Illegal vendor sidewalk serenade

  

NY Post

 Live crabs. Bras with rhinestones. Old shoes. Frayed electrical cords. Knock-off Louis Vuitton clutches. Disposable face masks. Mets caps.

Illegal street peddlers hawking such items have taken over the outer boroughs, clogging sidewalks with their second-hand wares and pulling customers from pandemic-ravaged mom-and-pop shops.

And everybody is pointing the finger at Mayor de Blasio.

From Brooklyn to the Bronx, Staten Island and Queens, folding tables and mats rolled out on the ground force pedestrians to go single-file or step aside so they don’t get run over.

In the Bronx, 149^th Street and Fordham Road are hotspots. So is Fifth Avenue in Brooklyn’s Sunset Park and Flushing’s Main Street, especially the few blocks from the Post Office at Sanford Avenue to the 7 Train station at Roosevelt Avenue.

 On Main, between Sanford and 41^st Avenue, The Post counted 27 street vendors – on just one side of the street. Two pulled out yellow licenses, showing they’re military veterans. Six shook their heads like they didn’t understand English. The others turned away or looked down when asked to show their licenses.

DianSong Yu of the Flushing Business Improvement District estimates 90 percent of the vendors aren’t licensed. Citywide, the number of all kinds of vendors stands at roughly 20,000, according to the Street Vendor Project, an advocacy group. But legit general merchandise license-holders, not including mobile food vendors, total a few thousand.

“It’s a very tough time for everybody, we get it,” Yu told The Post. “But we need to be fair to the local merchant who are paying very high rent and taxes. And they’re hurting.”

Bobby has a yellow license for his spot on Main — and he’s mad about the infiltrators. “They’re robbing the city of taxes. They’re taking money from the veterans. They’re taking jobs,” said Bobby, who wouldn’t give his last name but told The Post he fought in Vietnam.

 

If Parkside isn't Dems' preferred vendor, then who is?

From Progress Queens:

A spokesman for the New York State Democratic Party has denied allegations that candidates for the State Senate were forced to use a preferred campaign vendor, according to a report by Zach Fink from NY1 and published on the Time Warner Cable News Web site, State of Politics.

In news reports, the preferred campaign vendor has been identified to be The Parkside Group.

A recent report by Ross Barkan, published in The New York Observer, noted how the New York Democratic Senate Campaign Committee, or DSCC, headed by State Senator Michael Gianaris (D-Queens), required that "DSCC-backed candidates must use Parkside to print their campaign mail, an arrangement some Democrats have long bristled at."

The report in The New York Observer was followed by a report in Progress Queens showing how almost a decade ago, the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office filed charges against the former chair of the Brooklyn Democratic Party for coercing judicial candidates to use a preferred campaign vendor. Queens District Attorney Richard Brown was unable to comment on the Progress Queens report.

District Attorneys in New York City run for public office with the consent of the respective county committee of the Democratic Party, the dominant political party. Government reform activists have long claimed that district attorneys avoid investigating political corruption, because, in order to first run for office and to keep running for re-election, the district attorneys must campaign with the approval of the chair of their respective Democratic Party. In other parts of New York state, the chair of the dominant political party will have a say in determining which candidate for the respective, local district attorney's office will receive institutional campaign support. In Queens, conflicts of interest for the District Attorney's Office may also arise through the various campaign consultants and lobbyists employed by other politicians, who share relationships with the chair of the Queens County Democratic Party, some government reform activists say. The chair of the Queens Democratic Party is U.S. Representative Joseph Crowley (D-Queens). In the past, Rep. Crowley has also employed the services of Parkside.

Flushing Meadows food stand robbed thrice

From DNA Info:

Maybe they had the munchies.

A newly-opened lakeside cafe in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park was burglarized twice in one week, with the suspects fleeing with armfuls of candy, ice cream and drinks — including meal supplement Ensure —according to the NYPD and the owner.

It was the third time the Ederle Terrace Snack Shop was broken into and burglarized since opening Aug. 1 at Meadow Lake, according to police and owner Baig Sedeeq, who also operates the cafe at the World's Fair Marina.

Thieves first struck overnight between Aug. 25 and Aug. 26, taking approximately $1,800 worth of candy, energy drinks and a speaker for the shop's sound system, according to the NYPD.

The register was also broken, and $170 was taken from it, the NYPD said.

Thieves broke into the shop after-hours between Oct. 1 and Oct. 2, walking off with roughly $500 worth of snacks, according to the NYPD and the owner.

The sticky-fingered suspects likely got in by breaking the window by the soda machine, Sedeeq said.

The snack snatchers took everything from Lay's potato chips to Magnum ice cream, Red Bull, Monster energy drinks and even Ensure nutritional shakes, he said.

Hmmm...Why is a food stand in Flushing Meadows selling Ensure supplements?

Food vendor damaging street tree

"Hi there-

Wanted to share this pic with you - this is a brand new tree on the corner of gates and st nicholas, right on the brooklyn/queens border.

This food truck sets up every weekend right in front of the tree pit, note all the customers standing in the tree pit and the awning of the truck hitting the tree. A small branch was broken off the tree. It's really too bad as we need these trees. I should also note that there has been an explosion of these food trucks in this area. Note the chairs and small table they have set up.

Love your site-

Jeff - from Ridgewood."

Anything goes in Forest Hills

"Immigrant newspaper vendors at 71 Av and Queens Blvd in Forest Hills think nothing of chaining their carts to postal boxes. Not only is this illegal on both city and Federal levels, these carts were obviously stolen from supermarkets. So why aren't they fined?

Oh it's ok. Some smart ass lawyer will say they are protected under the freedom of speech amendment."

- Anonymous