Street vendors at Hudson Yards park say they're being pushed out

A group of street vendors and advocates rallied near Bella Abzug Park in Hudson Yards Wednesday to resist an effort to move them out of the pricey development on the Far West Side. They allege that the Hudson Yards Hell’s Kitchen Alliance and the Parks Department have been pushing them out since the development opened in 2019. “We’re just now trying to protect our place,” said Mohamed Awad, who operates a breakfast cart in the park. “It’s not about money.”

One way the alliance and Parks have ousted the food-cart operators has been through the addition of landscaping, the vendors said. New trees and wider tree pits have been added to the sidewalks adjacent to the park where the carts used to operate, giving the carts a smaller footprint on which to set up.

It’s a move “that is very intentional, to displace the vendors, to push them out of the location, and make sure they go out of business, which has happened for most of the carts that used to operate along this block,” said Mohamed Attia, the managing director of the Urban Justice Center’s Street Vendor Project. “There is so much space in this park for 100 more trees, but the local [business improvement district] is choosing exactly where the vendors operate legally to place the trees and push them out.”

The HYHK Alliance disputed the claim that the trees were planted to displace the vendors, adding that the trees are associated with the Hudson Blvd East Shared Street project, which has been in the works for years.

Some of the vendors had set up on the then-empty Far West Side to provide food and drink to the construction workers building the 28-acre development. Many are immigrants and military veterans. Joseph Urbina, a disabled veteran who had been legally vending on the corner of 33rd Street near the park since 2016, said he’s had to put his cart in the garage for two months and has three employees who are now out of work.

“I find it to be so unfair that we’re being pushed out knowing that the city of New York does not have a restriction for us to vend in Hudson Yards, so that means we have permission to vend here,” he said during the rally.

Vendors were forcibly moved to allow the construction of another tree pit in April, the advocates said. Only one vendor is still in the park. 

Awad, who runs a cart selling $1 coffees with a partner who is a veteran and two other employees, said he has been issued a ticket by the Parks Department every day for the last two weeks for returning to his spot. “Every day they give us a $300 summons, because we’re not moving. We refuse to move,” he told The Chief following the rally.

The Parks Department said the vendors operating on the park’s perimeter did not have the necessary Department-issued permits — instead, many of them were able to legally operate carts because they have licenses given to disabled veteran vendors. Those permits are issued by the city’s Department of Health.

A spokesperson for the Parks Department stated that “Our Park Enforcement Patrol Officers’ first course of action is to educate on our rules; if not followed, the next step is to issue a summons.”

The department added that it suggested nearby areas the vendors could continue to work, but the vendors argued that the alternate spaces did not have sufficient foot traffic.

'It's about profit'

Adding to the vendors’ frustration, the Parks Department in 2018 entered into a concession agreement with the Hudson Yards Hell’s Kitchen Alliance, which in turn has allowed a different vendor, Paradis in the Park, to operate several carts in the park and nearby areas. According to the Parks Department, Paradis was awarded what the department said was a sublicense agreement.

“It’s about profit. A billion-dollar entity raking in more dollars while small businesses suffer. Is that right?” asked Nisha Tabassum, campaign manager for the Fund Excluded Workers Coalition at Make the Road. Although the park is managed by the HYHK Alliance, the advocates believed that the Hudson Yards developer, The Related Companies, was also working to oust the vendors.

The Related Companies deferred comment to the HYHK Alliance.

Attia, of the Street Vendor Project, noted that “Before all of these glass towers existed, street vendors have been here, serving New Yorkers, serving construction workers who broke their backs building those towers. They were the only food option for those construction workers for many years.”

Following the rally, the street vendors and activists marched around The Vessel structure, which is across the street from the park, demanding that the Parks Department rectify the situation and allow the vendors to return to their livelihoods. 

“We have to defend and support our families. I have five kids, three of them in college,” said Abeer Adham, who has run a cart with a disabled veteran since 2014.

“Street vendors are such precarious workers despite their contributions to the New York State economy through their labor. They're constantly excluded from protections, benefits and face harassment and displacement,” said Tabassum of Make the Road.

“To the New York City government: do better to give legal protections to street vendors – and licenses – who are just trying their best to run an honest business,” Tabassum added.

A 2015 study from the Institute for Justice found that street vendors contributed $293 million to the city’s economy. 

“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 Parks Department spokesperson said.