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NYC street vendors targeted for lack of licenses despite City Hall promising otherwise
By
Arya Sundaram
Published Apr 23, 2024
Modified Apr 23, 2024
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Arya Sundaram / Gothamist
By
Arya Sundaram
Published Apr 23, 2024
Modified Apr 23, 2024
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More than half of the over 1,400 tickets issued by street-vendor enforcement officers in the last year were for vending without a proper license or permit, according to a Gothamist analysis, despite pledges by City Hall to avoid targeting vendors for such violations.
Department of Sanitation officers issued over 400 tickets in the last year for selling merchandise without a license, accompanied by a $250 fine. Another 175 tickets were issued for selling food without a food vending permit, and 136 tickets for operating without a food vending license, violations which each generally carry a $1,000 fine.
Only a few thousand licenses and permits are available for the estimated 20,000 and counting street vendors in the city. They are largely working-class immigrants, the vast majority lacking a license or permit. Decades-old limits or caps on such authorizations have come under fire in recent years, following arrest by the NYPD of unauthorized vendors selling fruit and churros in the subway.
Despite vows from top City Hall officials to take a less punitive approach toward vendors operating without a license, data shows that the Sanitation Department continues to issue the majority of tickets for vending without a license – with no other offenses listed.
The new data — coupled with a vendor protest last week against crackdowns in Queens and the Bronx — are giving new fodder to vendor advocates pushing the City Council to lift the restrictions. A bill to lift the vendor license caps, sponsored by Council Member Pierina Sanchez of the Bronx, has not been scheduled for a hearing, despite requests from street vendors.
A spokesperson for Council Member Julie Menin, chair of the committee on Consumer and Worker Protection, to which the bill was referred, didn’t respond on Monday to questions about her stance on the bill or if she had formally requested to hold a hearing on the bill.
Julia Agos, a spokesperson for Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, also did not respond to similar questions. She only said in a statement, “The bill is currently going through the legislative process.”
Separately, Council Member Shaun Abreu, chair of the sanitation committee, said in a statement that his committee will hold a hearing to discuss vendor enforcement and "gain clarity on what's driving disparities across neighborhoods."
Abreu added: "Predictability is a core component of fair and effective policy enforcement."
Many vendors told Gothamist they want to get a license, but have been unable to do so for years. One of them is Calvin Baker, who has been selling souvenirs, clothing, and other goods from a stand in Harlem for over 30 years.
“They're saying that it's easy for us to get licenses,” Baker said. “If it was easy, we would have had a license, but it's not easy.”
Sanitation Commissioner Jessica Tisch told the City Council in a hearing last May that the agency takes a “compliance first approach” to street vending, rather than a “license check first approach,” with a focus on sidewalk obstructions and sanitation issues.
During a protest on Thursday, vendors pointed to the incongruity between Tisch’s stated policy and the ticketing data. Over a hundred vendors marched on City Hall and other agencies, shouting “sanitation lies” and “we want licenses, not lies” in English and Spanish.
Vincent Gragnani, a spokesperson for the Department of Sanitation, said in a statement that the agency’s enforcement is driven primarily by community complaints via 311, local Business Improvement Districts, council members, and community boards. He said the agency maintains a “warnings-first” approach, including often “extensively” posting signs throughout an area before issuing tickets.
He said sanitation officers issue summonses or confiscate property in areas with persistent issues, particularly those with “dirty conditions,” safety issues, and obstructions.
“All New Yorkers, across every neighborhood, in every borough, deserve clean, safe sidewalks,” Gragnani said in a statement. “Our goal is to balance the needs of vendors with the needs of brick-and-mortar stores, getting abandoned, unsafe, or obstructive items OFF our sidewalks, and keeping our neighborhoods clean and accessible to all.”
Street vendors protested outside City Hall on Thursday, railing against recent enforcement actions by the city.
Arya Sundaram / Gothamist
The number of local licenses for merchandise vendors has been capped at 853 since 1979, and the waitlist – with about 11,000 names – has been shuttered since November 2016. People are generally only called off the waitlist once or twice a year, as licenses become available, according to Michael Lanza, a spokesperson at the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection.
For food vendors, there are some 5,100 permits currently in use, with an estimated 20,000 or more people currently on the waitlist. Licenses for food vendors, meanwhile, are not capped.
A City Council law passed in 2021 — the most recent major legislative victory for street vendors — increased the number of food vendor permits available. But the rollout was mired in delays and criticism. The city health department has missed deadlines to issue extra food vending licenses added under the law. Shari Logan, a spokesperson for the Department of Health, said there are no longer any delays in the rollout process. She said the agency has sent out 890 applications for new food vending licenses and received responses from 441 vendors, all of whom now have licenses.
The New York Police Department also continues to issue a growing number of tickets to vendors, after the 2021 law created a new office intended to take over street vendor enforcement. Among the over 1,200 criminal vending tickets the NYPD handed out last year, 82% were for vending without a license, according to a recent analysis by the local news outlet THE CITY.
Leaders of local business districts have criticized the 2021 law, saying that the city was doing little to crackdown on existing rule breakers, and that vendors steal business from brick-and-mortar stores. Local business leaders also caution that the city isn’t ready to lift the caps on permits and licenses for vendors, given what they say is a lack of proper enforcement of the city’s existing vending laws.
Lisa Sorin, president of the Bronx Chamber of Commerce, pointed to ongoing concerns around overly congested sidewalks due to vendors in the Bronx. A recent analysis from THE CITY found that the Bronx is the latest hotspot for vending enforcement.
“I think the city of New York is not prepared to be able to lift that cap,” Sorin said, adding that her organization doesn’t oppose vendors overall. “Our biggest concern is the influx of potential vendors and what that means for commercial corridors.”
Victoria Lu, an organizer with the nonprofit Street Vendor Project, said that the most common question her organization receives from vendors is how to get a license.
“Each time with great disappointment, we tell our vendors that there's no licenses available,” she said during Thursday’s protest.
On NYPD and DSNY, Lu added, “The next time that they claim they're cleaning up the streets, I want everyone here to understand that they are waging a war on working families, a war that criminalizes vendors for having no choice but to work in an outdated system.”
Last week, Baker also visited local government licensing offices to request a license, as over 100 vendors waited outside. In the lobby, the Department for Consumer and Worker Protection’s Deputy Commissioner for Licensing, Alba Pico, told him that unless he was a veteran or had gotten on the waitlist in 2016, there was no way to apply.
This article was updated with comment from Council Member Shaun Abreu.
Tagged
new york city
Race And Justice Unit
Politics
Arya Sundaram
Arya is a reporter covering race and justice. Got a tip? Email: [email protected] or reach Arya on Signal at 512-650-8767.
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