BY ROSE ADAMS
Food vendors have outfoxed
Dyker Heights Councilman
Justin Brannan thanks
to the help of disabled veterans,
who allow merchants to
exploit a loophole in a new law
forbidding food trucks from
idling around the neighborhood’s
iconic holiday lights
display.
“We have been told by the
police department that they
would not enforce the vendor
ban for the area,” said Josephine
Beckmann, the district
manager of the local community
board, who claims that
she sees about two to three
vendors in Dyker Heights every
night. “Residents in the
area were hoping for some relief…
it’s very diffi cult.”
The City Council passed legislation
authored by Brannan
in October that prohibits street
vendors from operating in the
neighborhood between Thanksgiving
COURIER LIFE, D 12 ECEMBER 20-26, 2019
and New Year’s Day.
The legislation was hailed
as a victory for Dyker residents,
who had complained
for years that hordes of food
vendors had invaded the area
during the holiday season —
when the area is fl ooded by
tourists come to view the famous
‘Dyker Lights’ displays.
But Brannan’s legislative
victory was short-lived,
and the same vendors who
plagued the neighborhood
last year showed up in early
December — this time in the
company of disabled veterans,
who are permitted by
state laws dating back to 1894
to operate as sidewalk merchants
with few exceptions,
according to a Brooklyn Eagle
report.
The Councilman laid the
blame on local cops, saying
the vendors’ return was due
to lax enforcement, not a legislative
loophole.
“It is very frustrating because
six million lawyers
looked at this bill before we
got it passed,” he said. “The
law is crystal clear. The city
needs to enforce the law as it
was written.”
But police ruled against
Brannan, saying any vendor
employing disabled veterans
is free to operate around
Dyker Heights, although a
spokesman noted that one
vendor has been ticketed
since the ban went into effect.
And the owner of Brooklyn
Ice Cream — which operates
a fl eet of ice cream trucks in
the area and employs 11 disabled
veterans — said Brannan
needs to brush up on the
law, and that his business is
perfectly legal thanks to his
servicemen and women behind
the counter.
“I know the law better than
Justin Brannan,” he said.
LOOPHOLE: Eddie Cumart, who owns Brooklyn Ice Cream, says he’s allowed
to vend in Dyker Heights because of his special veteran license.
Photo by Rose Adams
Veni, Vend-i, Vici
Merchants defeat ‘Dyker Lights’ ban with
help from disabled veterans
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