Local BID ousts illegal vendors
Head of Throggs Neck BID asks three vendors to leave neighborhood
BY JASON COHEN
Areas like Fordham Road
and Kingsbridge Road near
the Armory have been fl ooded
with illegal vendors and one
Business Improvement District
is making sure that does
not happen in its neighborhood.
While people recently tried
operating in Throggs Neck
without permits, BID Director
Bobby Jaen put his foot down.
“Would I be doing my job if
I had vendors here that were
illegitimate and that were
stealing from businesses that
pay? I can’t do that,” Jaen said.
“When you come in and you
don’t have a permit from the
City of New York, it’s not going
to happen here.”
The fi rst business was
Cousins Maine Lobster, which
has trucks all over the city
and a big following on social
media.
Cousins parked at 3700
East Tremont Ave. in front
of TD Bank a few weeks ago
and had a line of 100 people.
But a week later, it parked on
the sidewalk and caused a big
commotion, Jaen explained.
Many residents complained
to Jaen about this.
“A lot of people are in agreement,
we don’t want you to
come here with that attitude,”
Jaen said.
Jaen spoke with the company
and explained he understood
they had a permit, but
he could not have them on the
sidewalk obstructing pedestrians.
So they relocated to
3200 East Tremont Ave. outside
BRONX TIMES REPORTER,24 OCT. 30-NOV. 5, 2020 BTR
of the BID.
“All I wanted from them
is, hey look, we can negotiate
something where we both
get what we want,” Jaen said.
“You’re making the neighborhood
unsafe by being on the
sidewalk.”
The second vendor was a
man with no permit who had
sold racks of clothes and folding
tables of toys in front of the
Randall Avenue deli for many
years. Jaen recalled how a
year ago, the owner of the deli
asked him to get other stores
to stop selling loose cigarettes
and he did.
He quickly reminded him
of this and said the man selling
clothes outside without a
permit would hurt the BID.
The deli owner agreed.
“I said to him, when you
needed us we were there. Now
you want to turn around and
allow a guy with no permit to
sit outside and sell things that
are other businesses are selling,”
Jaen said.
So Jaen spoke to the gentleman
and explained that it was
nothing personal, but he had
to leave.
Lastly, a cigar vendor
popped up a few weeks ago
at Randall Avenue and East
Tremont without a permit.
Jaen told him he could not be
there and the duo came to an
agreement that he would sell
outside of the BID in Throggs
Neck.
“The bottom line is we
don’t want anyone here that
isn’t permitted to be here,”
he stressed.
According to Jaen, he felt
Throggs Neck didn’t have as
many illegal vendors as other
parts of the Bronx because
he approached them with respect
and didn’t involve the
cops.
“I cut it out before it became
a tumor,” he said.
Cousins Maine Lobster, which was booted from the Throggs Neck BID. Courtesy of Facebook
BY ALEJANDRA
O’CONNELL-DOMENECH
Mayor Bill de Blasio advised
New Yorkers to avoid
traveling during the holidays
as COVID-19 numbers
continue to go up across the
country.
The country reported
80,000 new cases of the virus,
setting a single-day record,
earlier this week, according
to data from Johns
Hopkins University.
De Blasio said that the
city would be upping its enforcement
of travel guidelines
that require those entering
New York City from
high-risk states to quarantine
for two weeks.
“It’s tough and it’s painful.
This hopefully will be
the only holiday season
that gets affected by this
horrible disease,” said de
Blasio. De Blasio, who normally
travels to visit family
during Thanksgiving
and Christmas, said that
his family did not have any
plans to leave the city for
the holidays.
Mayor de Blasio also
urged the federal government
to enforce stricter
rules for those traveling
during the holiday season
and to require those traveling
by air to show proof
that they tested negative for
COVID at least 72 hours before
their fl ight.
De Blasio said that the
city will work to increase
already existing COVID-19
testing efforts at John F.
Kennedy International airport
and LaGuardia Airport.
“We want to make it
easy and clear that anyone
coming off of a plane should
immediately get tested, “de
Blasio said.
The city has been working
towards preventing a
second wave of the virus after
a number of COVID clusters
popped up in Brooklyn
and Queens last month and
surpassed the 550 threshold
of new cases last Friday.
On Tuesday, City Hall reported
that the city’s overall
COVID positivity rate
is 2.48%, there are 528 new
cases based on a seven day
average and that total number
of people hospitalized
for COVID-19 is 60. The
numbers are higher than
average but remain lower
the COVID numbers for
most other states.
“The best thing would be
to keep it local,” de Blasio
said. “Stay nearby. Keep it
safe. It’s not easy, but none
of this has been easy.”
This story fi rst appeared
on amny.com.
A Delta Air Lines gate agent makes an announcement for air travelers behind
a protective window at JFK International Airport in New York, U.S.,
August 6, 2020. Picture taken August 6, 2020. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton
De Blasio advises New Yorkers to avoid
traveling during the holidays amid COVID-19
/amny.com
