Since Sanitation took the reins on vending enforcement this spring, the department has seized abandoned or substandard vending equipment in 228 cases, and donated 32,220 pounds of food and composted another 3,880 pounds, officials say.
Adi Talwar
A street vendor at the 207th Street subway entrance in 2016.
This article originally appeared in English on August 30. Translated by Daniel Parra.
Read the English version here.
Pilar, a street vendor for two decades selling crafts, toys and hats in Jackson Heights, was walking with her daughter to a dental appointment on Aug. 23 when she saw the Department of Health seize oranges, apples, tomatoes, grapes, bananas and tangerines from a street vendor between 96th and 97th streets on Roosevelt Avenue.
Hours later, around 5 pm, he came across a line of people receiving free food at the corner of 82nd Street, in front of a bank. Pilar, who did not want to give her full name for fear of reprisals, says she saw the same Sanidad truck, but inside it no longer had food: she was placed on folding plastic tables and workers in red vests they distributed it She believes it was the same food that had been confiscated from the vendor earlier that day.
Since April, when the city shifted enforcement responsibilities to the Department of Sanitation (DSNY), street vendors and advocates say things have changed in two main areas: more raids and seizures, for one , and less educational outreach for vendors, many of them newcomers who don’t know the rules about street vending.
Since Sanidad took over, the department has donated 32,220 pounds of seized food to vendors and composted another 3,880 pounds between April and Aug. 6, according to a spokesperson.
This change is the latest in a longstanding dispute over how the city should regulate street vending, an industry largely made up of immigrants, many of whom cannot legally vend under city rules thanks to an old limit. in the number of permits available.
The situation came to a head last month when DSNY and police evicted dozens of vendors of Plaza Corona in response to what officials said were complaints about cleanliness. Corona Plaza is a busy spot at Roosevelt Avenue and National Street that has grown in popularity since the pandemic. as a gastronomic destination.
For years, in neighborhoods across the city, tensions have simmered between vendors and brick-and-mortar business owners, who cite increased competition from street vendors.
Vendors who used to fill Corona Plaza began organizing before the pandemic and since last year formed the Corona Plaza Street Vendors Association (AVA), the city’s first local vendor association.
Prior to the incident, the group was in talks with various city agencies and departments, most notably the Department of Transportationwhich has jurisdiction over the plaza, hoping to formalize its use of the space without having to obtain a sales permit, as has been allowed at other venues like the Bronx Night Market at Fordham Plaza.
Meanwhile, “people are stuck in a really terrible situation and some vendors are asking for loans,” Carina Kaufman-Gutierrez, deputy director of the Street Vendor Project (SVP), said of those who have been unable to sell in the square after four weeks.
Obtained by City Limits
Sanitation Department police confiscating food on August 25 at Roosevelt and National Street.
forfeitures
Between April and August 6, the period that includes the raid in Plaza Corona, Sanidad made 228 confiscations of abandoned material or that does not comply with the street vending regulations of the city, the equivalent of almost two confiscations per day, according to the agency.
Before the agency change, the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (DCWP) did not seize property, but instead conducted “joint seizures with the NYPD,” said Michael Lanza, spokesman from the DCWP, to City Limits. “DCWP partnered with the NYPD because DCWP does not have the authority to compel vendors to provide identification or seize items from vendors like the NYPD can,” Lanza added.
For comparison, DCWP was asked for forfeiture figures, but they referred it to the NYPD. A police spokesperson said they could not provide these figures because the New York Police Department’s data “is not tracked to that level of specificity.”
“When an item is seized,” explained Vincent Gragnani, a spokesman for the Department of Sanitation, “due to repeated violations or because it was found abandoned, a voucher is given and it is taken to a DSNY facility where it can then be claimed.”
But when it comes to food, the process is different, and no item is returned to the seller. The food is either donated to food pantries—as long as it’s deemed safe by an inspector from the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH)—or composted.
The Department of Sanitation explained that members of its police force, which carry out the raids, “have unique experience at the intersection of quality of life and cleanliness, and a long track record of balancing the needs of businesses and consumers.” residents,” Gragnani said.
His focus in enforcement, he added, has been on meeting “fundamental quality of life concerns”—such as proper trash disposal and walkable sidewalks—“rules that make a difference in the everyday experience of pedestrians.” of our city, and who keep vendors safe.”
Between April and August 6, Sanidad issued 324 tickets to street vendors, less than the 534 tickets issued by the DCWP during the second quarter of 2022.
Yet police continue to issue more tickets to vendors than any other agency, despite a promise during the former de Blasio era to keep them out, a trend City Limits also noted in 2022. Between January and June, police issued 1,242 fines, according to quarterly reports from the police department (which does not include civil citations issued during the second quarter of 2023, which have not yet been published).
“We are not selling for free, without paying taxes,” Pilar said, pointing out that like all small businesses, sellers take courses, follow rules, and declare their taxes.
It is difficult to know if the products Pilar received that afternoon were the same ones that had been confiscated from the street vendor she saw earlier that day. She then contacted the seller, showed him pictures of her and he told her that those were her products. (When she was asked, a DSNY spokesperson would not comment directly on the incidents, but reiterated the agency’s policy of donating or composting seized food.)
The seller from whom the items were seized did not want to be identified. He said he paid $1,000 to get his cart back, though it was not entirely clear what fine he received.
Pilar, who has been vending in Queens for more than 20 years, recalled earlier times when street vendors were severely penalized, and said the difference now is that the police no longer arrest vendors.
“I have been arrested 4 times [por vender en las calles]”, said Pilar about the it was under former mayor Michael Bloomberg“when it was hard”.
Adi Talwar
Street vendors near the 82nd Street subway station in Jackson Heights, Queens, in 2022.
Less educational outreach
According to city rules, mobile food vendors must complete training at the New York City Department of Health health academy to obtain a mobile vendor license. That’s the first step in a two-part system that also requires a permit, the number of which was limited decades ago, making it difficult to obtain.
Some of these permits circulate on a black market where they can cost tens of thousands of dollars in some cases. Legislation passed by the City Council in 2021, intended to gradually expand the number of permits the city issues each year, has moved slowly. Of the 445 new supervisory license applications authorized for FY 2023, DOHMH received 104 applications and only four vendors have received one, CBS reported earlier this month.
According to the DOHMH, there were 14,981 licensed food vendors in the city in March, leaving almost a third of the vendors without a permit. Vending food permits are capped at just 5,100.
More people have turned to peddling for a living in recent years, advocates say, due to various factors including economic hardship exacerbated by the pandemic, rising rents and the cost of living. The arrival of new immigrants to the city in the last year, many of whom do not have work authorization, has also added to the growth in the sector.
From April to August 18, more than 700 people attended the 24 courses that were held for new street food vendors at the health academy, the DOHMH explained.
However, with the shift from DCWP to Sanitation, there has been less educational outreach about street vending regulations, advocates say, particularly affecting first-time street vendors, who are less well-versed in the complicated vending policies. street.
“DCWP used to do education days,” Kaufman-Gutierrez explained. Now, “DSNY only enforces the law, so there’s a huge gap.”
The 2021 legislation that was supposed to expand the number of food vendor licenses also included giving the DCWP greater civilian oversight of street vending.
While the DCWP spent the first half of 2021 focusing on outreach and education rather than imposing fines, the educational outreach component has all but disappeared with Sanitation, leaving the full brunt of the effort in the hands of organizations like the SVP.
“We do not engage in education outside of law enforcement,” the Department of Sanitation spokesperson said, noting that other organizations such as the DCWP, DOHMH and the New York City Department of Small Business Services (SBS) conduct that kind of work.
But City Limits asked these agencies and found that that previous level of proactive educational outreach is no longer the norm.
“DCWP no longer oversees sales compliance or education,” the DCWP spokesperson said. The department held the most street vending outreach events in 2021, with 60, but that number dropped to six in 2022 and just one event in 2023.
DOHMH explained that there is an educational component to each inspection and noted the agency websitewhich also has information and resources on the city’s rules of sale.
Since the change of agencies in April, SBS has held three street vendor-specific educational events in conjunction with the Street Vendor Project in the Fordham Road, Harlem, and Sunset Park neighborhoods in June, and is mailing out information about street vendors. rules in 12 languages to 22,000 street vendors, according to information previously provided by the DOHMH.
On September 28, the SBS will organize a free webinar for street vendors to help them understand the application and permit process, with DOHMH and the Parks Department.
To contact the author of this article, write to [email protected]. To contact the editor, email [email protected].
2023-09-01 19:21:57
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