Vendors to return to Corona Plaza
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The city announced a plan on Tuesday that would see vendors at Corona Plaza return as part of a new formal market. Eagle photo by Ryan Schwach
By Ryan Schwach
Several months after the Adams administration gave the boot to longtime vendors selling their wares without a license in Corona Plaza, the mayor’s office announced that a new program will soon be put in place to allow a select number of unlicensed vendors to return to the once bustling plaza.
Though celebrated as an historic deal that will see the creation of a new type of marketplace in New York City, some advocates say the plan leaves something to be desired.
The plan comes nearly four months to the day after several dozen food and merchandise vendors were evicted from the popular cultural site by the city, and is the result of negotiations between several agencies, elected officials and vendor groups. However, parties who fought on behalf of the chiefly immigrant vendors are not quite taking a victory lap.
Under the new agreement Corona Plaza will welcome back 14 vendors – 10 of which will sell food – as part of a formal community vending area which will operate Wednesday through Sunday, from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.
The market will be overseen by the Department of Transportation, and the Queens Economic Development Corporation will serve as a third-party interim operator that will manage the vending area for four months. At the end of the four months, DOT will decide whether or not the organization will continue its management of the plaza.
QEDC will help maintain Corona Plaza, and will direct vendors toward the necessary permits needed to operate legally.
According to the nonprofit Street Vendors Project, the Corona Plaza Vendors Association has voted to determine who will operate on which day, allowing for a rotational market of different vendors throughout the week.
“Our administration has a vision for a Corona Plaza that welcomes all members of our community — keeping our neighbors safe, ensuring our streets are clean, and creating economic opportunities for local residents,” said Mayor Eric Adams in a statement. “For too long, city government has told the community around Corona Plaza to fend for themselves, but now we are being clear that we are here to help. This community deserves a plaza that everyone living in, working in, and visiting the area can enjoy — and that’s exactly what this plan will deliver.”
However, advocates for the vendors say that the plan, and the mayor’s announcement, although a major step, leaves something to be desired.
“I'm not taking a victory lap, but I think this is a major step in the right direction,” said Borough President Donovan Richards. “It's taken a lot of work to get here, a lot of interagency coordination.”
“By no means are we where we fully want to be, but I think the framework provides us an opportunity to grow and build on it,” he added.
Richards has been a major proponent of the Corona Plaza vendors, even before the late-night sweep that evicted them from the area in July, a move at the time he called “anti-American.”
The borough president had gone as far during the negotiation process with the city to threaten withholding his approval for the multi-million dollar New York City Football Club soccer stadium at Willets Point if vendors could not return to Corona Plaza.
“Sometimes you got to use your leverage,” he told the Eagle on Tuesday.
Carina Kaufman-Gutierrez, the deputy director of the Street Vendors Project who advocated on behalf of the association of vendors at Corona Plaza, says that their major sticking points with the deal concern exactly how and when vendors can operate.
“The limited number of stalls for vendors is much smaller than I think both the consumer and the vendors will find ideal, as well as the hours,” she said. “That misses a lot of the morning rush.”
“Corona is a working class community, people go and grab a bite to take for lunch to bring with them to work, and vice versa, people get out of work late,” she added.
Despite the caveats, Kaufman-Gutierrez says that the deal is a testament to years of efforts from vendors to formalize their market, long before the summer sweep.
“It is not perfect, but it is historic,” she said. “This is the first time there's going to be a long-term concession agreement that allows people to work multiple days a week.”
She also believed that Corona Plaza will still be a food destination and a symbol of Queens’ diversity.
“The other thing that's still very special and unique about this market is that it's working with the vendors who live and work within walking distance,” she said. “This is still a representation of the neighborhood and it's still the same vendors, and I think if anything, if people want to also support beyond just coming and supporting or purchasing food and merchandise, they're also supporting a collective.”
Vendor advocates like the Street Vendor Project’s Carina Kaufman-Gutierrez, and Borough President Donovan Richards advocated for the return of vendors since they were evicted from the plaza in late July. Eagle photo by Ryan Schwach
The successes did not come without a months-long negotiation process that included several city agencies and elected officials with different motivations and ideas for Corona Plaza.
While Richards and the Street Vendors Project wanted to return vendors who needed the businesses to provide for their families, the Adams administration and its allies saw the deal as a chance to address quality of life issues with the area, citing illegal vending complaints in their announcement of the new market.
“We're not going to go backwards,” Adams said during his Tuesday press availability. “[Councilmember Francisco Moya] and residents reached out to me. I went out there one night around 1 a.m. in the morning, and the place was a mess. Trash was everywhere. People were selling food under pigeon droppings. There was no real coordination, and I made a commitment that we were going to correct the problems, and so this is a result of the correction of the problem.”
Adams also said that the vendors infringe on the business of brick-and-mortar businesses around the plaza.
“You can't stand in front of the store with all of this overhead selling the product without paying any of those items,” he said. “That's just not fair to the brick-and-mortar businesses.”
Although others have tried to defend the vendors, who are mainly migrant women.
“Most of these vendors have been vending at this site…for 25, 30 years,” said Richards. “These are not fly-by-night Johnny Come Latelys – they have been here, they've invested in part of the community.”
Going forward, the first four-months of the new market under QEDC could potentially serve as a blueprint for similar ventures around the city.
“It can be a model for other sections in the city, where we also have a place and a need for community culture and vending to be alive and legitimate,” said Deputy Mayor Meera Joshi. “But we don't right now have that framework. So if this works, we're able to replicate it in other places in the city.”
“That's the point of the first four months, to monitor and see how we can balance both the needs of local businesses, people who want the pedestrian space in Corona Plaza as well as the need for vending,” she added.
