Queens street vendors rally for protection against fines as COVID recovery continues

Street vendors and allies rallied against the issuing of fines while struggling merchants wait for the release of thousands of permits.  Photo courtesy of Urban Justice Center

Street vendors and supporters rallied in Corona on Wednesday to call for a moratorium on fines as the city recovers from the pandemic and vendors wait for the license cap to be lifted. 

The City Council passed legislation earlier this year increasing the number of permits available and issued 4,000 new ones, but they won’t be released until 2022. The city stopped accepting new applications over a decade ago.

“The street vending community in Corona, Queens, was hit the hardest by the pandemic both economically and physically,” said Alex Yobany Guillen, Street Vendor Project member and vendor in Corona Plaza. “Only by taking care of each other in the neighborhood have we survived.” 

“All we want to do is work hard and contribute, but the city we love chooses to fine us rather than help us grow our businesses,” Guillen added. “We want the opportunity to legalize our businesses. We want the city to stop targeting us. We want to live with dignity.”’

Fines can range from $250 to $1,000 depending on what is being sold, which opponents say places additional and unnecessary burdens on vendors just trying to get by.

"How is this city so cruel as to issue a $1,000 ticket to a mother who sells tamales to take care of her family, after barely surviving the pandemic, simply for lack of business licensing – which she has no way to access due to the cap on permits?" said Carina Kaufman-Gutierrez, deputy director of the Street Vendor Project.

Advocates were joined by elected officials including Borough President Donovan Richards, State Sen. Jessica Ramos and Assemblymember Jessica Gonzalez-Rojas, who pledged solidarity with the vendors and their opposition to the criminalization of the community.

“Despite the city’s move to lift the caps on street vendors’ licenses we are still seeing the policing of Black and Brown, low-income, and immigrant street vendors who are trying to survive amidst a global crisis where they received no help,” Gonzalez-Rojas said. “We have been clear that no street vendors should be criminalized or burdened with inordinate fines.”  

Regulation enforcement was officially shifted from the NYPD to the Department of Consumer and Worker Protections shortly before the permit vote in January, easing the fear of arrest. 
“What does today's shift to a civilian agency regulating vending mean?” the Street Vendor Project tweeted when the oversight was moved. “Vendors can serve NYC without fear of arrest by officers [with] guns.”