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With the 2010 U.S. Census coming up, there’s been a lot of talk about how important it is for government to count its people. How can you set policy if you don’t know how many people there are? Exactly. Which is why, for example, New York City sends hundreds of volunteers out, one night each year, to count homeless people.
So, how many street vendors are there in New York? Nobody knows. In November 2008, at a City Council hearing, Council Member Leroy Comrie “strongly suggested” — in fact he “respectfully demanded” that the city conduct a count to see how many vendors there are. Discussing a plan to issue more licenses, he said, ”I don’t see how we can move forward as a city until we get a real count.” The city reluctantly agreed. (Here’s part of that transcript)
Hey, vendor! What’s it like to stand in the snow all day? Do you get cold? Do your feet get tired? Where do you go to the bathroom?
Clearly the NYC Department of Health never thought about vendors when they passed their ridiculous new rule, effective January 1, making it illegal for food vendors to leave their pushcarts unattended. Even for a minute. What about when you have to go to the bathroom?
Some vendors have comrades nearby to watch their carts, but some don’t. Last week, SVP member Mohammed Shirajul Islam became the first victim of this thoughtlessness when he left his cart to use the bathroom at a nearby bookstore, and, coming back after 20 minutes, discovered that the Health Department had scratched off his vending permit.
One of the reasons people don’t see street vendors in the context of social justice is because they can’t imagine who our adversaries are. “Who doesn’t love street vendors?” is one question we often get from less-enlightened supporters.
Well, a lot of people. Or at least a few very powerful business groups. The head of the Fifth Avenue BID once famously declared “if we had our way, [vendors] would be totally eliminated.” Ouch! And here’s the Downtown Alliance’s platform for anti-vendor advocacy in 2010. (after the jump).
With random towns like Roanoke, Virginia proposing to legalize hot dog carts, street vending fever is sweeping the nation. In most cities, however, vendors are not yet organized, which means we get emails like this, from a woman looking for a vendor support group in Minneapolis. We discussed this issue on the Village Voice food blog last week.
Until now, there hasn’t been much we can do — we don’t know anybody in Minneapolis! But, on May 14 and 15th, SVP is co-sponsoring “Contesting the Streets” the first-ever vendor conference in the U.S., at UCLA. We’re trying to find vendor groups around the country to attend. Here’s a flyer in English and Spanish. Please help circulate!
UPDATE: Here’s an interesting article on the Street Vendors Association of Chicago. We’re hoping they can send someone to the conference.
Do bad things happen to people who don’t like street vendors? Were they bad people to begin with?
Let’s just say we knew Hiram Monserrate when he was a City Council Member. Despite representing an immigrant community, he was a rabid and oustpoken opponent of street vendors. He sponsored legislation to increase (!) penalties against vendors and decrease (?) the number of food vending licenses available. In 2008, he was charged with slashing his girlfriend in the face with a broken glass, leaving a gash requiring forty stitches. This week, he was expelled from the New York State Senate, becoming the first NY lawmaker expelled since 1861.
In 1905, Rev. Bernardino Polizzo (member of the Mayor’s Pushcart Commission) said, “I think it would be a great advantage to all the peddlers to have a translated copy of the license issued. As it is, some of the Italians cannot understand the regulations of the road and the ordinances of the City. If it were printed in English…in Yiddish…in Greek, Italian and Syrian for the others it would prove to be a great aid to them.”
SVP did something about this problem last year, with the 5-language Vendor Power guide (which will be showcased at the Cooper Hewitt Design Triennial opening May 15th. ) So why does Consumer Affairs still pass out a thick photocopy of the vending rules in no language but English? Do they want to be upstaged by D.C., which is now publishing its vending rules in Amharic, the official language of Ethiopia?
We missed this original City Room post about Park Avenue fruit vendor Nurul Alam, whose upper-crust customers got worried when he disappeared from their corner in October. It turns out Alam was picked up by the immigration authorities and held in detention for three months. Luckily, as Susan Dominus updated today, those same customers helped obtain his release from jail, at least pending his next hearing. A heartwarming story, but we have to wonder, like commenters George and David, what would have happened if Alam didn’t have friends in high places? And how many other there are like him who we never hear about?
To share the stories of the 939 wonderful New Yorkers who are SVP members, we’re starting an interview series. Interview #1 is the only Eritrean vendor we’ve ever met — Tesfalum Kiflu. He happens to make really delicious food – here’s his menu. Read the interview here. And btw we’re looking for someone to help conduct these interviews. Students? Bloggers? Bored office workers?
We love peer-to-peer lending sites like Kiva and Prosper, which are creating a revolution in microfinance by linking small businesspeople seeking loans with people who have spare change to invest. But all those sites require a good credit score, which defeats the whole purpose — most of our members have no credit at all. So we sent around an email and collected $1,700 for peanut vendor Mohammed Ullah, who needs the money to renew his license. Read about this project (with video) here and let us know if you’d be willing to support a broader SVP loan fund in the future.
The last few years have brought transportation policy reform to New York City. Three hundred miles of bike lanes have been added, and part of Times Square was even turned into a pedestrian plaza. But why are street vendors absent from this discussion? Other cities recognize that vendors are an important part of making public spaces livable. In Portland, for example, this excellent report (sent by Professor Irene Tinker) concluded that “food carts have positive impacts on street vitality and neighborhood life.” This paper, out of India, found that vendors are “essential as a part of [the] transportation planning process.” Maybe somebody over at the excellent Streetsblog needs to pick up the vendor beat.
UPDATE: We just saw this — how does the City of New York write a 236-page “Street Design Manual” and mention street vendors only once, in passing (on page 65)?
