New Citi Bike Rack Displaces Liberty St. Vendors

bike rack

I’m sure I wasn’t the only one confused on Monday to find a newly installed Citi Bike rack in place of the row of food carts normally on Liberty St. at Broadway. This is not the first time these vendors have struggled to maintain their spots, but this is permanent.

The rack is fairly long, with no room on either side for a cart to set up, leaving a smoothie vendor, 99% Vegetarian, Biryani House, A-Pou’s Taste and Luckyim Thai carts all without anywhere to park. The affected vendors turned to the Street Vendor Project for help, and it sounds like they are unsure what to do next, but you can show your support for them on Thursday. 

Word from SVP is that they will have “an action” at noon on Thursday on Liberty St. & Broadway where the vendors have been displaced from. We’re also told that these vendors were left out of the conversation about where Citi Bike rack locations would be placed.

No word yet on whether the vendors plan to find other places to park in the Financial District, but we’ll let you know if we hear anything (or let us know if you spot one of these carts somewhere!).

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3 Comments

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    I saw the Thai cart, the vegetarian cart, and the Biryani cart a block east of there on the corner of Liberty and Nassau this afternoon.

  • this is certainly big news, both for vendors and their customers and for future bike share people. please let us know where these carts settle!

  • I wonder if these bike racks are not going to be a big problem with the way they are sited. eating up parking.. crowding streets and kicking out vendors..

    hmm.. it seemed like a good idea at the time but..

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