NEW YORK CITY — The Brooklyn Bridge will only be crowded by throngs of tourists — not tourists and vendors — starting in 2024.
Vendors soon will be banned from the Brooklyn Bridge and other city bridges under new rules, Mayor Eric Adams announced Friday.
A crackdown on vendors will begin Jan. 3, officials said.
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“Tourists and New Yorkers alike deserve to walk across it and enjoy its beauty without being packed together like sardines or risking their safety,” Adams said in a statement.
“That’s why we’re giving vendors fair warning: As of January 3rd, they won’t be allowed to set up shop on pedestrian walkways or bike lanes on our bridges — giving New Yorkers the ability to use those public spaces safely and freely. We’re not going to allow disorder to continue in these cherished spaces.”
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The ban promises to clear the Brooklyn Bridge’s pedestrian paths of long lines of vendor carts that have long been annoyances for many New Yorkers.
But some City Council Members, notably Gale Brewer, have pushed back against a full ban.
Adams referenced Brewer’s opposition this week as he pontificated about the need for “order” in the city.
“Gale Brewer believed people should be able to line up and down the bridge and sell whatever they want. I don’t,” he said.
Brewer, it should be noted, only said she didn’t think a full ban was necessary.
“There are spots on bridges that are appropriate for vendors, and they are identifiable and can be enforced – particularly on the Brooklyn Bridge,” she said, the New York Post reported.
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