Live crabs. Bras with rhinestones. Old shoes. Discolored electrical cords. Louis Vuitton wraps removed. Disposable face masks. Taps Mets.
Illegal street vendors selling these items have taken over suburbs, clogging sidewalks with their second-hand merchandise and dragging customers from pandemic-ravaged mothers and pop shops.
And everyone points the finger at the mayor of Blasio.
From Brooklyn to the Bronx, Staten Island, and Queens, folding tables and mats were deployed on ground force pedestrians to go to a single file or step aside so they wouldn’t run over.
In the Bronx, 149th Street and Fordham Road are points of interest. So is Fifth Avenue in Brooklyn’s Sunset Park and Flushing High Street, especially on the few blocks from the Sanford Avenue post office to Roosevelt Avenue 7 train station.
In Main, between Sanford and 41c Avenue, The Post had 27 street vendors, just across the street. Two took out yellow licenses, proving they were military veterans. Six shook their heads as if they did not understand English. The others swerved or looked down when asked to show their licenses.
DianSong Yu, of Flushing’s business improvement district, estimates that 90% of vendors are unlicensed. Across the city, the number of vendors of all kinds stands at about 20,000, according to the Street Vendor Project, an advocacy group. But generally legitimate commodity license holders, including mobile food suppliers, add up to a few thousand.
“It’s a very difficult time for everyone, we understand that,” Yu told The Post. “But we have to be fair to the local trader who pays very high taxes and rents. And they hurt. ”
Bobby has a yellow license for his place in Main and is angry at the infiltrators. “They are stealing taxes from the city. They are taking money from veterans. They are taking jobs, ”said Bobby, who did not give his last name but told The Post that he fought in Vietnam.
The Consumer Department distributes the licenses. The city limits non-veteran general vendor licenses to 853 and charges a fee of $ 100 or $ 200 depending on the time of year the applicant applies for. Any veteran with a high fee can get permission for free.
Sanford and Main is where you can find bright blue crabs. The Hawkers stack their three-tall wooden caps, selling crustaceans for a dollar a piece.
Everyone knows crabs are legal or safe to eat. No agency could say for sure in The Post and none took responsibility for oversight.
New York State allows crabs in the waters around Queens, but has restrictions on the size and number of catches. It issues permits for large drags.
But the regulatory agency, the state Department of Environmental Conservation, does not require a retail permit to sell the crabs. The city’s Department of Health grants licenses to mobile food vendors, who cannot sell raw seafood but do not supervise street vendors.
The wife of a licensed salesman bought a dozen several weeks ago, due to objections from her husband, who has not worked during the pandemic due to chronic lung disease.
“She imagined what could go wrong … well, a lot,” said the husband who spoke to The Post on condition of anonymity.
That night he stung crab legs. Shortly afterwards, she began to feel ill and her husband decided to dissect the remains to get clues. He found white worms in his belly. The Department of Health is investigating, spokesman Patrick Gallahue told The Post.
“I was an illegal salesman,” confessed her husband, who is now about 70 years old. “I can understand if you can go on sale. Why not? But the situation is out of control, outrageously out of control. “
At 39 years oldth and Main, Ira Dananberg disregards humanity’s infatuation with her second-floor hearing aid business, Acousticon of Flushing.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” said Dananberg, who has been in his place for 19 years. “People literally have no choice but to walk on top of each other.”
He worries because most of his customers are older and use a cane or a walker. And they are intimidated by the crowds.
From January to December 21, illegal complaints from street vendors in the five municipalities amounted to 2,907, although the city was closed for 78 days. The figure for 2019: 3,101.
During the first nine months of 2020, the NYPD wrote 28 entries to unlicensed vendors. Last year’s count was 173.
Dananberg, Bobby and a bunch of others blame Blasio, who ordered the NYPD to stop cracking down on illegal street vendors in early June, part of a package of policy changes he announced after more than ‘a week of violent protests by Black Lives Matter.
“It’s a circus,” said Councilman Peter Koo, who introduced a bill passed two years ago that bans all vending machines (even food carts) on the main street. “That’s up to the mayor.”
Dananberg filed a pair of 311 complaints online, which were forwarded to the 109 of the NYPDth Enclosure. Responding police officers told Dananberg that his hands were tied because of Hizzoner’s moratorium.
NYPD spokeswoman Det. Sophia Mason told police at The Post that she still handles sellers ’complaints.
But the app will move from NYPD to Consumer Affairs on Jan. 15, Blasio spokeswoman Laura Feyer told The Post.
“We remain committed to a diverse business ecosystem, where small businesses of all kinds coexist and contribute to a vibrant street life,” he said.