People, Not Trees

To the Editor:
I do not want to sound like a grinch or Scrooge, but your article glorifying sellers of Christmas trees (“Evergreen Guys,” Dec. 17) was not just hopelessly one-sided, but not entirely accurate. You say that, “[M]ost of the Christmas tree operations are on city sidewalks, and only require consent from the property owner fronting the sidewalk.” Not quite. Although Christmas tree vendors are exempt from most of the vendor regulations, they are subject to administrative code section 19-136(a)(4), which requires that, “a passageway shall be kept open on the sidewalk so obstructed for the free movement of pedestrians.”  Read more

Evergreen Guys

Joel* doesn’t like coffee, but thanks so much for asking.

It’s the dead of winter, and the dead of night. He’s thousands of miles from his Swedish home, selling Christmas trees on the Upper East Side. He works every night of the week, from 10 p.m. to 10 a.m.

“Yeah, it gets lonely,” he said. Read more