Tribeca Citizen | Illegal vending on Canal Street: “It’s a constant churn.”

The SoHo Broadway Initiative — the Neighborhood Improvement District for the SoHo Broadway corridor — hosted a panel discussion on Zoom with representatives from the 1st Precinct, the Department of Sanitation and the Manhattan District Attorney’s office to discuss the counterfeit vendors that line the streets around Broadway and Canal. The timing was odd, since it was just two days after ICE raided the area and arrested nine vendors. But while that event was discussed, it was largely pushed aside to look at the long-term issue.

Present were:
Antonio Whitaker, assistant director, Bureau of Public Affairs, Department of Sanitation
Nicolaos Iordanou, community affairs officer, 1st Precinct
Gabriel Hippolyte, assistant district attorney, Manhattan District Attorney’s Office

I have the most of the answers to the Q&A below, but here are some bullet points on facts I gleaned from the hour-long event:

The Department of Sanitation oversees all street vending — food trucks, food carts and merchandise vendors.
DSNY only does civil enforcement, meaning it can give tickets and seize goods. It cannot make arrests.
DSNY has 40 Sanitation Police citywide. Those are divided up by borough.
The NYPD has jurisdiction over the illegal sale of counterfeit goods.
To make an arrest, NYPD officers have to witness the sale. They then have to confirm that the goods are counterfeit.
NYPD made 100 arrests last year from Jan. 1 to Oct. 22. This year they made 300 arrests in that same time period.

**The moderators noted that there are two discrete issues: illegal vending  and counterfeit vending.

Why is Sanitation the enforcement agency for vending?
Antonio Whitaker: [In 2023] Mayor Adams moved the Office of Street Vendor Enforcement in 2023 to the Department of Sanitation. Enforcement had previously been with the Office of Consumer and Worker Protection. The mayor thought this was best suited to Sanitation, but we do partner often with the NYPD and other agencies.

Can you explain the new Q-Team approach by the NYPD and its impact?
Nicolaos Iordanou: The Q-Teams, part of the Quality of Life Division, are similar to neighborhood coordinating teams but with additional training on quality of life issues. They do daily enforcement on illegal vending and respond to disorderly conduct. Their primary focus is overall quality of life, and a big focus is Canal Street. They work from 10am to 6pm, and we sometimes get overtime for Canal Street. We also do joint operations to address the vending issues.

Counterfeit vendors are openly selling goods and make it impossible to walk down the street. Why hasn’t the city addressed it?
Nicolaos Iordanou: We arrest people daily, but unfortunately we see them coming out the next day. Sometimes I arrest the same people over and over again. Their property is usually destroyed, but they often get new property. It’s not easy to grab people — they often run into the street. And legally we have to observe them actively making a sale. We have to make a good case. It takes up to four cops to make a single arrest. You will see hundreds of vendors selling — but on the October 11th, for example, it took eight cops to make eight arrests. We are basically outnumbered.

The sidewalks are difficult to navigate. How is pedestrian safety being taken into consideration?
Antonio Whitaker: From Sanitation’s standpoint, we rely on 311 data and our partners in government to tell us where there is a proliferation of vending, so we can do an initial assessment. We will first speak to the vendors to let them know if they are unlicensed to vend, then they are not allowed to be here. We tell them we will be back in a few days and confiscate items and issue tickets. Hopefully that serves as a deterrent, but it’s a constant churn for us. We can do a full sweep and get rid of a lot of unlicensed vendors, but a few days later they come right back. We only do civil enforcement.

Are vending licenses designated by zones? Can there be thoughtful distribution around the city?
Antonio Whitaker: There are no zones for vending, but there are certain streets that are restricted for vending. The Department of Consumer and Worker Protection has a map that shows you which areas are restricted.

I’ve witnessed violence and drug sales taking place directly in front of NYPD officers and they shrug it off. Why is this happening?
Nicolaos Iordanou: I can’t personally answer that. The only thing I can say is I have to legally see people make sales.

What can we do about shops with merchandise on the sidewalk?
Antonio Whitaker: We can issue summonses and tell them to move their stuff inside.

Are we inviting the federal government to intervene if we are not enforcing illegal vending ourselves?
Nicolaos Iordanou: We don’t work with the feds and they don’t tell us what they are doing. We notice there is a lot less activity after what happened the other day. But we didn’t know what was going to happen. If there’s a protest, you are going to see NYPD officers at the protest, but other than that we are not involved.

Why does the city not take a zero tolerance approach to this?
Antonio Whitaker: It’s a revolving door for us. We only do civil enforcement, not criminal enforcement. No one will ever get arrested by us. We only do summonses and confiscations. They can get the confiscated items back if they pay the fines and they can go back on the street if they so choose.

We try to be as diligent as possible, but it’s difficult to manage and to enforce. We just try to get out there as much as possible.

Are there any opportunities when the NYPD does a sweep to investigate where the goods are coming from? Is there capacity for investigating who the suppliers are?
Nicolaos Iordanou: On a precinct level, no. Those are specialized units that do that. Those investigations are ongoing, but it takes a lot of work to get enough evidence to do those seizures. There’s such a high demand for these goods — people are buying them — so they know how to change locations. Remember, this is a 30-year problem on Canal Street.

Gabriel Hippolyte: One of the main aspects is the locations are often not in Manhattan, so it is outside our jurisdiction. So a lot of those cases get sent to our federal counterparts.

No one here is talking about the demand for these goods. There are more tourists and more individuals buying every time we look at this. That is really what is driving this behavior.

How often is DSNY able to go out? What is the capacity?
Antonio Whitaker: DSNY does not enforce counterfeit vending. When we come across that, we immediately contact the NYPD. Everything else comes under DSNY jurisdiction. We have 40 Sanitation police citywide, they are New York State peace officers, and we have a team in every borough. They receive their orders every morning and go out to hotspots in each borough. Plus we do a lot of one-offs where we get tips from our community boards or elected officials.

When we come across an unlicensed truck or food cart and we have to confiscate that, that takes up our whole day.

On any given day, the sidewalks are taken up with illegal vending. This reduces foot traffic and blocks access to retailers. I have met with several retailers who will never do business here because of the illegal vending. What can I do as a property owner to be part of the solution?
Nicolaos Iordanou: We have a steady stream of enforcement so send pictures to us either via 911 or 311. Please document it and send it in as often as you can. That helps us long term. On average we make 20 to 30 arrests a month.

Antonio Whitaker: Ditto. We use the 311 data to focus our resources. That is the best way for property owners to help us out.

Gabriel Hippolyte: The 311 calls are the most effective way to let us know where the locations are. As far as prosecuting, we need a witness and the seized goods. We need to see the stitching on the inside.

The City Council recently decriminalized vending. What does that actually mean?
Conor Allerton | CM Marte: Intro 431 was not passed, but it is still active. Councilman Marte has signed on as a sponsor. This is a strategy that means the more you can decriminalize it, the more you can regulate it. It can be a lot easier to track the vendors and track the legality of the vending. You can revoke a permit, for example. It’s not a silver bullet, but it’s easier to regulate a market if you can identify the market. It’s just one element of seeing what can work.

What additional steps can DSNY take?
We put in a request this fiscal year for more Sanitation police officers but were denied. We will mostly likely make that budgetary request to the City Council again.

I’ve seen goods dropped off in vans. Is there anything to do further up the chain?
Nicolaos Iordanou: We have seized vehicles if we see the goods and see the sale. We have to watch them do it and watch them set up, but it’s hard to do. Everyone even knows our unmarked cars.

Last year from January to October 22 there were 100 arrests made and this year we are at 300 so far.

Antonio Whitaker: I understand the frustration. Someone a lot smarter than me will have to hunker down with the data and really tackle the root of the problem. But to be open about it, this is an issue that is very very difficult for us to find the root of. Because it’s a civil enforcement, people can get their stuff and come back. We are the garbage people — but we also want to lessen everyone’s burdens. We understand the issue for the store owner who sells fruit and has an unlicensed fruit vendor right down the street. All we can do is just stay diligent.