Dan Biederman insists midtown monstrosities are hurting others’ biz.
The sidewalks around Macy’s and Bryant Park are home to dozens of food carts with large umbrellas, flashing LED signs and loud generators, whose vendors sell a variety of consumables, from hot dogs and pretzels to Halal cuisine.
Their presence is giving Dan Biederman indigestion.
The longtime president of the 34th Street Partnership and Bryant Park Management Corp., two business improvement districts, described the carts as eyesores in the neighborhoods he has spent the better part of three decades beautifying. He said his districts are a magnet for the vendors.
After chasing drug dealers and graffiti artists out of Bryant Park and helping to turn it into a city treasure, Mr. Biederman is on a crusade to curb street vendors there and around Herald Square. He is appealing to the highest echelons of power for help. During the summer, he met with New York City Police Commissioner Bill Bratton, whom he described as having “listened carefully to our case.”
He’s even offered design solutions for the carts that, he has claimed, have become gargantuan, taking up too much real estate on the sidewalks for pedestrians to navigate around.
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