city rules designed to ease congestion on the bridge effective Wednesday ban vending from all the city’s 789 bridges.
Heng, 33, who works in a restaurant in Lyon, France, had 20 friends expecting trinkets from his trip; he’d read about the vendor clear-out and hustled to the bridge. “We’re buying everything,” he said, clutching two ornaments featuring the Empire State Building in a wreath and a mini Statue of Liberty that he had nabbed, all for just $10. “This is so much cheaper than Times Square.”
On weekends, nearly 35,000 people a day may cross the footpath over the 141-yearold bridge connecting lower Manhattan to Brooklyn Heights, according to the New York City Department of Transportation. Over the river, the wooden-planked pedestrian walkway is about 16 feet across and, since 2021, free of bicycle traffic.
But there are frequent bottlenecks; near the shoreline and around the stanchions, the walkway can be as narrow as 5 feet. Combine that constricted space with tourists loitering in front of an array of stuffed sloths with “I (heart) NY” embroidered on their chests, paintings of Marvel superheros re-creating the 1932 “Lunch Atop a Skyscraper” photo, and a bobblehead of disgraced former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, and the walkway frequently comes to a complete standstill.
After the city banned bikes from the promenade, moving them to a protected lane on the roadway below, the newly cleared space allowed vendors to flourish.
Even licensed vendors are banned from the bridge under the new rule, although many of those selling tchotchkes are unlicensed. (Some estimates have put the numbers of street sellers at more than 20,000, though the city maintains a cap of about 6,000 licenses, most of them for food vendors.) On Christian Acosta’s final day of selling hats and King Kong statuettes, he feared for what would happen to his fellow vendors, particularly since so few can obtain licenses to legally sell elsewhere. There are others who will suffer, he said in Spanish: “their families.”
The wares being offered on the bridge are a reflection of the city itself. A single table near the Manhattan side held Greek evil eye amulets, Mexican maracas, Chinese yin-yang medallions and Middle Eastern Hands of Fatima. The vendors chatted with one another in Wolof, Spanish, Russian, Arabic, Chinese and more. Many vendors are in the country illegally, with just enough command of English to haggle.
“It’s a pity,” said Gary Randle, 45, who works in renewable energy and was visiting from Wales. “These people are trying to make a living. I’m all for it.”
Farther down the bridge Luis Mendoza, 41, was operating a 3D photo booth, where visitors can make a short video set to Jay-Z’s “Empire State of Mind.” Starting Wednesday, Mendoza would concentrate on his second job as a contractor.
“I will really miss being here,” he said in Spanish. “I will come as a tourist.”