Council votes to issue new street vendor permits for first time in four decades
/
The city council voted to issue new street vendor permits for the first time in four decades. Eagle file photo by David Brand
By Rachel Vick
The New York City Council voted Thursday to increase the number of street vendor permits in the five boroughs, a long-awaited measure that will allow more New Yorkers to sell food without fear of fines or other penalties.
The council voted 34-13 in favor of the bill to issue 4,000 new vendor permits over a decade beginning in 2022. It is the first increase in the number of legal permits since the early 1980s. The waiting list for new permits grew so long that the city stopped taking new applications in 2007.
The measure also establishes a vendor-specific advisory board and enforcement agency.
“This legislation will bring hope and opportunity to hardworking New Yorkers, to immigrants, who have been historically left out of government support,” said bill sponsor Margaret Chin, a Manhattan councilmember. “This bill will give them the opportunity to have their own permit and hopefully one day their own store.”
The legislation had the backing of various lawmakers and advocates for vendors, predominantly low income immigrants often forced to lease existing permits at exorbitant fees from permit squatters.
“Street vendors have been organizing for this historic day for DECADES,” the Street Vendor Project tweeted. “We have ORGANIZED, we have MARCHED, we have CALLED, we have FOUGHT for New York City to recognize our essential contributions to the culture and economy.”
The Street Vendor Project’s fight to increase the permit cap began with an organizing committee in 2014, and grew into a movement sparking support with local communities and activist groups and eventually among elected officials from the Council to the state Senate.
Four Queens councilmembers — Barry Grodenchik, Robert Holden, Eric Ulrich, Paul Vallone — voted against the measure, however. Vallone said the bill did not take into consideration brick-and-mortar eateries that are also struggling.
“The restaurant and small business industry is collapsing,” he said. “We should have held off on the expansion. We should have given exclusionary zones, we should have listened to the BIDS, made sure placement was fair for all.”
Earlier this month, vendor enforcement officially shifted from the NYPD to the Department of Consumer and Worker Protections.
“[Vendors are] a community that has been the legacy of our city, past present and future,” said co-sponsor Carlos Menchaca, a Brooklyn councilmember and candidate for mayor. “It's been almost half a century since Council has done anything positive for street vendors. This is the kind of relief with an enforcement system that will bring that.”
