A standard fruit and vegetable cart in New York City is about six feet by three feet. That’s not much public space to ask for. But even that can be too much for building owners who don’t want vendors on the sidewalk.
One technique that some building owners use is to place planters on the sidewalk to displace the vendors. That’s what happened to SVP member Mijandur Rahaman, who sells fruit on East 86th Street and Madison Avenue. But a few (illegal) planters on the sidewalk are no match for a 1,000 member organization. Watch what happened!
As we saw from the food truck proposal last week, the public are huge supporters of street vendors – if they are given a chance to weigh in. But vendors and their fans are typically excluded from the decision-making process. Here’s how it works: a powerful business group commissions an architecture firm to draw up a plan to bring life to Water Street in Lower Manhattan, which is currently closed to vendors for most of its length. No vendors are invited onto the committee that prepares the report, which bemoans the lack of street life, but fails to recommend the simplest solution of all – reopening the street to vendors! Years from now, when the city and state have spent millions to reconfigure Water Street, they will surely say the process was fair and democratic.
Ever wonder what local politicians spend their time doing? One thing they seem to enjoy is thinking up new rules to punish street vendors! The latest idea, by Council Member Jessica Lappin (left, who btw represents the UES) would revoke the vending permits of food truck vendors who recieve more that 3 parking tickets in a year. We’re all for enforcing the parking regulations, but it usuaully results in a $105 ticket — not having your livelihood taken away. Please join the Facebook page we just created to draw some attention to this issue, which will get a public hearing next Wednesday. Our written statement is here. Please comment with your ideas, as it would be cool to create some social media buzz on this. Maybe a food truck event in front of Lappin’s office?
Last year, a couple SVP board members had an idea: let’s do a street fair! We’ve got the vendors — all we need is some space. So we got permission to close down Park Place near City Hall for one day. And next Friday, June 11th, it will happen. Instead of big corporations running the street fairs, it will be self-employed immigrants and entrepreneurs. Instead of vending alone, sixty or so SVP members will vend together, in solidarity, for one day. Here’s the Facebook page with all the details. We’re calling it the Pushcart Market. Now who’s coming?
As SVP grows older and wiser, we’re spending more of our time time helping vendors advance their business in a positive direction – instead of just fighting to get the city off our backs! One of our most recent ideas is to link our members up with credit card processing machines, so they can accept credit cards as payment and (hopefully) boost their sales. We got a merchant services company to kick in some free machines and launched a pilot project this week, among 10 of our members, to see if it works. The idea seems to be striking a chord — at least we got nice stories in the WSJ, NY Post, and on WPIX (video here).
SVP celebrated our merger with East Harlem’s Esperanza del Barrio yesterday at the Sixth Street Community Center, and what better day than Cinco de Mayo. More than 100 friends and supporters showed up to feast on amazing food prepared by our members, salute mother earth with an Aztec dance troupe (left), and build community. Council Member Melissa Mark Viverito received the well-deserved Advocate of the Year award. And we even got a visit from Alioune Niass, one of the hero vendors who saved the city last week from the Times Square car bomber. What more could anyone possibly want. Photos here. Big props to Marisa and Ethan for putting together such a great event.
In case you haven’t heard, NYC street vendor Lance Orton (left) and other vendors are being declared as heroes around the world for spotting the car bomb in Times Square yesterday and taking quick action to report it to the NYPD. Thank you, Lance, for your quick and selfless thinking. You are a hero for your service in Vietnam and you were a hero again yesterday.
But, apart from the headlines, this is really nothing special. We hear from vendors all the time who foil purse-snatchings, pick-pocketings, and other crimes. Remember Aboucar Lah, who intervened with a knife-wielding assailant to save a woman’s life last year? Just imagine if, instead of ticketing and harassing vendors, the NYPD worked with them to establish a “Vendor Watch” program for fighting real crime?
First, though, Mayor Bloomberg needs to take Lance and the other vendors to dinner! Join the Facebook page we just created to demand that that happen. Let’s see how many people we can get to join!
SVP made a strong showing at the street artist rally today in Chelsea, with more than two dozen SVP staff, interns, and members turning out. Outside (where the art vendors showed their creativity and strength) was more fun and empowering than inside the hearing, where the suit-and-tie set lied about congestion and “dangerous conditions.” We got some great press — SVP member Alexandria Diaz, who sells her art in Union Square Park, got quoted on 1010 Wins (here) and WNYC radio (here) – and did our best. We’ll see what happens now.
See the photos and read our testimony. Its not too late to sign the online petition. And, by the way, for all the snobs who like saying those are not “real” artists, we posted another video, called Artists Speak, here. See for yourself.
In a survey of 100 park users in Union Square and Central Park on Monday, we found that 94 of them believed that artists currently in parks add to their park experience, while only 6 people said they detract from it. Watch the video, and don’t forget to sign the petition.
Its hard to advance vendors’ rights when you are always on the defensive! Just as we were battling the Health Department to get bathroom access for our food vendors, now the Parks Department is trying to remove 80% of the artists who sell in NYC parks. We’re tired, but our struggle continues. At our meeting last week, our members agreed that an injury to one of us harms us all!
This issue is rightly getting a lot of attention (NY Times, Boston Globe, and even Art Daily). The City’s spinmeisters are making their usual argument — that the artists are creating “congestion.” And some powerful organizations, like the Daily News and Municipal Arts Society, are buying what Bloomberg is selling. But is anyone actually talking to New Yorkers?
While we’re rallying our troops for Friday’s hearing (details here), preparing our testimony, and working the phones, please sign our online petition to support these artists.
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