Street vendors hold holiday
rally to protest high fines,
call on NYS Legislature to
legalize Street Vending
By Nelson A. King
Over 50 street vendors, advocates
and elected officials with
the NYC Street Vendor Justice
Coalition gathered on the
steps of Saint Mark’s Church in
Manhattan Tuesday evening to
honor the work of street vendor
essential workers, sharing
champurrado while decorating
a Christmas tree with the
hundreds of tickets street vendors
have received in the past
year alone for lack of business
licensing.
Protestors highlighted how
vendors fought hard to create
the Excluded Workers Fund
and gain access to small business
grants, only to now use
these relief funds to pay fines
for vending.
“In the midst of the holiday
season during an ongoing
pandemic, vendors each day
continue to be penalized by
city agencies for not having a
legal pathway to work, despite
their role as essential workers
ensuring fresh, affordable produce,
merchandise and meals
are accessible citywide,” said
the NYC Street Vendor Justice
Coalition in a statement.
It said speakers urged the
New York State Legislature to
pass S1175A | A5081A, legislation
sponsored by State Sen.
Jessica Ramos and Assemblymember
Caribbean Life, D 20 ecember 24-30, 2021
Jessica Gonzalez-
Rojas to bring vendors into
the formalized economy and
decriminalize the street vending
industry.
Organizations present
included Workers Justice
Project, Make the Road New
York, CAIR NY, Save Our
Storefronts, Brandworkers,
Welcome to Chinatown, Transportation
Alternatives and the
Street Vendor Project.
Street vendor Lucio Gonzalez,
member of the Street Vendor
Project from Fordham Road
in the Bronx, said he became a
street vendor at the beginning
of the pandemic after losing
her job at a restaurant.
“I started a street vending
business, because it’s honest
work, and I can use my skills
as a cook to make a successful
business,” he said. “I never
thought I’d receive $2,050 in
fines for selling tacos, when I
tried to get a permit, but they
won’t let me.
“Now, I have to use my relief
from the Excluded Workers
Fund, which was supposed to
help me pay rent, debts and
invest in my business, to pay
fines,” Gonzalez continued.
NYC Street Vendor Justice
Coalition said vendors contribute
millions of dollars in
benefits to the city and state
annually, “but it remains nearly
impossible to operate legally
due to an arbitrary, decadesold
cap on the number of vending
licenses available.
“The waitlist for licenses is
so long it has been closed for
over a decade,” it said. “Meanwhile,
vendors who try to support
their families by working
without licenses are subject to
harassment, punitive fines and
Street vendors rally on the steps of St. Mark’s Church. Photo
by Adrian Childress
property confiscation, forced
to spend hard-fought COVID
relief on paying fines to the
city,” the Coalition said.
It said proposed state legislation
S1175A and A5081A,
to formalize the industry, will
accomplish three goals: Ensure
that street vending compliance
and regulatory oversight are
conducted by a civilian agency;
formalize the street vending
industry, creating a pathway to
entrepreneurship by removing
the currently insurmountable
barrier to entry to the industry,
so that vendors who wish
to do business in accordance
with the law – including paying
taxes, following city rules
and regulations, completing
all trainings – will be able
to obtain permits to operate
their business; and expunge
the records of any street vendor
who may have previously
received a misdemeanor for
street vending.
“After a long fight, many
street vendors were finally
able to access small business
grants, unemployment, and
support from the Excluded
Workers Fund, only to have to
give that money right back to
cover punitive fines issued by
the city,” said Ramos, Senate
sponsor of the legislation.
“Street vendors are part of
the entrepreneurial backbone
of our local economies, and we
cannot in good faith talk about
a just recovery for our state
without prioritizing S1175 and
the legalization of street vending
in 2022,” she added.
NYC Street Vendor Justice
Coalition said, currently, there
are only 853 total licenses for
merchandise vendors, adding
that, by 2032, there will
be 9,000 supervisory licenses
available for mobile food vendors.
“The waitlist for each type
of license has thousands of
names,” it said. “In fact, the
waitlist is so long it has been
closed since 2007. And vendors
have been forced to either rent
a permit from existing permitholders
on an underground
market for up to $25,000, or
vend without a permit, facing
$1,000 fines and property confiscation.”
Epstein noted that street
vendors are small business
owners.
“Just like their brick-andmortar
counterparts, they
provide essential goods to
their communities and make
up the fabric of our neighborhoods,”
he said. “For too long,
vendors have been subject
to an unfair cap on licenses,
inflating license prices and
forcing these businesses–
–overwhelmingly owned by
immigrant New Yorkers––into
the shadows.
“It’s time we lift the caps,
decriminalize street vending
and create a system of
regulation that supports all
small businesses in our city,”
Epstein added.
Photo by Adrian Childress