Stoop Sales: A New No-No?

Local blogs are a-buzz with the news that the NYPD shut down a sidewalk “stoop sale” on Flatbush near Grand Army Plaza. The seller reported on the Brooklynian forum that she was told “You can’t do that here.”

I told them I didn’t think I was doing anything wrong, and that we have a stoop sale every couple of years and have never had a problem. They asked where I lived and I gestured to my apartment building right behind me. I also said that I wasn’t blocking the sidewalk–since there was probably 10 feet open.

Then the second cop asked, “Do you have a license?”

Others hint that there may have been ulterior motives or third-party complaints, as some of the tenants of the building where the sale was taking place are in a dispute with the landlord. And of course, there is the usual controversy over whether it was technically a stoop sale or whether it is even technically Park Slope. Much ado about very little, in the end.