So, like, the New York City Council is thinking about passing a law next week that would let more street vendors do their thing legally. The bill they’re looking at would slowly increase the number of permits and licenses available each year for food vendors and general merchandise sellers, until eventually there wouldn’t be any limits at all. Right now, there are only a few thousand permits and licenses for the estimated 23,000 street vendors across the five boroughs.
Mohamed Attia, who runs the Street Vendor Project nonprofit, said this bill would give vendors a legit way to do business, just like regular businesses. He pointed out that if you wanted to open a restaurant today, you wouldn’t have to wait 20 or 30 years to get off some waiting list. But for vendors, it’s a whole different story.
Vendors also have to follow a bunch of rules about when, where, and how they can sell their stuff to keep their permits and licenses, according to Carina Kaufman-Gutierrez, who’s the deputy director of the Street Vendor Project. Videos of street vendors getting busted for selling stuff without a license pop up all the time. Last year, there was even a video of a 14-year-old girl getting into a fight because she was selling food in Battery Park without a license.
Dealing with law enforcement can be even trickier for street vendors who don’t have legal immigration status, especially with the Trump administration pushing for more deportations. A recent report found that 96% of vendors in NYC are immigrants.
To legally sell stuff on the street in NYC, you need a general vendor license if you’re selling merchandise. The number of these licenses has been stuck at 853 since 1979. Food vendors also need licenses to cook or serve food from a cart, and there’s no limit on how many the city can hand out. They also need a permit for their carts or vehicles, but there are only a few thousand of those.
The report found that only a quarter of food vendors have managed to snag a permit, while almost two-thirds of general merchandise vendors have a license. The City Council passed a law last year to change things for food vendors, adding 445 new permits each year for five years. But the health department has been dragging its feet on handing out those extra permits.
The new bill on the table, called Intro 431 and backed by Councilmember Pierina Sanchez, would slowly bump up the number of permits and licenses available each year for five years. By July 1, 2029, there wouldn’t be any limits on permits or licenses at all.
There’s been pushback from brick-and-mortar business owners who worry that more vendors and looser laws will mean more competition, crowded sidewalks, and dirty streets. But vendor advocates say there are already plenty of rules in place to keep things clean and safe.
The city could rake in $59 million from tax collections, fines, and registration fees if they gave permits and licenses to everyone on the waitlist, according to a recent report from the Independent Budget Office.
So, it sounds like there’s a lot of back and forth on this whole street vending situation in NYC. Will the City Council finally make some changes to help out all those vendors trying to make a living? Not really sure why this matters, but I guess we’ll find out soon enough.
