Vendors flock back to Brooklyn Bridge after police presence reduced

Adams promises to take a look

January 6, 2025 Mary Frost

An illegal vendor sells coffee in front of a tower on the Brooklyn Bridge. Photo courtesy of Alan Posner

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DUMBO — On Jan. 3, 2024, vendors and their merchandise were banned from the Brooklyn Bridge pedestrian walkway.

This seeming miracle came about after more than a year of complaints. Observing with his own eyes the large crowds of pedestrians sharing the narrow walkway with vendors and merchandise, Mayor Eric Adams had called the situation not only a sanitary issue but a serious public safety issue.

“Imagine someone yells a fire, someone hears a car backfire and thinks it’s a shot. You have a stampede on that bridge,” Adams had said.

To enforce the vendor ban on the Brooklyn side, one or two police cars were stationed day and night at the walkway’s entrance near Cadman Plaza Park.

In December, however, the police cars disappeared. And like magic, the vendors — along with their NYC-themed trinkets, sliced mangoes and rotating, music-blaring video turntables — reappeared.

Before the ban went into effect in January, 2024, vendors took over the Brooklyn Bridge pedestrian walkway. Photo: Mary Frost, Brooklyn Eagle

Back ‘in force’

Brooklyn Heights resident Alan Posner’s apartment in the North Heights overlooks the Brooklyn Bridge. “I traverse the walkway at least three or four times per week,” he told the Brooklyn Eagle.

During the current deep freeze there are few vendors on the walkway, but that wasn’t true over the relatively mild holidays, when “the vendors were out in force,” he said.

“The Brooklyn Bridge is a landmark, a treasure,” Posner said. “It had been turned into an open air flea market with illegal, unlicensed vendors hawking their cheap trinkets. Thankfully, and very fortunately for pedestrians and tourists alike, Mayor Adams banned the vendors last January.”

Posner said he recently noticed a lack of police presence on the Brooklyn side of the bridge. “Initially, there was significant police presence on the bridge. However, the number of uniformed officers was slowly reduced to the point where now I have not seen an officer since the early fall.”

This vendor had a good spot on the Brooklyn Bridge before the vendor ban went into effect in January, 2024. Photo: Mary Frost, Brooklyn Eagle

‘Extorting tourists is not a good look’

Posner shared with the Eagle photos he had taken on the weekend of Dec. 7-8. “As you can see, the vendors have returned en masse,” he noted. “This includes the very annoying 360-degree rotating photo booth blasting out the JayZ song ‘New York State of Mind.’ Also, one fellow set up a coffee/food stand directly below the bridge plaque on the east tower. I observed tourists asking him to move so they could take photos of the plaque. His response was, ‘Pay me $5 and I will move.’”

One of several mango purveyors who have illegally returned to the Brooklyn Bridge. Photo courtesy of a Brooklyn Eagle reader

He added, “Extorting tourists is not a good look for our city.”

Posner said he called the Mayor’s office, and was told to file a complaint on the 311 website, which he did. “There has been no action. I have also contacted Lincoln Restler’s office.”

Another Brooklyn Heights resident, who didn’t want her name published, also wrote to the Brooklyn Eagle in mid-December, asking, “Do you have any insight why the vendors have been allowed back on the Brooklyn Bridge? This past Saturday, I walked from Manhattan to Brooklyn, and encountered a minimum of 40 vendors. It was a horrible log jam and I was worried about public safety.”

Like Posner, she sent in photos showing vendors lining the walkway.

Illegal vendors returned to the Brooklyn Bridge pedestrian walkway in December despite a ban put into place on Jan. 3, 2024. Photo courtesy of Alan Posner

Adams promises to take a look

Reporters had the opportunity to bring this issue up with Adams at a press conference on Tuesday, Dec. 31. The topic of conversation was the long waiting list for vending licenses, but it soon shifted to questions about illegal vending.

Adams spoke of the removal of the bridge vendors as a success story, seemingly unaware that they had returned.

“We saw what the Brooklyn Bridge looked like when we decided that you can’t be clogging the bridge where people can’t get on and off, selling stuff, locking stuff overnight on the bridge,” Adams said. “It just gives the appearance that people feel things are out of control.”

When informed by a reporter that illegal vendors had recently returned to the bridge and police presence had been reduced or eliminated, Adams said he would take another look.

“We’re going to look at that because you’ve got to constantly, you know, in this business, you have to inspect what you expect or it’s all suspect,” he joked. He added more seriously, “You can’t just put an initiative in place and then walk away and think that is not going to follow. So you have to break the habits of people.”

“I’m going to look and see. Matter of fact, I’m gonna take a walk over there today and see if we are back to the state of chaos,” Adams promised.

“And I’m going to reach out to both the 84 [Precinct] and I think that’s the 5th Precinct down here or the 1st. I’ll find out,” he said, adding, “We have to maintain what we put in place.”

UPDATE from Restler

On Tuesday, the Eagle heard from Councilmember Lincoln Restler with an update on the bridge vendors.

“We notified City Hall and DOT about the return of vendors on the Brooklyn Bridge in November and December and they finally deployed city officials at our request to address the situation on December 30,” Restler said.

“We will continue to monitor the conditions on the Brooklyn Bridge closely to ensure this treasured landmark is free of vendors for the safety of all,” he added.