While critics of Proposal 2 often focus on the ballot measure’s broader ties to New York City Mayor Eric Adams’s Charter Revision Commission, advocates fear the expansion of his authority to deploy NYC Department of Sanitation (DSNY) enforcement will have a negative impact on working-class and immigrant New Yorkers.
Particular concern stems from street vendors, who will be specifically “held accountable” by the measure’s clean-up efforts. Mohamed Attia, managing director at the Street Vendor Project, said that while DSNY’s enforcement already exists elsewhere, the ballot measure greenlights agency deployment against vendors in city parks.
“Street vending is heavily enforced in city parks, given that the parks enforcement patrols are overseeing parks, and they, of course, enforce the vending laws, along with the NYPD and [the health department], so you already have several agencies that are involved in the street vendor enforcement” Attia said. “What this prop is doing is basically adding another agency to go after the vendors in city parks, which we can imagine would be very problematic and detrimental to a lot of the vendors, who are already facing crackdowns by several agencies.”
According to the DSNY, the measure does not directly expand agency enforcement authority to parks but rather, grants the mayor the ability to deploy the agency for “supplemental” clean-up efforts and enforcement. Adams has not employed the authority since its passage earlier this month.
To be clear, the DSNY already enforces street vending laws on the street — but areas in and around parks are not legally considered “streets” when interpreting jurisdiction.
Prop 2 was downballot from the presidential election, so its passing coincided with Trump’s victory and subsequent concern about mass deportations and general anti-immigrant sentiment. Attia fears further enforcement means criminal sanctions and fingerprinting for more vendors, many of whom are immigrants, potentially flagging their arrests for federal enforcement agencies like U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
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Even licensed and permit-holding vendors cannot operate in city parks without a request for bid, which requires “pretty difficult steps and processes to actually navigate,” according to Attia.
Advocates for the unhoused, such as VOCAL-NY’s Joseph Loonam, say they are still trying to understand how the measure language will affect those living on the streets. After all, DSNY authorities already exist to break up encampments and the Grants Pass Supreme Court decision allows cities to “punish” people for sleeping outside.
“I don’t know what changes about their ability to do that, but it is a very short-sighted way to obscure a problem from public view without actually doing anything to immediately address it,” Loonam said.
Tandy Lau is a Report for America corps member who writes about public safety for the Amsterdam News. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep him writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by visiting https://bit.ly/amnews1.