After last Sunday, the Plaza Tonatiuh, a community market in Sunset Park was dismantled by the authorities, the area councilor, Alexa Avilés, says she wants to find a solution to help the vendors.
The incident is the latest in a dispute between local authorities and unlicensed street vendors.
Councilman Aviles.
“We want to find a solution and we are available to work with the vendors and fight for those permits and a system that works for them,” said Councilwoman Avilés.
Speaking at a small conference outside his office on Friday, Avilés said that although he has tried to speak to various interested parties, they apparently do not want to do so legally.
“But they don’t want to seek permits, they want to control the park for themselves, and decide who enters and who doesn’t enter,” added the councilor.
For decades, city officials have tried to enforce the law against the city’s estimated 20,000-plus street vendors, most of them undocumented immigrants, which is why Assemblywoman Marcela Mitayes is seeking to escalate the problem.
“Let people know what the consequences are, because a lot of people are immigrants, this can result in a deportation problem,” Mitayes said.
The Easter Sunday incident worsened when authorities began to shut down other activities in the park, including an indigenous ceremony and a rosary, and threatened to detain those who did not leave.
An ice cream vendor, who has been in the park for more than 25 years and is licensed by the Health Department, says that because of the other vendors on Sunday who do not pick up the trash and the poor organization of the plaza, they have led her to almost have to pay the consequences.
“They came in two Sundays, they grabbed me and my son, they made us do things, they wanted to handcuff my son, they wanted to knock him down, putting his feet in,” said the vendor Rosa Marín.
The rules for selling produce and food on the streets of New York can be confusing, and many of these vendors work illegally due to a longstanding limit on the number of permits available.
“The permit system is broken, yes, it needs a lot of repair, to be an easy system, accessible to vendors and we are fighting that with various groups,” added councilor Avilés.
Aviles says she just wants the community to come together and find a way to support the vendors, the park and everyone.
We have tried to contact the organizer of Plaza Tonatiuh, but have received no response.
