So are the "threats and intimidation that sometimes get physical" purely due to ice cream sales, or are there illicit goods also being sold from the vans (as per https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glasgow_Ice_Cream_Wars )?
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Location is a serious thing in NYC for vendors. If someone moves within 10 feet of you, imagine your daily revenue cut in half.
Sometimes vendors will informally buy locations from other vendors.
Setting up shop directly next to your competitor is the best choice, i.e., Nash equilibrium. That's why all the gas stations and coffee shops cluster up instead of spreading out.
For example, on a beach, you should expect 2 ice cream vendors to cluster in the exact middle rather than move closer to their respective territories. This video explains it perfectly: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jILgxeNBK_8
Unlike gas stations and coffee shops, which have static locations, ice cream trucks are more like buses. When a pair of buses on a route bunch up, the one in front gets fuller.
...fuller of money.
Notional Express proved that that is true, when they "disrupted" public transportation in Britain.