Allerton street vendors, including military veterans, continue to clash with DSNY

Larry Taylor, a disabled Vietnam veteran, wants to vend on Allerton Avenue and White Plains Road but is battling DSNY over licensing issues. Enforcement comes through so regularly that he always keeps backup merchandise nearby. Photo Emily Swanson

In the Bronx’s Allerton neighborhood, street vendors are continuing to clash with the city over the right to vend on its bustling commercial corridor. 

With the city shutting down its famed Brooklyn Bridge vendors on Jan. 3 and generally ramping up enforcement — which is handled by sanitation officers — neighborhoods with a longtime street vending presence are feeling the pinch. 

Larry Taylor, a disabled Vietnam veteran who served from 1972 to 1974, is the latest Allerton vendor to complain of being unfairly cited. 

He is among several in an ongoing cycle who claim that DSNY issues summons for invalid reasons and that confiscations have cost them thousands of dollars’ worth of merchandise and display equipment.

“[Officers] came over just to harass and start trouble,” Taylor told the Bronx Times . 

But he and others say they aren’t going anywhere. When sanitation officers showed up to Allerton Avenue and White Plains Road around 1 p.m., it was no surprise to the vendors lining the intersection, who say that DSNY has been coming regularly for months. 

But in Taylor’s case, he assumed he would have no problem because he holds three different vending licenses.

One is a white card from the city’s Consumer Affairs department that expired in September 2020 — which Taylor claimed he never received a renewal notice for, perhaps due to COVID delays. He also had two other licenses: a yellow card from the Department of Consumer Affairs labeled “Disabled Vet General Vendor Citywide Specialized License” and a laminated paper issued in 2004 by the Bronx County Clerk titled “Veterans License to Hawk, Peddle and Vend Merchandise.” Neither of these documents show an expiration…