Local store owners are furious that once again, private tables on 13th Avenue which will be used to sell Esrogim and Sukkos decorations are back in place for another year of chaos. It’s hard to believe it, but the tables are already there – weeks before Sukkos!
As has been taking place for many years, people bring tables to 13th Avenue near the Shomer Shabbos Shul, and have an “Arba Minim Shuk”, where thousands go to purchase their Lulavim, Esrogim and various Sukkos items. But in recent years, the situation has deteroiated and gotten out of control, and last year, it turned physical, with arrests made, and people suffering injures.
Store owners that YWN spoke to are demanding action and have given YWN the following points which they claim have been given to local Askonim as well as elected officials but have fallen on deaf ears.
#1- Many feel that the entire “Shuk” should be closed this year after the violent incidents which occurred last year.
#2- Many local residents and store owners want the entire Shuk shut down permanently, as all it does is cause trash all over the streets, and are a nuisance to the neighbors.
#3- All tables (as many as 50) that are being placed there, are controlled by two or three people, who bully their way around and push away all the smaller vendors to areas further out from where the larger crowds congregate. The larger vendors then charge the smaller vendors large fees to allow them to put a table closer to the crowds – as if they actually have the rights to a city sidewalk.
#4- One option from a local store owner said that someone as prominent as the local Community Board or some local organization should be in charge of dividing up the territory, and assigning slots to tables – all of the same size – to prevent any fighting. Additionally, the vendors must sign a contract with rules such as mandatory cleaning every night, not expanding the table out of the allocated slot, not putting up awnings over your neighbors slot, which has in many years caused fighting.
#5- Finally, all store owners YWN spoke with are demanding that local elected officials get involved to figure out some solution before things once again turn ugly.
Time will tell if any changes will be put in place.
(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
Join the official YWN WhatsApp status
16 Responses
It’s interesting that store owners are complaining about taking up space on the sidewalks around shomrei Shabbos.
Where else in the world do you find that grocery stores commandeer the whole area in front of their stores and illegally extend their stores to the point where pedestrians find it impossible to veer around shopping wagons, bli ayin hora baby carriages, boxes of products, etc…?
Only in Boro Park.
And they are the ones complaining about some tables around shomrei Shabbos for two weeks?
They’re as hypocritical as the politicians in DC.
For those wondering how the whole thing is legal, NYC has had a law since the 1860s allowing veterans to sell things on the street without a permit, so long as they don’t obstruct traffic. The courts have since then ruled that so long as veterans are given this privilege, the same privilege must be extended to anyone selling first-amendment material, such as books, pictures, and religious items.
So no permit is needed to sell arba minim on the street. However those tables selling ordinary merchandise are illegal unless they get a permit from the city, which none of them do.
Take the tables and thrown them in the nearest dumpster. Whats so complicated??? Any trash left out on public space is garbage and should be treated as such.
Millhouse do you have a source for that? I’d like to review it. Also is it legal for a store to charge you for placing tables in front of it?
“Take the tables and thrown them in the nearest dumpster. Whats so complicated??? Any trash left out on public space is garbage and should be treated as such.”
In fact, the law is often more complicated than the Karen approach to a situation, as seen in Milhouse’s post above.
So whoever wrote this one sided inaccurate no proof kvetching article has no problem with mesira.
Kahana is right. Good point.
The article is misleading and inaccurate. “as ALL it does is cause trash all over the streets, and are a nuisance to the neighbors.” Seriously???
Pretty sure there are thousands if not millions of mitzvahs done because of this shuk…
Mafia
Extortion
Shakedowns
Violence
My son said, “Tatty my Rebbe taught us Mi Kaamcha Yisrael but I don’t understand what it means.”
I said, “Son, neither do I.”
To kahane_was_right Maybe your stuck in Boro park, But a few blocks over in Chinatown you have the same issue. Even in BP Just pass the asian owned store @ 45 th st and 13th ave or NU ave @ 44 same issue Don’t blame the jews please.
Concerning the issue at hand these people do a very big service to the community. Where else can you get daled minim or other items you need for sukkos 4 hours before yom tov. Perhaps the 4th solution would be best to try to implement.
It is a known fact that there is a black market of stolen arba minim. One should only buy his Arba minim by a trustworthy seller to insure he is indeed getting kosher arba minim as a “gzula” is pasul, and the bracha recited on it is a “bracha levatala”. These mafia type vendors who bully their way into a more favorable spot, depriving smaller vendors of their chance at making some parnassa don’t seem too trustworthy. Buy from them at your own risk.
KUVULT.. you need to come to 13 ave w your son a night before sukkos and both you & your son will understand ” mi keamcha yisroel”
legally its a very complex story.. most of the workers are isreali lubavitch bochurim & this is how they pay their ticket, the garbage is an issue & super 13 needs alot of space before yom tov as well
not sure theres an eitza
@Kuvult: You are aware that when history’s greatest man, who successfully defended G-d’s people time after time and loved them more than anyone ever has (even though they complained against him many times), once expressed a slight bit of misplaced anger towards them, G-d punished him severely, right? So what the damn? Like what the hell is wrong with you? You think you can insult our holy nation and get away with it? You will burn in hell for a very exceedingly long time, buddy, if you don’t shape up…
To poster “bigchoosid”
“It is a known fact that there is a black market of stolen arba minim”
What’s your source, I’m no expert but I’ve never heard of it?
Rightwriter, see Bery v City of New York
Kahane, the area those stores use is their property, though the public has a right of way through it. But they are allowed to set up merchandise within three feet of the store front.
@Long island Yid: If you mean a published source there probably is none, but if you want to do research on it you can talk to people in the know, such as Rabanim who have experience giving hechsherim for Arba Minim, or probably any Rav that is knowledgeable with the export import business of the Arba minim (alot of the problem originates in Israel by the Palestinians). Probably even a honest reliable Arba Minim merchant who has been in the buisness for several years would also be able to inform you on this. But this is indeed a known fact.