Street Vendors Say They Were Booted Ahead Of Super Bowl Boulevard Opening
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Super Bowl Boulevard may have temporarily taken over Times Square but what happened to all of the vendors that typically populate the busy, tourist-filled part of Manhattan?
As WCBS 880's Peter Haskell reported Saturday, some vendors are upset that they got the boot while major companies swooped in to reap the benefits of a New York City Super Bowl extravaganza.
Street Vendors Say They Were Booted Ahead Of Super Bowl Boulevard Opening
Food vendor Walid Salaman told Haskell that the day before Super Bowl Boulevard opened, police told him he had to move from his usual post at 46th Street and Broadway.
"I'm working. I make money. If I don't work, I don't make money," Salaman said. "I have to pay for my rent. I have to pay for family to eat."
Salaman is one of a number of street vendors who have been displaced due to the Super Bowl frenzy.
Sean Basinski, of the Street Vendor Project, says what happened to the vendors was wrong. "ESPN and Pepsi and GMC get to make a lot of money and yet the vendors, the small business owners are being evicted, are being kicked out."
Basinski told Haskell he thinks the city could have handled the situation better.
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