Street Vendors march for fair access

Dozens rallied behind the city’s street vendors and their demands for a chance to work within the law Thursday.  Photo via Salvador Espinoza/SVP

By Rachel Vick

Dozens of street vendors and supporters marched to the steps of City Hall on Thursday to once again call for better treatment of New York City street vendors.

The group, organized by the Street Vendor Justice Coalition, reiterated their demands for improved access to permits, a dedicated Small Business Services sector and establishing exclusively civilian oversight.

Vendors have long complained that a complicated bureaucratic process has left them to work unlicensed, opening them up to potential fines and interactions with the police.

“I have been vending for 4 years now without a license because I can’t get one, and every day I am scared of getting a ticket from DCWP and being told to close my stand,” said Jackson Heights resident and Bangladeshi vendor MD Nasir Uddin.

“We can’t be working like this forever,” Uddin said. “The city must act now by supporting these demands for the street vendors so we can make a decent living out of it and support our family.”

The changes to the city’s licensing process, they say, are crucial to ensuring safe and equitable opportunity for the smallest businesses currently facing a system steps behind the times.

Caps on vendor licenses have not been updated since the early 1980s, and the city stopped accepting applications in 2007. There are less than 900 licenses for merchandise vendors, and a City Council bill passed last year to issue 4,000 new permits was returned unsigned by former Mayor Bill de Blasio.

There is currently a three month delay for new licenses but by 2032 there are expected to be 9,000 supervisory licenses available for mobile food vendors, according to SVP.

The general vendor license waitlist has over 12,000 names, with about 9,000 for the food vendor license list alone.

Though oversight was shifted from the New York CIty Police Department to the Department for Consumer and Worker Protection in 2021, vendors still receive tickets, fines up to $1,000 and have their goods confiscated.

Councilmember Shekar Krishnan and State Sen. Jessica Ramos were on hand to offer support and share what they’ve seen in Jackson Heights, which faces among the highest enforcement rates in the city.

Krishnan said the “city wouldn't survive without” street vendors.

"Thousands of street vendors support themselves and their families by providing food, clothing, and other goods every day to millions of New Yorkers,” he said. “The legalization of their work and the recognition of their importance to New York City are long overdue."