A month after closing a newsstand on Astor Place that had been operated for 26 years without the proper license, New York City officials have reversed course, agreeing to let the stand reopen and to grant the longtime operator the necessary license.

The operator, Jerry Delakas, had run the stand since 1987, paying a monthly fee to a succession of people who had received operator licenses from the Department of Consumer Affairs. Mr. Delakas said that he saw nothing wrong with the arrangement, but the agency said it was illegal. In 2010 his request for a license of his own was rejected.

Many in the neighborhood rallied to support Mr. Delakas, saying that his long tenure on Astor Place, in the East Village, should have earned him amnesty. But a judge allowed Consumer Affairs to padlock the newsstand in December, and city officials said that Mr. Delakas had no valid claim to the stand.

That changed, apparently after Mr. Delakas attended an open house at Gracie Mansion on Jan. 5 and spoke briefly with Mayor Bill de Blasio, said Mr. Delakas’s lawyer, Arthur Z. Schwartz.