By KIMBERLY C. JACOBS
As one of the busiest shopping corridors in the Bronx, the Jerome-Gun Hill Business Improvement District in Norwood is an attractive area for vendors, both licensed and unlicensed, to set up pop-up businesses on the sidewalk.

But with tables and kiosks spread about already narrow sidewalks on Jerome Avenue, strolling along portions of the BID has become somewhat of a crawl. It’s a reason why the BID’s executive director Marcia Cameron, with the help of the police, intends to root out illegal vendors who are taking up space. “[You] have the merchants on one side putting out their wares and on the opposite side the vendors have their tables out and the space that you have to walk through becomes even narrower,” she said.

The tight streets leave shoppers with little wiggle room, forced to squeeze between vendors hawking their wares and brick and mortar stores just making a living. Their displays push against merchandise put out by brick and mortar establishments.

Although it doesn’t always affect merchants’ clientele, the cluttering of the sidewalk is annoying, said Michael Hafter, store manager at Drug Rite. “I wouldn’t say it’s a hazard, but it makes walking on the sidewalk uncomfortable,” he said. “Sometimes they [the vendors] are very, very close to the entrance of the store.”

The BID has indeed accepted legal vendors to set up shop, so long as it has obtained the proper permits from the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs. But spotting illegal vendors is a tough balance since it requires approaching each and every vendor to check their license.

Residents can “stop shopping from [illegal vendors],” said Cameron, but it may be difficult to spot one unless you ask to see their license.

The BID has begun to seek ways to address this issue since November. There was a meeting held at Community Board 7 hosted by the BID to look into the problem further. The meeting was attended by the New York City Department of Health, 52nd Precinct, and Consumer Affairs, which gathered to examine the situation.

The agencies will also look into conducting a walkthrough to educate legal vendors on how to properly clear the sidewalks for pedestrians.

The NYPD and FDNY are aware of this issue, but no conversations have been held with the FDNY about the issue separately. 52nd Precinct Inspector Nilda Hofmann is helping Cameron in the efforts by assigning officers to routinely patrol the BID.

Enforcing the rules will help with safety while Cameron and Dustin Engelken, Community Board 7’s district manager, work towards finding a lasting solution. “At the end of the day, these rules were put in place to keep people safe and we need to hold people accountable for that,” said Engelken.

“God forbid we ever had an event along the BID area like say a fire where we had a lot of people trying to get out of the way of danger. They’re obviously not going to be able to do that if the sidewalk is all cluttered and unpassable,” said Engelken. “Hopefully, we never have to deal with a situation like that, but if it ever happens it’s important that we’re prepared.”

When asked if a sidewalk extension was possible Engelken said, “It’s something we’ve talked about, but I think it’s going be hard to do because of the elevated train tracks and it lessens parking spaces.”

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Welcome to the Norwood News, a bi-weekly community newspaper that primarily serves the northwest Bronx communities of Norwood, Bedford Park, Fordham and University Heights. Through our Breaking Bronx blog, we focus on news and information for those neighborhoods, but aim to cover as much Bronx-related news as possible. Founded in 1988 by Mosholu Preservation Corporation, a not-for-profit affiliate of Montefiore Medical Center, the Norwood News began as a monthly and grew to a bi-weekly in 1994. In September 2003 the paper expanded to cover University Heights and now covers all the neighborhoods of Community District 7. The Norwood News exists to foster communication among citizens and organizations and to be a tool for neighborhood development efforts. The Norwood News runs the Bronx Youth Journalism Heard, a journalism training program for Bronx high school students. As you navigate this website, please let us know if you discover any glitches or if you have any suggestions. We’d love to hear from you. You can send e-mails to norwoodnews@norwoodnews.org or call us anytime (718) 324-4998.