WILLIAMSBURG — A Bedford Avenue street vendor's attempt to eliminate her competition by siccing police on unlicensed sellers backfired when officers cleared all the tables off the street for violating city codes.
Captain Peter Rose of the 94th Precinct sent officers to Bedford Avenue to enforce vending codes after Ann Tivorsky of The Stand, who has sold vintage goods on the corner of Bedford and North 7th Street for many years, complained about illegal vending along the avenue, he said.
"They’ve been complaining, they escalated [this] between themselves," Rose told DNAinfo of the crackdown earlier this month, which swept vendors off of Bedford Avenue and sent many of them onto side streets.
In addition to the illegal vending, police found that Tivorsky was breaking the rules by stringing her goods up to an adjacent property and using more than one table, Rose said.
Tivorsky, who said she had permission to string her wares up to the neighboring retail space, said she understood that some people would be upset with her for calling the police. But she said she thinks others in the community have also complained to police about the congestion on the avenue.
"If they're using me as a scapegoat that's just fine," said Tivorsky, who's now set up around the corner from her old spot on North 7th Street. "My shoulders are wide enough."
Monte Schapiro, a bookseller who's worked on Bedford Avenue for a decade, said he warned Tivorsky and other vendors not to escalate the problem.
"I kept saying to them if you keep calling the police and complaining about illegal vending you're just shooting yourself in the foot, just fanning the flames," said Schapiro, who decided not to relocate after the crackdown, relying instead on online sales through his website.
"I won't be working there until I know what the situation is which means I'm not able to make a living," Schapiro said. "It hurts me that I can't go out...It's the holiday season, we should be making money.”
The precinct commander said he's sympathetic that people are trying to earn some money, but he can't selectively enforce the rules.
"We’re not looking to take anyone’s livelihood," Rose said, but added, "We can't just enforce the illegal vending. Bedford is very congested. There really is no [legal] space."
Rose added that while they wouldn't engage in a ticketing blitz like in Manhattan, his officers would be enforcing the rule barring selling within 20 feet of store entrances and hatches into basements, eliminating all legal places to vend.
Now on Bedford Avenue where vendors once were, food trucks have set up shop, and street vendors been relegated to the side streets.
The decreased foot traffic is carving away at their normally robust holiday profits, they said.
"I haven't made a sale all day," Tivorsky said. "If I were on Bedford it would be a different story."
