The Street Vendor Project

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.

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?

Ok, we’ll admit it. SVP gets a LOT of inquiries from student journalists who are interested in vendors and their issues.  And sometimes we are not as patient with them as we should be. For all those times, we are sorry. Especially because students sometimes produce very nice videos like this, by CUNY’s Aisha Al-Muslim, which we can use to educate the world about our issues.  Or thorough articles like this one, by Lecia Bushak at NYU.

Working with Center for an Urban Pedagogy (CUP) and designer Candy Chang, SVP has put together a great-looking, informative and visionary guide about vendor regulations, rights, history and what a more just system would look like. Check out the PDF here, and come to the press conference/launch extravaganza (when vendors and volunteers will be distributing the guide to thousands of vendors around town) on March 28th, 11:30 AM at SVP headquarters, 123 William St!