BY ROBBIE SEQUEIRA
More than 150 New York state
street vendors and advocates marched
through a brisk morning in Times
Square on Thursday, Jan. 27, demanding
the passage of legislation that
would legitimize an industry that’s
been the bedrock of New York City’s
concrete open market for decades.
The rally took place on the one-year
anniversary of the city’s passing of Intro
1116, which introduces 4,000 new
mobile food vendor permits over the
course of the next 10 years, with the
fi rst set of licenses to be issued in 2022.
Street vendors and advocates point
to Senate Bill S1175A as the next step
to legitimizing a workforce of roughly
20,000 vendors in the state, and if
passed, would create a pathway to entrepreneurship
by removing barriers
to licensed street vending and also
vacate past criminal convictions for
street vending offenses.
“Without the state recognizing our
passions, our livelihood and our place
in this city, it’s impossible to try and
make a living without looking over
your shoulder,” said Pascual Domingo,
who can be seen on Fordham Road
selling rice and beans. “I was arrested
for selling hot beans on a cold, wintry
day (in 2019), and I remember the police
offi cers dumping all my hard work
like it was trash.”
By 2032 there will be 9,000 supervisory
licenses — which require a
permit holder to be physically present
at the vending station at all times
— available for mobile food vendors
across the state. But Bronx-based
street vendors told the Bronx Times
that they have been in a professional
purgatory, spending years on the city’s
waitlist for licensure, that some have
been closed for more than a decade.
Domingo said he’s been on the
city’s waitlist since 2015 and has not
received any status updates on his application.
Another vendor Marta Delriego,
who sells hand-knit accessories
in The Hub, said she was denied by
the city twice for licensure, without
proper explanation.
“Even when you try and do it their
way, they don’t want to budge and give
out more licenses to people who are
just trying to make a living like everyone
else,” said Domingo, a Dominican
immigrant who recently gained American
citizenship in 2020.
Data compiled by the Bronx Times
BRONX TIMES R 8 REPORTER, FEB. 4-10, 2022 BTR
show that among the
11,923 open applications
on a waiting list for licensure
by the city’s Department
of Consumer
Worker Protections
(DCWP), 2,837 Bronxsited
vendors are still
awaiting approval or denial
for offi cial general
vendor licensure by the
city — the second-highest
waiting list total behind
Brooklyn’s 2,928 vendors.
Additionally, the
Bronx has the highest
level of application denials
over the past year, 72
of them, with 20 applications
voided by DCWP.
But DCWP offi cials told
the Bronx Times that
when it comes to addressing
unlicensed vendors in
the city — a responsibility
the city agency formerly
known as the Department
of Consumer Affairs assumed
from the NYPD
Data compiled by the Bronx Times show that among the
11,923 open applications on a waiting list for licensure by
the city, 2,837 Bronx-sited vendors are still awaiting approval
or denial. Photo | Adrian Childress
in January — balancing
its educational efforts along with calls
for more enforcement among those issuing
grievances to the city is “complicated.”
“Vending is a complicated issue
that touches us all — from the vendors
themselves to local businesses to residents
and visitors,” a spokesperson
from DCWP said. “Our goal is to hear
concerns from everyone involved and
strike a balanced approach that is equitable
for all, which includes ongoing
education coupled with scaled, strategic
enforcement, especially in problematic
areas.”
Since Jan. 15, 2021, DCWP has received
6,606 complaints about vending
— 441 of the complaints were about
the Bronx — coming from general public,
community boards, Business Improvement
Districts (BIDs), advocates
and elected offi cials, the agency said.
Since June 1, DCWP has conducted
6,929 vending inspections in response
to complaints and issued 521 violations,
with 829 inspections and 81 violations
being issued in the Bronx.
But DCWP has also conducted
nearly 30 educational walks in popular
vending corridors, such as Fordham
Road, during which multilingual staff
disseminated inspection checklists
(translated in the city’s designated languages)
to hundreds of vendors to promote
compliance. Yet, unlicensed vendors
say that they are still bearing the
brunt of onerous fi nes and targeted enforcement
by both DCWP and NYPD,
with fi nes for general vending ranging
from $250 per day up to $1,000 per day
for continued unlicensed activity.
According to the police department’s
quarterly report, the NYPD issued
108 civil summons and 14 criminal
summons related to street vending
in that same span. DCWP does not
have the authority to compel vendors
to provide ID, and the department
was not given authority to confi scate
items from general vendors, unlike
the NYPD.
Without passage of Senate Bill 1175
or a fundamental change to the city’s
licensure process, advocates say vendors
are forced to either rent a permit
from existing permit-holders on an underground
market for up to $25,000, or
vend without a permit.
“I have been a street vendor for 16
years. In these 16 years, I have been
arrested and given tickets for selling
incense,” said Sofi ani Hassimi, a Harlem
street vendor originally from Niger
and member of the Street Vendor
Project. ”
Street vendors, hailed as essential
workers during the pandemic, generate
annually an estimated $71.2 million
in local, state and federal taxes,
$293 million to the city’s economy,
$192 million in wages, and create
17,960 jobs in New York City, according
to the Institute for Justice.
But with just 853 total licenses
granted for non-veteran merchandise
vendors, the limited number of
licenses in New York City might exclude
street vendors from being included
in the $1 billion relief for small
businesses outlined in Democratic
Gov. Kathy Hochul’s executive budget,
advocates say.
While vendors may still feel left
out in the cold until legislation is
passed to legitimize their business
and passion, they do have allies on
the City Council. One such ally, City
Councilwoman Pierina Sanchez,
who represents Fordham, said vending
was a way for her family to get by
upon immigrating to the U.S. She’s
fi ghting hard to allow a workforce of
vendors the opportunity to get by, as
well.
“When my family immigrated to
the United States in the 1970s, some of
them worked hard, as street vendors,
to get by. It should not be a crime to
work to put food on the table or to
work to keep a roof over your family’s
head. I see my family in you,” said
Sanchez, a Progressive.
As NYC vendors march for
legitimization, Bronx street
merchants await licensure