From the Daily News:Merchants and community board officials in Sunnyside have declared war on Queens Blvd. street vendors.
Their weapon of choice: cops.
The "zero-tolerance" campaign to purge the corridor of street sellers is spurring outrage from licensed peddlers, who say their livelihood is being squeezed.
Moore and other vendors charge they’re being illegally harassed, but business owners on and near Queens Blvd. say the police intervention is needed to rid the corridor of peddlers who, they say, crowd and dirty sidewalks along the bustling commercial strip.
“I’m paying big money every day for taxes, and vendors pay nothing,” said Jorge Calle, a florist on Greenpoint Ave. “I’ve sent letters to the Department of Consumer Affairs, but they don’t do anything.”
Calle said he has been forced to cut back on staff and struggles to cover his $8,000 monthly rent because vendors are taking business from him.
“I used to have six workers, now I only have two because I couldn’t afford to pay them,” he said. “Even though my products are better, vendors are offering the same thing for a cheaper price.”
Vendors like Moore respond that they are within their rights, and say they’re being targeted by storeowners who “don’t like the competition.”
“My license means nothing to them,” he said. “The store will call the precinct, and they’ll come because the owner doesn’t want me there.”
6 comments:
I agree. Many of the vendors are dirty and don't keep their area clean and sanitary. Roosevelt Avenue sidewalks and streets are an absolute disgrace.
They need to crack down on the ones in flooshing too. They are very annoying when the take up all that space walking between the McDonald's and the bank to cut to get to the q13 bus. Walking behind those Asians with such limited space is absolutely annoying! They don't know how to pick up their feet when they walk so I'm always stuck behind them and because of the limited space, sometimes there's no way to walk around them. It gets so crowded during the school year that I feel myself pushing people out of the way. All they sell there is crap anyway.
If they are going to continue to have street vendors, there needs to be some kind of strict rules and guidelines, which there already might be, but as usual in NYC, they are not enforced.
Problem with many vendors, they ten to block sidewalks and business entrances and much garbage is caused by them. When I am on Jamaica Avenue and see big boxes dumped on the ground labeled 12 cartons of eggs, it is coming from a street vendor who just decided to dump his garbage on the street.
You know what on second though, just remove them completely, although we are close to a third world country, we are not there yet.
Get rid of the street vendors entirely think of the economic impact they have on all of us. They are all cash business which means nothing for uncle Sam and I bet allot of them are collecting from some governmental program 1 way or another while all the rest of us struggle to stay afloat with a good portion of our income going towards paying taxes.Screw all of them let them go back to there third world country or get normal taxpaying jobs like the rest of us.
Stores these days may sell %80 imported Chinese crap, but the stuff on the street is 100% Chinese plastic junk, and likely came into the US under the radar to skip on customs charges, etc.
Thats how they get the prices so low.
“My license means nothing to them,” he said. “The store will call the precinct, and they’ll come because the owner doesn’t want me there.”
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So if these are licensed vendors, then the small businees owners should be suing the city for loss of income.
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