Unlicensed vendors have once again crowded onto the Brooklyn Bridge, selling low-cost New York City souvenirs and fruit cups in what licensed sellers — including disabled veterans — say has become an illegal free-for-all that is threatening their livelihoods.
On Sunday, The Post counted about 42 vendors spread across the landmark crossing, including one seller who openly laid out dozens of New York-themed canvas bags directly in front of a sign warning that vending is not allowed.
The unauthorized merchants offered an array of Big Apple souvenirs, from $1 NYC magnets to $5 hats. In one case, an 11-year-old girl sold a Post reporter a $1 bottle of water, then gestured farther up the bridge and said her mother was “selling mangos.”
The crowded and chaotic scene has angered nearby licensed vendors, who say they are being undercut by sellers operating without permits and with little apparent consequence.
Sammy, a 48-year-old licensed ice cream vendor and disabled veteran who has worked near City Hall for decades, said the illegal vendors began returning around October 2025, but argued that “the chaos exploded under Mamdani.”
“It started under Adams because he didn’t give a f–k,” he said, referring to the final stretch of former Mayor Eric Adams’ tenure.
“They’re illegal vendors. They’re there, and they’re back,” Sammy said. “They’re causing chaos. They’re costing the city money. Cops are chasing them.”
According to Sammy, police do issue summonses from time to time, but the penalties have not been enough to stop vendors who continue making money through illegal sales.
The Post witnessed several sellers flee the bridge as a pair of cops patrolled the expanse.
“They give tickets, but they give little stupid $20 tickets, $50 tickets. But he’s going to make $1,000 illegally, so what’s a $20 ticket?”
The turf wars amongst the vendors have also turned violent.
Last week, Sammy was left with scratches all over his arms after breaking up a fight between mango sellers.
“They’re all fighting with each other. The illegal mango [sellers] are cutting each other up, scratching,” Sammy said.
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“They were fighting. I tried to get in between them to stop them from fighting. The wife jumps on me while I’m trying to hold her husband from getting hit by the other five guys. The next thing you know, they’re all punching me and scratching me,” he added.
“I’m doing the police work, I’m doing the Parks Department work, and I’m an ice cream guy.”
In January 2024, Adams followed through on a promise to boot the “packed like sardines” vendors from the Brooklyn Bridge to the relief of pedestrians.
A rule went into effect that January to prohibit vending on pedestrian walkways and bike lanes on bridges and bridge approaches.
The regulation was slated to affect all Big Apple crossings — but was specifically created to target the Brooklyn Bridge after the 1.14-mile-long historic landmark turned into an open-air free-for-all.
But Sammy blasted Mamdani for not doing enough to stop the peddlers whose low prices he claims have forced other souvenir shops to shutter.
“It’s hurting everybody … the stores, the businesses over here. It’s hurting everybody. The people over here are all disabled veterans,” he said of the licensed vendors outside of City Hall, many of whom are unable to set up because the illegal vendors get there at the crack of dawn and “beat everyone to the spot.”
“Mamdani is new, but the [eight] months he’s been in, nothing has changed over there. The cops are not allowed to bother them, and if they arrest somebody, the DA releases them.”
A 41-year-old disabled veteran and US Marine who was discharged in 2008 also told The Post that there are now more than 100 unlicensed vendors on the bridge at times.
“Us being disabled veterans and having a license means nothing over there now because if I go over there, they’re going to kick me out. But they’re not kicking [illegal vendors] out now,” said the licensed vendor, who declined to give his name for fear of retaliation.
He claimed he went to court and the city told him he could not vend on the bridge because it was a “national security” issue.
“These people who just jumped the border, there’s no national security for them,” he said of the unlicensed vendors.
“Before they got rid of all the vendors, there were about 60 – 80 vendors…Now there’s about 120 vendors.”
“If you start from Manhattan side [of the bridge] all the way to Brooklyn side, it’s full of vendors on the floor, and they’re not confiscating nobody’s merchandise. They’re not doing any enforcement, but the moment I go over there, they want to come and harass me and take my merchandise,” he said of the NYPD.
“This is pretty much my livelihood,” he said. “We just want equal enforcement, that’s all.”
