Corona businesses and residents venting against illegal vendors

 

 Queens Chronicle

Unlicensed vendors, prostitutes and drunks are creating chaos in and around Corona Plaza, making the area dirty and dangerous for families, according to residents and business owners who rallied for a better environment Aug. 7.

The protesters, who rallied a little more than a block down National Street at American Triangle, held signs in both English and Spanish pleading for an end to fighting and drunkeness in the area, among other issues.

“My office receives from 18 to 20 complaints weekly from concerned residents and business owners who feel the negative impact of the lack of consideration shown by these street vendors,” City Councilman Francisco Moya (D-Corona) said in a press release after the event. “The situation has escalated to the point where it is creating an unsanitary and disorganized environment for everyone in the area.” Moya said.

The event followed an Aug. 2 rally in support of the unlicensed vendors, which was held by activists and area politicians including Borough President Donovan Richards and U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-Bronx, Queens) after the city launched a sweep that cleared the site of many.

Richards, who credits a task force he formed with improving conditions in the plaza, called the sweep “draconian” and an “injustice.”

He and others who support the vendors, reportedly numbering near 80, say the main problem is that the city does not provide enough licenses. The City Council passed legislation to increase the number of permits available, but the bureaucracy is far behind schedule on actually offering them, according to the outlet Streetsblog — and the number will remain far short of the total believed to be operating in the city.

Merchant Yarin Nadel said he has three businesses in the area but that vendors set up shop right in front of his places and undersell him — because he has to pay to pay taxes, employees and rent — and then leave behind trash that he gets ticketed for.

Flushing illegal vendors making streets more unwalkable and less joyful

  

QNS

Councilwoman Sandra Ung on Wednesday, March 8, announced a petition calling on the city to enforce existing street vending regulations, including the no-vending zone that went into effect in 2018, to address the proliferation of unlicensed street vendors in downtown Flushing. 

The councilwoman was joined by Dian Yu, executive director of the Flushing Business Improvement District (BID), and concerned community members for a press conference near the Flushing LIRR Station on Main Street and Kissena Boulevard, where some vendors sell vegetables, fruits and clothing. 

“I am encouraging everyone who is frustrated like us to sign this petition and show the city that people who live, work and visit here, support enforcement of the no vending zone and want our sidewalks to return back to the pedestrians they’re intended for,” Ung said.

The current density of street vendors has created a risk to public safety. The petition drive comes ahead of an interagency meeting Ung will host next week to discuss the issue.

“It’s one of the busiest commercial corridors in the five boroughs and home to the third busiest intersection in the city,” Ung said. “And let me be clear, our goal is not to prevent people from making a living or providing for their families; however, in the absence of enforcement, the current situation in downtown Flushing has become untenable.”

Mayor Big Slow is the reason the sidewalks are jammed with unlicensed vendors

  

NY Post

 

Does Bill de Blasio ever meet a deadline?

The infamously tardy mayor is over three months late appointing members to an advisory board established to review street vendor activity just as illegal peddlers have taken over whole sections of The Bronx, Manhattan and Queens.

A law the City Council passed in March stripping the NYPD of enforcement over street vendors required Mayor de Blasio and Speaker Corey Johnson to appoint a combined 10 members to the Street Vendor Advisory Board by April 21.

While Johnson has seated his six appointees, de Blasio has yet to choose his four representatives.

“It just goes to show you that they have no real care or sense of urgency in doing this,” said Jeff Garcia, head of the New York State Latino Restaurant, Bar and Lounge Association.

The board is supposed to review state and local laws related to street hawkers, including assuring that they’re at least 20 feet from building entrances— a rule is routinely broken by peddlers who crowd the sidewalks along Fordham Road in The Bronx, Main Street in Flushing, Queens and Canal Street in Lower Manhattan.

Riis Park Beach Bazaar is getting cancelled

Rockaway Times

 

Riis Park Beach Bazaar (RPBB) immediately helped revitalize Riis Park when it secured a lease to run the concessions at the park that offered little to visitors for decades. That was five years ago. Since then, the group has offered a wide variety or food vendors, beach rental equipment, live entertainment and even year round indoor dining (in pre-Covid times). Many locals have found employment with the company as well.

And now the lease is up. The five-year lease is due to expire November 1, just a couple of months from now. The lease does not have a renewal clause and NPS says the “park plans to release a competitive solicitation in early Fall 2020, to lease facilities at Riis for similar purposes.”

Chalk up another bust for this hipster culture entrepreneurial collective. Thanks for the memories

Pigs bring rats

From NY1:

People are used to seeing rats, but not like this: dozens of them darting back and forth inside the gated section of Corona Plaza.

It's a popular hangout for residents and their children, but on Monday, the rats seemed excited to be here, too.

It's not uncommon to see rats in this community, but people were surprised to see them so brazenly out in the open.

The Parks Department referred the matter to the Department of Health, where a spokesperson said the problem would be addressed.

On Wednesday, there were inspectors and exterminators on hand for an emergency baiting.

The Health Department says it takes the infestation "very seriously." In a statement, the agency added, "In partnership with NYC Parks we have been baiting Corona Plaza regularly; the most recent baitings at this location were conducted on April 30, May 1 and yesterday."

It also said that workers would "continue to bait and monitor the area.

Some residents also want the city to crack down on people who litter.

"The people eat over here on the street. They throw inside," said one man who help plug up the holes.

"There are food vendors who shouldn't really be on the street because once they're done selling everything that they brought, they throw all the litter on the floor," San Martin said.

After NY1 reached out to the Sanitation Department, they told us they would send an officer to the area as well.

A positive note for Jamaica

Joe Moretti provides coverage of the Queens International Night Market that took place recently in Jamaica. Sometimes good things happen there.

Astoria smokeout

"Dear Crappy,

It's spring. Are your windows open? I wish mine were. I haven't been able to open the windows in my new apartment in Astoria at 32nd Street and Broadway since I moved in because one of the local souvlaki vendors (and not the "famous" one) fills my street with charcoal smoke every day from lunchtime until 2am. I've submitted complaints to the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene each day for two weeks and only get an automated response telling me that all food carts are inspected once a year. DoH, working for you!
Not only do they fill the neighborhood with unbearable smoke (especially for those of us with respiratory conditions), but they block metered parking spaces next to the intersection at Broadway with orange cones to save a parking spot for their disgusting, beat-up and spraypainted black supply van that comes by each day around 4:30pm, just when folks are starting to come home and look for parking.
The smoke, the disregard for local residents, and not to mention the annoying drunks parading around all night eating their souvlaki are driving me crazy. DoH doesn't respond to complaints, the community board doesn't respond to complaints. What's the point of living here if I can't even open my windows?

Attached are photos I took of the smoke and parking cones." - anonymous

Food carts are filthy

From the Daily News:

Funky fruit. Icky ice cream. Putrid pretzels. Toxic tacos.

Those are among hundreds of complaints made by nauseous New York street diners who pulled their heads from the toilet long enough to dial the city’s 311 line.

More than half of the 359 complaints received between June 2011 and June 2014 came from Manhattan, where critics charge the carts operate under lax, to the point of laxative, regulations.

“It’s very loose, the enforcement,” said Daniel Biederman, president of the 34th Street Partnership. “We’ve been asking the Health Department, and Consumer Affairs, and the police to get together with regulations on appearance and cleanliness.

The complaints relay graphic details of gastric distress: Everything from projectile vomiting to stabbing stomach pains to three days of diarrhea.

They described food handlers working without gloves, workers scooping spilled spices off filthy sidewalks, a bare-chested cook with his body hair wafting onto the grill.

Do you feel safer in the subway?

From NY1:

Newly released subway crime statistics show drops in more serious crimes but big increases in lesser offenses.

Transit police say subway robberies are down 32 percent from last year.

Three hundred and thirteen robberies have been reported in 2014, compared to 465 in 2013.

They also say major felonies in the transit system have gone down 15 percent.

Arrests for panhandling and illegally selling goods on trains have dramatically increased on the other hand. So far this year, over 400 more people have been arrested for panhandling compared to last year.

Setting up shop at Leavitt Park

Hey Crapper,

I am hoping you can help with this situation in Flushing at Leavitt’s Park on the corner of 32nd Ave and Leavitt Street. For the past two weeks or so I have seen a U-Haul truck drive into the park, open the back door and set up shop. The people take out tables, clothing racks, boxes and sell the merchandise to people in the park. I have seen them there for the past two weeks from 11am to 6pm. I called the police last week but little has changed, today I called 311 and they said it is a minimum of 14 days for the parks department to do an investigation of my complaint.

Any suggestion who I should reach out to? It infuriates me that someone would drive a truck into a public park and open a store on public land.

- Anonymous Flushing Resident

Competition for customers between street vendors and small businesses

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.”

Pass on these vegetables

"Everyday at approximately 4:30 pm, I get to the Q13 bus in Flushing to go home- only to be greeted by this person selling vegetables! Now you would say who cares? People in Manhattan sell fruits and vegetables all the time!........But not like this!......This person as you can tell from the picture sells these vegetables just sitting on the ground in cardboard boxes! To make the situation even worst, today a police officer was walking on the other side of the street and he acted like he did not even see this disgusting site! As usual, the police in Flushing fail to reinforce the law! Way to go NYPD!" - anonymous

Alcohol & food sold openly in parks by illegal vendors

From A Walk in the Park:

The city is losing millions of dollars in revenue annually from illegal vendors while the Bloomberg administration does little to combat the problem.

In Flushing Meadows Park it's a wild wild west, cat and mouse game as dozens of illegal vendors work openly in the 900 acre park. Women pushing "invisible babies" do brisk business selling alcohol from covered baby carriages, beer is hidden in sewers to avoid detection, while others sell food, ice cream, drinks and snacks and toys.

Licensed vendors say they can not compete. In Flushing Meadows Park alone ice cream truck concessionaires pay the Parks Department up to $ 32,000 annually in addition to Heath Department fees, liability Insurance, and in the case of Mr. Softee - a $ 3000 annual franchise fee, on top of the $ 85,000 - $ 120,000 required to purchase the trucks.

Mean while illegal vendors sell from make-shift home made push carts, baby carriages and bicycles that by-pass permits and insurance.

Legal vendors also note that the Parks Department sets the prices they are allowed to charge while unlicensed ones are not under the same constraints. Some legal ones have been forced to lower prices in order to try and compete.

Critics also point out that park patrons being allowed access to unlimited amounts of alcohal is a concern for getting behind wheel to drive home.
Illegal vendors take away revenue not only from owners but also from the workers who's salaries are often based on a percentage of what they sell.

Some vendors say they are under the constant threat of violence from illegal vendors while the city does little to protect them. They say you are lucky if law enforcement occasionally conduct sweeps and confiscate illegal items but nothing is constant and certainly there is not a permanent uniform presence needed to deter this activity.

Legal vendors say they constantly complain to the Parks Department's revenue division - who oversee the agency's vast array of concessionaires but their concerns fall on deaf ears. They complain that the city refuses to protect them while being told there's nothing they can do because they don't have the resources to address the issues.

There is not a single dedicated Park Enforcement Patrol (PEP) officer permanently assigned to patrol 900 acres of FMCP, the largest park in Queens.

__________________________________________________________________

I'm sure Holly Leicht of New Yorkers for Parks and Council Member Julissa Ferreras will suggest another conservancy to take care of this...

But seriously folks, it's become much easier and more profitable to do as you please rather than follow the rules in this town. What is the fine for illegal vending even if you were unfortunate enough to get caught?

I urge you to click the link at the top of this post and read the whole story. Illegal gambling, hiding booze in storm drains, legal vendors being harassed and told to vacate the park during the US Open - when they would likely make the most money. It's simply amazing what goes on in our parks. And no one does a damn thing about it.

Bike Share program has gotten a little nuts

From CBS New York:

Some street vendors say the city’s new bike sharing program has given their livelihoods the boot.

Nearly a dozen lower Broadway street vendors say they showed up to work on Monday only to find their corner at Liberty Street taken up by dozens of bike share racks.

They showed up to protest on Thursday.

From the West Village to Battery Park City to Fort Greene, Brooklyn, Bike share stations are appearing, and some find them appalling.

“I’m very unhappy about this!” one woman told CBS 2′s Tony Aiello.

“This was just a really anxiety-producing moment, to realize you won’t have your space to vend that you’ve been working in for many years,” Stephanie Barretta of the Street Vendor Project told WCBS 880 reporter Marla Diamond.

They said they don’t mind the Citi Bike program. They just don’t want it on the busy street corner where they make a living.

From the NY Post:

Taxpayers are forking over cash so a small army of city DOT employees can baby-sit rogue cyclists, reminding them of the basic rules of the road so they don’t pedal into pedestrians.

Nearly a dozen Department of Transportation workers — some who usually maintain traffic signs — were deployed to sparsely occupied bike lanes on First and Second avenues in the East Village yesterday to hold up red stop signs to control speeding cyclists.

The other side of the signs display the warning “wrong way.”

The sign holders said they loved their new, easy gig.

“This is great! Usually, I’m changing signs,” said DOT worker Danny Gonzalez, 40, of Bayside, Queens, a traffic-device maintainer who earns more than $50,000 a year. “This is so much less stress on my body. I don’t have to lug around a ladder to do this!”

The DOT calls the workers “street safety managers.”

They were specially trained by contractor Sam Schwartz Engineering.

The team will rotate to different bike-lane areas each day, and they’ll be out until October.

They’ll also hit the bridges and ask cyclists and pedestrians to not veer into each other’s lanes, the DOT said in a statement yesterday.

“It’s a waste of money, and it’s a waste of peoples’ rights. People know safety better than the government,” said Eric Alberti, 39, an East Village resident.

The DOT explained the workers are needed in advance of next month’s rollout of the city bike-sharing program, which is under fire from residents who say the racks block precious sidewalk and parking space.

The DOT won’t say how much all the new sign holders cost, but officials insisted that using city workers saves “costs associated with contracting out similar services from a private vendor.”

Residents argue the program isn’t necessary at all.

From the Daily News:

City Council Thursday cracked down on one of New York’s newest menaces — motorized bicycles that zoom down sidewalks or speed the wrong way in traffic to deliver food at breakneck speeds.

The so-called “e-bikes” have long been outlawed on city streets but cops couldn’t issue a citation unless they could prove the rider was exceeding 15 mph.

A bill the Council passed Thursday will prohibit the bikes regardless of their speed. If signed by Mayor Bloomberg as expected, the bill would slap business owners with $100-$250 fines for having an e-bike on their premises or if their employees are caught riding them on the street.

You know things are bad when the City Council looks like the voice of reason.

Koo kisses up to the USTA while a small businessman gets the shaft

From the Times Newsweekly:

City Council Member Peter Koo told Zausner that business owners around the tennis center say they don’t get promotional support from the USTA or see much additional business during the U.S. Open, which the center hosts every year and which the USTA cites as a serious boon for the local economy.

Koo suggested the USTA offer promotional opportunities inside the stadium to local restaurants during high-profile events.

“They have so many hot dog stands. What about a Chinese food stand?” he said.

“I will tell you that we have not done a good enough job reaching out to all the businesses in downtown Flushing,” Zausner responded, adding the tennis center has garnered lauds from the Sheraton LaGuardia East Hotel and the Flushing Business Improvement District.

“There will not be outright ‘no’s,’” he said. “There will be a conversation, and we will figure out what we can do together.”

Koo stated he would support the expansion if he could be assured the USTA would reach out to area businesses.

Why does Peter Koo think that it's his job to tell the USTA what they need to do to gain his support? Why doesn't he just let them try figure it out on their own?

Now you know who the Council Members really represent.

Why isn't Koo concerned that the Parks Dept suddenly, and for no reason, pulled Tommy Chan's vending permit this year?

Tommy has sold hot dogs for years near the mosaics in the park. According to the Courier, he was the only vendor authorized to sell in the park during the U.S. Open.  (Figure that one out.  The USTA has a legal monopoly?) Now he's been removed, as per a story featured on WPIX, which unfortunately was not posted online.

So who pulled the plug and why?

Bloomberg sending lawyers after vendors

From the Daily News:

Mayor Bloomberg is creating a hot dog squadron to chase down filthy sidewalk food vendors who skip out on paying their health code fines.

The vast majority of street vendors never pay up when they’re fined for bugs in their food, blocking the sidewalk or allowing other unsafe conditions.

And the worst scofflaws change their business names, illegally lease out their carts, or use other schemes to avoid paying their bills.

So Bloomberg’s latest budget proposal calls for a seven-person team of lawyers to track down street-meat scofflaws and make them pay.

The team will cost $580,000 a year, but Health Department officials expect them to collect at least that much in fines and pay for themselves.

Awaiting the plan to declutter Downtown Flushing

Councilman Koo and CB7, the sidewalks of Downtown Flushing are still impassable.


Illegal vendors contribute clutter making them dangerously congested.


Sometimes people are forced to walk in the street.


Livery cabs clogging up northeast Roosevelt and Main in Flushing.


What do you intend to do about it? - The Flushing Phantom

Downtown Flushing free-for-all

Flushing is such a booming success that people have to be told to do their holiday gift buying out of town.


They've even got hawkers out on Main St. Pushing the bus service.


All encouraging you to shop elsewhere.


Then theres the obstacle course of junk stands and signs to bump into.


Is that good business... Encouraging people to shop elsewhere?


I guess nobody wants to shop in Flushing...I wonder if the BID knows about these jitneys going to Long Island and upstate.


Blocking sidewalks again on a busy street.


You can barely pass through.


39 Av off Main St. The sign reads...no standing except trucks unloading and in the other direction is metered parking. It doesn't say anything about a shuttle bus stop.





Where's the improvement that the BID promised and do they know about all this crap going on? - The Flushing Phantom

Downtown Flushing shantytown dismantled

These photos were taken Friday by the Flushing Phantom. The sidewalks in Downtown Flushing are clear once again.


And work continues on historic St. George's church steeple, destroyed in 2010.

Koo notices that Downtown Flushing has an issue

From the Daily News:

Navigating the sidewalks of downtown Flushing is a bit of an art form as pedestrians weave and dodge around merchandise that spills out of storefronts, vending tables and lines of commuters waiting for the bus.

City Councilman Peter Koo thinks that needs to change.

Koo (D-Flushing) is asking the city to crack down on the vendors — legal and illegal — who have turned Main St. into an obstacle course.

“I walk this street every day,” said Koo, who said he has received complaints about the vendors since he was first elected to office in 2009. “The sidewalks are very narrow. You can’t walk.”

Koo said he is even mulling legislative action that would ban vendors along Main St., similar to the restrictions that exist along Austin St. in Forest Hills.

The downtown Flushing area is both a transit hub and a shopping center, home to several bus lines as well as the Long Island Rail Road and the No. 7 subway.

That makes it a prime location for vendors and merchants.

Koo said some shop owners are frustrated by vendors who take away business while others add to the problem by renting out space in front of their stores.

Bayside has a vendor problem as well.