Souvenir sellers have flooded the Brooklyn Bridge. Now the city is banning them

NEW YORK (AP) — New York City will ban vendors from the Brooklyn Bridge starting Wednesday (Jan. 3, 2024). The move is intended to ease overcrowding on the famed East River crossing, where dozens of souvenir sellers currently compete for space with tourists and city commuters. Those who sell items on the bridge acknowledge that vendors have inundated the bridge in recent years, but criticize the city’s actions as overly broad. City officials say the new rules will apply to both licensed and unlicensed sellers. Mayor Eric Adams defended the ban on vendors as necessary to ensure pedestrian safety and clamp down on what he described as growing disorder.