More than 50 street vendors and their advocates held a rally in Hudson Yards Wednesday to protest the Parks Department and real estate developers who they argue are trying to displace them.
The protestors, holding signs that read “Save Hudson Yards Vendors” and “Shame on You,” argue that their livelihoods are at risk, claiming that they are being displacing due to the actions of the Parks Department, the real estate giant The Related Companies, and the Hudson Yards Hell’s Kitchen Alliance.
The vendors — primarily Egyptian immigrants and disabled military veterans — have been operating at Bella Abzug Park, located at West 33rd Street and Hudson Boulevard East, for the past 15 years selling coffee and halal food while the massive towers were being constructed. They say that since 2019 when the Hudson Yards development opened, the Parks Department and the Alliance have worked together to get rid of them.
The vendors say that the agency has essentially privatized Bella Abzug Park, by entering into a concessionaire agreement with the Alliance, which operates as a Business Improvement District that is overseen by developers. The Alliance has, in turn, rented the space to new vendors for a fee.
The long-time vendors are not permitted to operate in the park and say they have been relegated to the periphery. Additionally, the long-time vendors argue that the Alliance has taken other steps to displace them by extending sidewalk tree pits and putting up barriers in areas that prevent them from vending.
“For many years … before all these glass towers existed, street vendors have been here serving New Yorkers, serving construction workers who broke their backs building those towers,” said Mohamed Attia, managing director of the Street Vendor Project, at the rally. “They were the only food option for the construction workers who were building those towers, for many years. Now they are being displaced.”
Many longtime vendors say that Parks Enforcement Patrol Officers have been ordered to issue tickets if they work in the park.
“I find it to be so unfair that we are being pushed out,” said Joseph Urbina, a disabled military veteran who said he has been vending legally in the area since 2016.
“How can a company come in with the help of another organization [the Alliance] …and push us out? We need to stand and… show that we not only have the right; we earned this privilege to vend in the park.”
Meanwhile, Nazih Attia, another street vendor, said that he has been legally operating in the area for nine years.
“I just have a question. Why now am I not legal? Is it because the BID doesn’t want us here?” Attia said.
During the press conference, vendors displayed more than 1,500 petitions that they had collected requesting that they be able to operate without harassment.
In a statement, a spokesperson for the city’s Parks Department said the agency is looking to work out a solution with the long-time vendors.
“Our goal is to find an equitable solution for the Parks-permitted food vendors who will be coming to Bella Abzug Park, and the existing vendors that have frequented the area,” the rep said.
“Over the past few weeks, we have had multiple conversations with the vendors currently in the park regarding the permitted food vendor coming to the park. As always, our Park Enforcement Patrol Officers’ first course of action is to education on our rules — if not followed, the next step is to issue a summons.”
The Related Companies did not comment on the issue, instead deferring the Hudson Yards Kitchen Alliance. The Alliance could not be reached for comment.
