DSNY to Begin Street Vending Enforcement April 1

Mayor Adams just announced that street vendor enforcement will transfer to the NYC Department of Sanitation (DSNY) from the NYC Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (DCWP) starting April 1. In a statement, Mayor Adams called unregulated street vending “a quality-of-life concern that affects the health, safety, accessibility, prosperity, and cleanliness of our streets, sidewalks, and neighborhoods.” You can read a letter from Mayor Adams announcing these changes here.

Around 40 uniformed police officers from DSNY will enforce vending violations with a focus on compliance and the cleanliness of public spaces. These officers will have the authority to issue fines or confiscate goods after giving repeat warnings. You can learn more about the change in street vendor enforcement in this OpEd by Jessica Tisch, commissioner of DSNY, and Marjorie Velazquez, who represents parts of the Bronx on the New York City Council and serves as chair of the Committee on Consumer and Worker Protection. According to the article, DSNY will “be working with food inspectors from the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, with culturally appropriate outreach staff (including multilingual outreach) from the Department of Small Business Services, with Department of Transportation plaza and public-space teams and with the vendor-licensing teams at the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection — all to make sure New York City finally has a smart and effective interagency plan in place that protects our street vendors and balances our communities’ needs.”

The Lincoln Square BID and our colleagues at the NYC BID Association have worked on improving vendor enforcement and advocated for appropriate siting for many years, and we applaud this decision by Mayor Adams. We are confident that DSNY will have a strong and well-trained unit to enforce vending regulations and hope that it’s a positive step towards improving the quality-of-life and the public realm in NYC. We look forward to working with the new enforcement unit to ensure our sidewalks are clean, safe, free of obstacles, and passable for all.