NYC NOW - January 3, 2024: Evening Roundup

Episode Date: January 3, 2024

The New York State legislative session has officially begun. Also, governor Hochul is recovering from a pectoral injury she sustained while exercising on Tuesday. Finally, with the vendor ban on New York City bridges now in effect, WNYC’s Sean Carlson spoke with Mohamed Attia of the nonprofit Street Vendor Project, and Gyatso Lama, who sells his artwork on the Brooklyn Bridge, to get their reactions.

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WNYC. I'm Sean Carlson. The New York State Legislative session has officially begun. State lawmakers gabbled in for 2024 at the state Capitol in Albany, early Wednesday. They're scheduled to spend 61 days at the Capitol from now through the first week of June. Assembly Speaker Carl Hasty is a Bronx Democrat. In his opening remarks, he said the state's housing crisis will be a major focus for lawmakers this year. We must build more affordable housing across the state, but at the same time, we must protect those in our existing housing stock.

Governor Hockel will lay out her agenda for the year when she delivers her third state of the state address on Tuesday. She'll offer up her state budget proposal a week later. And still in Albany, where Governor Hockel is dealing with issues more pedestrian in nature, a pectoral injury. The New York governor's arm was in a sling at a presser near Albany earlier. She says she tore a muscle in her chest working out on Tuesday. In the gym, lifting, going from 70 pounds. And I thought for my New Year's resolution, I can go to 80. And my body said no to 80.

The governor says her recovery period will be six to eight weeks. Up next, New York City is banned vendors from all bridges and bridge entrances effective immediately. We'll have more on that after the break. As of now, New York City is enforcing a ban on vendors from all bridges and bridge entrances, particularly on the Brooklyn Bridge. Mayor Adams administration says this will make the bridge safer, for pedestrians. I recently sat down with Mohamed Atya from the nonprofit street vendor project and Jiazalama,

who is from Tibet and has been selling his pictures on the Brooklyn Bridge since 2005 to hear their thoughts on the pen. Muhammad, what do you think of the city's argument that a blanket ban on vendors would increase pedestrian safety? Yeah, it's a really disappointing policy to see taking place because New York City is crowded. New York City is busy. Every street, every sidewalk is full of people. And if the city would take this approach, we might as well just ban vending all over the five boroughs, right?

Wait, it's not crowded in New York City. I don't know. It is so unfair and unjust to the vendors who have been there for many years selling items that a lot of tourists consider it a part of the attraction to go to Brooklyn Bridge and buy these products and these souvenirs and grab a bite, grab a hot dog or a pretzel or a bottle of water while they are on their way to visit the tour. mile stretch bridge. Jassau, you've been selling on the Brooklyn Bridge for almost 20 years. Can you tell us more about your time on the Brooklyn Bridge? And is it a successful place to be at? Yeah, I was running in different places.

And if I tell my story, I was during September 11, we were around the park, around the church across the ground zeros. We were vending there. And then afterward, they banned everybody from theirs. And later on, I was in the Betty Park. And Betty Park also from there, they remove everybody. So this is the third place from where we are removed from the street. So this is sad story. And among them, the Brookbridge is a very nice place because in the sense

that there are a lot of tourists coming. And tourists coming not only just to walk on the bridge, they like things we are sending on the bridge tools. They like it very much. And they especially come for just buy things from us. So what I want to say that, this is a really nice place, not only to me, to the Lord of Twis. And I think that. at Brooklyn Bridge, people come not only to the Walgley Bridge, but they come just to buy some souvenirs and things we are selling on the bridge too. Do you have any plans on moving to another location? And how is this new rule going to affect your livelihood? That's very hard to say because I need to continue to work because I'm in 66 still, I won't

work. So that's why to go to some other place, I'm not sure how much business I'm going to get did because till now, I'm supporting my family with this business. I have a three son. They come here as an immigrant. We sent them to the college, they finished your college. And it's support them. And being an immigrant, I'm able to support them. And one of them is engineer.

He's working in Tesla. Other one is the accountant. He's working from the home. And the other one, the third one is he went in Marine for four years. Then he come back and now he finished his education. He's looking for job. Doing as a venture, it's helped not only to me, and myself, my children, my story is one of the examples of the immigrant story who work on the

state and support their families. Mohamed, the Department of Transportation revealed a proposed rule in October. And since then, some of the vendors had asked for a compromise, things like removing unlicensed vending on the bridge. How was that compromise received by the city? Well, we haven't heard much follow-up from the city since the hearing that took place on November 14th. We have a lot of the city. We were expecting the city to come back with an alternative plan, some sort of middle ground, allow vendors to operate on areas on the pathway where it's really wide. And we have measured the whole pathway throughout the bridge. Some areas are very narrow where it's five foot or six

foot wide. It doesn't make any sense for anyone to set up there. However, there are so many other areas on the pathway that is 16 foot wide. And this is, we believe, is wide enough for a table to be set up there, especially that the table's measurement is only three foot wide. So you're taking only three foot out of 16 foot pathway. You still have enough room for pedestrians to flow and just enjoy the bridge in a safe way. However, DOT never came back with any sort of compromise again with this wholesale ban on vending throughout the bridge. Muhammad, can you tell us more about the larger crackdown on unlicensed vending across the city under the Adams administration?

It's pretty sad to see it everywhere across the city right now. Right before Christmas, we heard a massive crackdown on vendors on Fordham Road and the Bronx and in many other areas where people have experienced like really excessive effort of enforcement. properties were seized from the vendors. Tickets were issued in time where people actually want to operate to make a few dollars so they can rely on them during the cold months. We know that January and February are very harsh months for street vendors. There is not much of food traffic. The weather is really brutal. And people really rely on the holiday seasons to make some money and some savings. Sadly, that didn't happen that a lot of vendors were not allowed to operate during the holiday season just because of the crackdown. And it's really sad to see throughout the past couple of years that there has been little to nothing actually took place to support the unlicensed vendors, right?

We have seen a lot of people started vending during the pandemic. we haven't seen much moving in terms of access to license or permits. We have seen the implementation of Local Law 18, the past in 2021, to create new food vending system, to create new licenses and permits for food vendors, but we have also seen that the process has been extremely slow. On the flip side, when you look at merchandise vendors, not even a single license was issued that is new beyond the outdated

limit and cap that was placed in the 70s to only 853 licenses. So in a way, the vendors are being scapegoated for the city's failure to regulate street vending in a way that is fair unjust to all the vendors and all the small business community. Councilmember Gail Brewer is proposing legislation that would allow limited vending on the bridge. If that bill is passed and implemented, could that get vendors back on bridges? Of course. It can bring them back, of course, in the wide areas only, which is something we support, the vendor support. The vendors have already proposed that in the hearing with DOT, and I think that the bill is a result of what the vendors have proposed to DOT and the administration on that hearing back in November.

That's Mohamed Atya from the nonprofit street vendor project and Jiazollama who sells his artwork on the Brooklyn Bridge. Thanks for listening to NYC now from WMYC. Catch us every weekday three times a day. I'm Sean Carlson. We'll be back tomorrow.