There are nearly 2,000 US military veterans working on the streets of New York City, all thanks to a 1894 state law recognizing that those who defend our country should at least get to put a 6-foot table on the public sidewalk. News flash: many vets are losing their livelihoods due to $1,000 tickets imposed by the Bloomberg administration. Maybe every Council Member not supporting the bills should have to tell SVP board member Bernard Haynes (pictured here, from his days in Korea) why the $1,000 tickets he got for vending on a subway grate are fair compensation for his heroic service.

Since no vendor has any legal claim to any particular spot, its all about respect. Its one thing to encourage vendors to respect each other’s spots, but what do you do when someone doesn’t listen? Last week, a group of SVP members (left) paid a visit to a supposed bad-apple vendor, to encourage him to keep a respectful distance from vendors who had spent years building up their spots. And you know what? He turned out to be a pretty nice guy. Here’s to all vendors working together in peace!

There will never be a lack of brick-and-mortar businesses complaining about “unfair competition” from street vendors. Whether its Korean green grocers in the outer boroughs or Business Improvement Districts in Washington Heights, store-based merchants love to use their power against their less-developed neighbors selling from tables, carts or trucks.

But you know what? We’re sick of it. They can make any claim they want, but every bit of research shows that vendors do not compete with brick-and-mortar merchants. From now on, any journalist that presents the tired, “store owners said this, vendors said that” story without citing the available research on the matter is not doing their job. So, here it is: scholarly proof that vendors do not compete with brick-and-mortar merchants. The vendors rest. Thank you.

Whatever it is, SVP is working to get vendors recognized for their overall heroism, which is why we’ll have a non-culinary award category at this year’s Vendy Awards, as we discussed recently on radio here and in print here.  Now go nominate your favorite vendor here.

What are the problems here, apart from the general rude treatment Huda receives? 1) he clearly needs an interpreter and was not provided one, 2) he says he wants the officer to come, only to be talked out of it by the judge,  3) he in fact had a defense, that he was not vending at the time but had only gotten there 10 minutes before and was waiting for the street to open up at 6 pm, but was not given a chance to present it due to his lack of English and the judge’s leading questions. The fine? $750. SVP is appealing the case. Albor Ruiz of the Daily News covered Huda’s story here.

But the news is not all bleak! Council Member Stephen Levin from Brooklyn has sponsored two bills that would reduce the vending fines to pre-2005 levels.  Intros 434 and 435, which now each have 15 co-sponsors at City Council, would not only provide relief to street vendors during difficult times. As the NY Post pointed out this week, it would also allow the city to collect more revenue, because vendors would be able to pay their fines, rather than them going into default.  Sounds like a “win,win” proposition to us. We’ll be writing letters and getting signatures soon, but for now, please friend our “Lower the Fines” Facebook page here to stay updated on our progress.

At the same time, however, the City is doing nothing to save the Aqueduct Flea Market, which supports nearly 1,000 less glamorous immigrant small-business owners and is being evicted by the NY State gambling commission next week. Despite a bunch of press coverage (1,2,3) and the best efforts of the Indo-Carribean Alliance to organize the vendors and find them a new location, it seems this 30-year old Queens marketplace will be going out with a whimper. Our friends at the Center for an Urban Future said it best in their World of Opportunity report: “in most cases, immigrant-run businesses aren’t even on the radar of local economic development officials.” Why is that? And where is the outrage about Aqueduct?