Guests to New York Metropolis hoping to take dwelling a memento from the Brooklyn Bridge will now need to accept {a photograph}, as distributors are about to be banned from the long-lasting span.
The brand new rule, which works into impact Wednesday, goals to ease overcrowding on the bridge’s closely trafficked pedestrian walkway, the place dozens of trinket sellers at the moment compete for house with vacationers and metropolis commuters.
As crowds flocked to the bridge over the vacation season, the scenario turned harmful, in keeping with New York Metropolis Mayor Eric Adams. He pointed to movies that confirmed pedestrians leaping from the elevated walkway onto a motorcycle lane a number of toes beneath to be able to bypass a human site visitors jam.
“It’s not only a sanitary issue, it’s a public safety issue,” Adams mentioned on Tuesday. “People would’ve trampled over each other. We need order in this city. That is one of our major landmarks.”
The brand new guidelines will apply to the entire metropolis’s bridges — although none have near as many distributors because the 140-year-old Brooklyn Bridge, which is usually lined with tables providing cellphone circumstances, knock-off Yankees caps, novelty license plates and extra.
Those that promote gadgets on the bridge acknowledge that distributors have proliferated in recent times, pushed by relaxed enforcement throughout the coronavirus pandemic and the provision of low-priced merchandise. A call two years in the past to relocate cyclists to a lane of the roadway additionally freed up house for stalls.
Within the center span of the bridge, entrepreneurs have now arrange practically a dozen rotating selfie platforms the place vacationers will pay to take panoramic pictures.
MD Rahman, who has offered sizzling canine and pretzels out of a cart on the bridge for 15 years, mentioned he understands the necessity to crack down on the illicit distributors. However he criticized town’s plan as overly broad, because it additionally applies to veteran sellers, like himself, who maintain cell merchandising licenses.
“The problem is the illegal and unlicensed people selling things up there,” Rahman mentioned, pointing to the newer group of distributors in the midst of the bridge. “To punish everyone, it’s crazy. I don’t know what is going to happen to my family now.”
In latest days, law enforcement officials have posted flyers in a number of languages throughout the bridge, telling distributors they should go away. However some had doubts about whether or not town would truly observe by way of on the plan.
“Maybe I come back in a few weeks,” mentioned Qiu Lan Liu, a vendor promoting hats and T-shirts, lots of them that includes the New York Police Division’s insignia, NYPD. “I’ll see what other people do.”
As information unfold of the approaching ban, some vacationers mentioned they had been benefiting from the low-priced souvenirs whereas they had been nonetheless out there. Ana Souza, an Oklahoma resident, proudly held an “I Love New York” tote she’d discovered for simply $10, a fraction of the value she’d seen at brick-and-mortar outlets.
Jenny Acuchi was visiting New York from Oakland, California. “It’s a little crowded, but not as much as I expected,” she mentioned. “The thing that makes it crowded is that everyone is taking photos.”
Among the many supporters of the brand new guidelines had been some incapacity rights advocates, who mentioned the ban would instantly enhance entry for wheelchair customers. In a press release, town’s transportation chief Ydanis Rodriguez celebrated the enhancements to an attraction he dubbed “America’s Eiffel Tower.”
Rashawn Prince, who makes use of the bridge to sells copies of his self-published ebook, “How to Roll a Blunt for Dummies!” mentioned he was unmoved by the comparability.
“I’ve been to the Eiffel Tower,” Prince mentioned. “There’s vendors there, too.”
