UPPER EAST SIDE — Moustafa Eissawy attracted little attention during the eight years he ran a halal food cart in front of 240 E. 86th St.
That changed when a Fairway supermarket moved into the building this summer.
Since then, Eissawy said he has been hounded by the NYPD and Fairway, who wanted him to move his cart. He's been arrested and he's been physically assaulted as he tried to hold onto his tiny piece of sidewalk real estate.
Now, he's been moved across the street and is trying to recover his business, but is struggling.
Eissawy's troubles started roughly three months before Fairway's July opening.
During the supermarket's construction, the NYPD cracked down on Eissawy, telling him his cart was an obstruction to Fairway's entrance.
"The police tell me not to come here, but I've been here everyday for eight years and had no problems," the 54-year-old told DNAinfo. "The Fairway [doesn't] want anything in front of them."
When Eissawy refused to move, cops stepped up their enforcement. Then Eissawy was arrested on July 13, one week before Fairway’s opening day.
Eissawy claimed cops injured his shoulder during his arrest, and had medical records that showed damage to his rotator cuff and to some tendons, leaving him unable to work.
“For three months I couldn't pay the rent on my house," said Eissawy, an immigrant from Egypt who lives in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, and supports his four children and four grandchildren.
"At my garage [for the cart] I can't pay for three months, too."
Howie Glickberg, Fairway's CEO, said in a statement that the company would not comment, "except to say that the NYPD determined that the vendor was breaking city law by placing his cart less than 20 feet from a store entrance."
But the day Eissawy returned to work in front of Fairway after recovering from his injury, a Health Department inspector showed up and measured the distance from Eissawy's spot to the store's entrance.
"Cart is not blocking entrance,” the official wrote in the Oct. 5 report. “Cart observed located to the side of entrance between entrance and exit."
Still, the next day, cops showed up and towed the cart across the street, Eissawy and witnesses said. They left it in front of another storefront that was being used as a staging area for Second Avenue Subway construction workers.
"A lot of people don’t like it here," he said of the spot. "They don’t come here because of the construction."
On Wednesday this week, a Health Department inspector visited Eissawy again and gave him a violation for vending less than 20 feet from an entrance, ordering him to move once more.
But even the next spot had problems.
The doorman/super of the Park East apartment building near his newest location on East 86th Street told Eissawy he'll have to move when he puts the trash out at 4 p.m. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
"I know he's trying to make a living," the doorman said, refusing to give his name, "but he can't block people's area. Nobody can block the garbage."
According to Susan Gottridge, of the East 86th Street Association and the Carnegie Hill Neighbors group, street vendors are the "No. 1 complaint from constituents."
Sgt. Sean St. Clair, of the 19th Precinct, told the board at a recent meeting that officers were being responsive, noting how cops towed Paty's Taco Truck several times last winter from Lexington Avenue, near East 86th Street, where the mobile food vendor was selling illegally from a metered spot.
Eissawy's arrest was dismissed by a judge in September. Since then, Eissawy said he filed a complaint against the NYPD that is being reviewed by the Internal Affairs Bureau.
The NYPD declined to comment, saying his arrest record has been sealed.
Back on the street, several workers were surprised at how much police attention was focused on Eissawy.
"Why don’t they just leave the guy alone,” said Rudy Izgelov, of the 86th Street Photo and Portrait Studio, who witnessed the July arrest.
“He’s no competition for [Fairway] or anybody."
