NYC won’t issue permits for new street fairs due to NYPD overtime costs

New York City is planning to reject applications for new street festivals in an effort to cut down on NYPD overtime.

The move, which came in response to a request from the police department, was revealed in a public notice published by the city’s Street Activity Permit Office earlier this week.

A moratorium on permits for new street festivals was in place last year. Caps on the number of street fairs were also imposed during Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration due to the cost of NYPD overtime.

The latest move would lock out new applicants for permits to close multiple streets for a festival. Supporters of the fairs said they’re a major revenue source for local civic groups and business improvement districts.

“The [Adams] administration claims to be in support of business and commerce, and for many small businesses, this is a boon for them,” Jackson Chabot, director of advocacy and organizing at the nonprofit group Open Plans, told Gothamist. “Especially for small business improvement districts and how much money they make to support their budget annually.”

Each year the city’s street activity office issues “permits to over 200 street fairs and over 5,000 other events,” according to the public notice.

Chabot said street fairs are essential neighborhood activities. “When there's a moratorium on this, it demonstrates that this is not a city priority,” he said.

The New York Post reported in 2017 that concerns about the number of street fairs across the city dated back to Mayor Michael Bloomberg, when complaints mounted about the number of multiday street festivals and block closures.

NYPD overtime costs exceeded $1 billion for the first time in the previous fiscal year, according to the annual Mayor’s Management Report, a report card for city government. That was over $200 million more than what the city had originally budgeted for police overtime.

Mayor Eric Adams has budgeted $564 million for NYPD overtime in the current fiscal year, or about half what the department actually spent on overtime last year, according to the report.

"To more effectively deploy police resources and control overtime costs, the NYPD has recommended that [Street Activity Permit Office] exercise its discretion to deny permit applications for new events in calendar year 2025," the recent public notice states.

City Hall, which oversees the permit office, declined to comment for this story. A public hearing on the proposal is scheduled for Nov. 20 at 10 a.m.