Street vendors call for reform at City Hall
The Committee will look at the current administration’s approach to street vending enforcement.
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Hundreds of street vendors are calling for City Hall to pass a new bill that would help make permits more accessible, decriminalize vending and offer educational services.
Although a 2021 local law that required the city to issue 445 new permits each year for 10 consecutive years was passed by councilors to address the issue, vendors say the major delays even in that process pose another problem.
Hundreds of vendors set up in Brooklyn are unlicensed and outpacing the city's cap on licensed vendors, first enacted in 1979, according to the city's street vendor advisory board.
Since 2016 only 996 general vendor licenses have been issued across the city. Fifteen were issued so far this year, compared to 10,500 people still on the waiting list, according to the New York City Department of Consumer and Worker Protection.
“The City Council has the opportunity to act to change the current policies that are not good for the city,” said Carina Kaufman-Gutierrez, of Street Vendor Project. “This is exactly the type of hard-working, primarily immigrant entrepreneurs that the city should actually be working to support and formalize.”
