Another big shift for the DSNY is happening on April 1st – street vendor enforcement is set to move from the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection to the Department of Sanitation.
(If you missed the first big DSNY shift, read our article on trash set out times – we expect high enforcement here after the warning period ending May 1, so it’s good to be prepared).
According to a recent Crain’s article, Mayor Adams made a “surprise move…to shift enforcement of street vendors to the Sanitation Department.” Essentially:
Uniformed Sanitation Department police officers will be given the authority to issue fines and, if necessary, confiscate goods after making repeated warnings…Roughly 40 Sanitation Department police officers will guard against illegal vending, with a focus on cleanliness in public spaces.
You can see the Mayor’s official letter re-establishing the Office of Street Vendor Enforcement within the DSNY here.
What Does This Mean For Me?
Important things to note:
- If you’re a SiteCompli user, you may see some additional Sanitation violations in your portfolio. While we’re unsure of what this looks like now, we know Sanitation has ramped up enforcement significantly from pandemic levels (you can see the numbers in our latest report, here)
- Some of these violations may be your responsibility, especially if:
- Your organization is the named respondent; and/or
- The violation is for trash pickups/placement
- Some of these violations may not be your responsibility, and may be for vendors located on your property. We’ll continue to inform you of any violations issued at your buildings, inclusive of named respondents. That said, you can always mark “Not Me” in your SiteCompli account, preventing further alerts and/or summaries about the violation in question
We’ll keep you posted on future changes for street vendor enforcement, and continue to track violation trends for Sanitation, alongside other city agencies.
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