New York Neighborhood Turns on Its Street Vendors

By Amir Khafagy | Documented

(Above: A 34th Street Partnership security guard forcing street vendor Mohamed Ahmed to move. Photo Amir Khafagy)

Street vendors like Mohamed Ahmed have to contend with New York City’s byzantine rules related to their trade. Many regularly find themselves in the drab offices of the New York City Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings (OATH) in Downtown Manhattan where they try to argue their way out of fines issued by the NYPD and the Department of Sanitation. To vendors like Ahmed, who grills chicken and other food on 34th Street, NYPD and DOS officers are a familiar sight and the cost of doing business. Ahmed has a drawer in his street cart full of tickets.

But for Ahmed and the other street vendors of 34th Street, they have a new ticketing agency to contend with: the 34th Street Partnership. 

Private security guards hired by the 34th Street Partnership and deputized by the NYPD have been issuing a barrage of tickets to vendors for violations, like Herald Square’s no vending rule, which restricts vending between the peak hours of 8 a.m. and 7 p.m. These tickets are enforceable by OATH and are official New York City fines. It is a rare instance of private industry enforcing public regulations which is enabled by an obscure law that paves the way for more financial interests to issue fines. The stakes for vendors are high: those who don’t pay their tickets can potentially lose their licenses. 

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