Prohibition of Bridge Peddlers Eases Pedestrian Passage, But New Law May Welcome Them Back
The administration of Mayor Eric Adams successfully evicted more than 100 souvenir vendors from the Brooklyn Bridge in January, but now a proposed new law could allow at least some of them to return.
Peddlers have sold trinkets and water on the bridge’s narrow pedestrian path for more than a decade, but the situation became acute in recent years as the numbers of pedestrians and vendors both skyrocketed.
According to the City’s Department of Transportation (DOT), the daily number of people walking across the Brooklyn Bridge doubled between the start of 2022 and the close of 2023, to 34,000. This headcount, combined with the restricted space created by vendors taking up scarce square footage on the bridge, led to sporadic emergency closures when police officials became concerned about potential crush situations. In the same period, according to the Downtown Alliance, the annual number of 311 complaints about vendors on the Brooklyn Bridge rose to 2,900.
This led the DOT to adopt a new rule banning sellers from pedestrian walkways and bike lanes on New York City bridges and bridge approaches, with concerns specifically cited about the Brooklyn Bridge.
Now, City Council member Gale Brewer is sponsoring citywide legislation that would allow a limited number of vendors to set up shop on the Brooklyn Bridge once more, provided they confine themselves to areas where the pedestrian walkway is at least 16 feet wide and space themselves no less than 20 feet apart. That noted, Ms. Brewer’s proposed law would not designate precise locations on the Brooklyn Bridge for specific vendors. And while the Brooklyn Bridge walkway averages 16 feet in width, there are multiple locations where it narrows to less than as five feet.
At a February City Council hearing, multiple officials from the DOT and the Police Department testified that they have grave reservations about Ms. Brewer’s bill, including public safety concerns, difficulties in enforcements, and the possible return of congestion.
At its March meeting, Community Board 1 enacted a resolution noting, “the Brooklyn Bridge is a popular landmark in our district and an important evacuation route that sadly has been needed on multiple occasions” The resolution opposed Ms. Brewer’s proposal, arguing that the bridge “is not an appropriate place for vending.”