There’s been a cap on food cart licenses since the 1980’s, and advocates for the cart owners say that’s reduced opportunities for entrepreneurs and led to a thriving black market for permits.
There are now about 4,200 permits, with 2,500 people on a waiting list to get one. Some say there are as many as 10,000 to 12,000 food vendors in the city, with many operating illegally.
Councilmember Mark Levine, who represents sections of the Upper West Side (mostly above 96th Street), has introduced a bill to double the number of permits over seven years, add an enforcement unit, and update the rules for vendors. The bill is being held in a City Council committee now, and Levine’s staff say he’s planning to amend it to address issues brought up in an October hearing.
We’ve posted Levine’s outline of the law below. It’s co-sponsored by 15 council members, but it’s not yet clear if it has majority support in the 51-member body.
Councilmember Helen Rosenthal is skeptical, though. She spoke out against increasing the number of vendors at a 20th precinct meeting a few months ago, and sent the following statement to us this week:
“We have many wonderful street vendors on the Upper West Side and it has proven to be an extraordinary entrepreneurship opportunity for so many New Yorkers, but we have to make sure we deal with the street vendor issue responsibly. In its current form, the street vendor reform package does not have my support. There are simply too many unanswered questions over how the reforms would mediate how pedestrians and street vendors will share sidewalk space and whether the City is prepared to deal with the practical implications of increasing the number of vendors, such as ensuring adequate commissary space for cart cleaning. I’ll be working with my colleagues and with advocates to ensure that we come up with a way forward that addresses these concerns.”
The Urban Justice Center’s Street Vendor Project, a nonprofit that advocates for vendors, has been urging people to call Rosenthal and press her to support the bill. They wrote in a message to supporters that she “sides with real estate developers and huge corporations.” Sean Basinski, the director of the Street Vendor Project, says he’s not sure if there are enough votes to pass the bill and he’s trying to rally support now.
Some Upper West Siders have expressed concern about food cart vendors in the past, because of parking violations, pollution and other issues. Gale Brewer even discussed having the carts tracked with GPS devices to monitor them.
(There’s also a bill in the council that would make food carts post letter grades, like at restaurants.)
One concern we’ve heard from Upper West Siders is that the food vendors take business away from brick and mortar shops. Basinski said that shouldn’t be a concern, pointing to studies that indicate that people who buy from food cart vendors wouldn’t have gone into the stores anyway. One study of 3 neighborhoods in Los Angeles found that “brick and mortar businesses were more likely to experience job growth when street vendors were operating nearby.”
Here’s what the bill would do, according to Levine:
The SVMA will:
· Double the number of food vendor permits over seven years with 5% of new permits being set aside for veterans and the disabled
· Create a new dedicated vendor law enforcement unit to make sure vending rules and regulations are followed and applied fairly and consistently
· Focus initial enforcement efforts on congested areas and around supermarkets
· Improve compliance by installing street signs on blocks without legal vending, creating an app with a satellite view of legal vending spots, and requiring robust vendor training
· Establish a street vendor advisory panel to monitor enforcement and new permit rollouts and to examine and make recommendations for streamlining vendor laws and rules
· Establish a pilot program to examine methods of maintaining order in congested areas and create model vending zones
· Establish a pilot program to test the use of public school and other underutilized kitchens for use by food vendors
· Refine various outdated rules governing food vending
We appreciate Council Member Rosenthal’s vow to find a solution that works for everyone. We look forward to working with her and other stakeholders.
These past 36 hours we have heard from dozens of Upper West Side residents who support vendors and are concerned not primarily about sidewalk congestion, but rather economic opportunity for the thousands immigrant workers and entrepreneurs who struggle to make a living on our city’s streets.
We appreciate the support. With so many Muslim and Latino immigrants working as vendors, we stand for a city where all are welcome and where, with hard work, following the rules, all can achieve a part of the American dream.
You seem to suggest that people can’t be concerned both with sidewalk congestion AND economic opportunities.
That’s a faulty assumption.
Sure, it’s great to provide opportunities for immigrants willing to work. But maintaining livability is also imperative.
Thanks, Mark. You are correct — we should both increase economic opportunities for low-income people AND maintain sidewalks where people can walk. This is not an either-or. It is a big city and there is plenty of sidewalk space, especially on the Upper West Side, where sidewalks tend to be fairly wide. By the same token, vendors need to follow the many rules that govern them on sidewalk placement, and they should be cited if they don’t. As stated, the bill will create a new enforcement unit to ensure this is done.
Transportation Alternatives, the group advocating for pedestrians and cyclists, agrees we can have both more vending carts and accessible sidewalks: https://nyc.streetsblog.org/2016/10/28/nyc-can-make-room-for-new-food-carts-and-leave-space-to-walk/
This article is relevant:
https://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/12/magazine/the-food-truck-business-stinks.html?ref=magazine
From the sounds of it, unless the commissary issue is addressed, the effects of this legislation will be less than ideal.
this government’s conundrum: government intervention into private life is unwanted. reduce regulation on business too.
even with regulations, who would buy a falafel cooked in ‘g_d knows what’ kind of oil that may have been burned, or never changed? well, i’m not going to argue with your right to do so, i just won’t buy one myself.
i haven’t eaten a sabretts hotdog since the late seventies. i made the decision then that hot dogs marinated in body temperature water for 8 hours produced a taste that needed improving. it was my decision. i sure wanted one of their green t-shirts, though.
same with greys papaya. that is not food, folks. smell their delicious smelling fumes, then go home and make your own.
as for the ny times story cited, those food trucks are a different ball game. fully kitted out, they contain fully cleanable kitchens. trucks like those are used to cater to higher end film shoots. watch the film Chef (2014). it’s fun.
You are mixing some issues here. Grey’s Papaya is a restaurant which means it is inspected by the city on a regularly and has a rating. As for the carts, why do you assume that food carts are less inspected than food trucks? They may be “kitted out” but that does not mean they are necessarily in compliance. Do food trucks follow the same laws as food carts. BTW, I think that food cart safety has greatly improved since the 1970s when NYC had no money to inspect anyone.
No, no, and more no. The generators are extremely noisy and pollute the air. Nothing but toxicity.
“Establish a pilot program to test the use of public school and other underutilized kitchens for use by food vendors”
What idiot came up with that one?
Schlotsky–what is/are your assumption(s) that lead you to find this such a horrible idea?
I’ve always like the idea of multiple uses for underused spaces.
Sorry Street Vendor Project. Your comments are appreciated but sound completely one sided. Your role is to advocate for street vendors…therefore, for you to say you heard from dozens of Upper West Side residents who support vendors and concerned about their economic opportunity is, of course, what you would say.
I like Mark Levine but doubling the number of vendors doesn’t make a lot of sense. I also don’t completely agree that street vendors don’t take business away from brick-and-mortars. (Again, a self-serving comment.). I know many retailers who hate the vendors (food or otherwise) outside their space. (For example, the phone accessory vendor outside Apple definitely poaches business from that store. Food would do the same.)
And, like the previous poster said, why would we allow vendors to use public school kitchens? How could we keep control of our kids’ school kitchen safety if outsiders use them?
Thanks, TJ.
It is true that we advocate for street vendors, and therefore our opinions reflect that.
But there has been a lot of impartial academic research done that demonstrates that vendors are good for cities in lots of ways. For example, vending incubates many small businesses that, if they are lucky, go on to open restaurants. Urban academics have also shown how vendors create “eyes on the street,” making our neighborhoods safer.
Also, as counter-intuitive as it may be, the academic research shows that vendors do not compete with brick-and-mortar businesses. AS stated, that is mostly because vendors operate at different price points. You can believe it or not, but that is what the research shows.
We have heard from the vendors’ lobby, and they express their arguments quite intelligently. However, one thing that neither Council Member Rosenthal or CM Levine weigh is the impact on the neighborhood’s shrinking retail base. Stores that pay a lot of taxes: real estate, employment, utility taxes, etc. are dying. Vendors are competing for the same consumer dollars as stores, which offer more variety, longer hours and services. Any decision must consider protecting this fragile tax base. Many of stores also employ immigrants, so let’s do something novel: consider the neighborhood ecology.
I LIKE THE IDEA OF THE A, B, C RATINGS FOR VENDORS, LIKE RESTAURANTS MUST HAVE.
We also support letter grading for vendors, Lee. Right now, as some do not know, vendors are held to the same health code standards as restaurants, and they receive inspections much more frequently than restaurants do. We want vendors to receive the benefit of being able to put a grade on their cart, which will increase public confidence. Studies have shown that food bought on the street is as clean and sanitary as food in restaurants: https://ij.org/report/street-eats-safe-eats/
Have you seen the greasy sidewalks and litter they leave? Do you care? I do.
Food Carts are unfair to small business owners who small restaurants that serve middle class individuals. They don’t have to pay rent and the regulations of the cleanliness and health that apply to restaurants don’t appply to them. They leave the streets filthy.
We don’t need to expand this situation we need to cut it back.
We respect your view, Pedestrian, but if you support independent, locally-owned small business owners, you should support vendors. In fact, vendors are the ultimate “Mom & Pops” in a city that increasingly is being dominated by national chains.
Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, who supports the proposed legislation, notes that vendors have much in common with small restaurants. In fact, most vendors dream of one day opening a restaurant, but with the high rents in NYC, for most it will remain a dream. https://manhattanbp.nyc.gov/downloads/pdf/SmallBusinessBigImpactFINAL.pdf
I don’t agree with you. Local restaurants are community members and are there when we need them. They clean their sidewalks and need our support. I oppose food carts in residential areas.
As to Ms. Brewer’s support, that is her right. I disagree with her on this issue.
I didn’t know anything about this potential bill until seeing this article, and my first reaction is wondering why we need even more street vendors? We have a lot on the UWS. My second reaction is wondering how a glutted vendor market will provide “a lucrative economic opportunity for the thousands (of) immigrant workers…” who struggle to make a living on the streets? I don’t see it being advantageous for the current vendors who are already struggling to make ends meet or for new vendors who would be coming into an even more competitive situation. I’m open to being swayed, but I just don’t see it as it stands.
Good questions, Marci.
To your first point, it is not a matter of “needing” more vendors. I suppose we don’t “need” to accept any refugees in this country either. But many believe that the US, and New York especially, is a place that welcomes those from other lands, and provides them with opportunity. If we hold those values — and we suspect the majority of UWS residents do — then we should create policies that fit with those values.
We suspect many residents of the Upper West Side have grandparents or great-grandparents who got their start as pushcart peddlers on the Lower East Side. Back then, it was possible to get a permit and sell legally, and many were successful. Fairway, for example, got its start as a pushcart. At the Street Vendor Project, we’d like the same opportunity for today’s vendors.
To your second point, right now, 90% of the people you see working on food carts do not have their own permits, because the waiting list can be 15 or 20 years. As a result, they have to rent permits from others at exorbitant rates, if they can afford to do so, or work under often exploitative conditions. Our proposal will help to fix that by providing an opportunity for many to work for themselves, which we support.
Here’s a very short video that lays out the issue pretty clearly: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HFlIrJm66c
It is in very poor taste to equate this bill to the refugee crisis. The people fleeing Syria are running from a combination of barrel bombs dropped by their own government and the violence of extremists who don’t hesitate to behead civilians, and they were locked out of the US by a vicious authoritarian bigot. The street vendor bill has reasonable arguments on both sides. To insinuate that people who are concerned about market saturation are similar to people who want to ban refugees from the US is ridiculous and a very cheap shot.
I don’t think we need more of these carts. There are too many of them on the streets already, politicians and city officials need to find other opportunities for people on the waiting list.
Why is the govt even involved. This reads like something from the Soviet era Cleanliness and public health should be he only concern and I am sure there’s are already adequate regulations to deal with that.
The street vendors enhance the vibrancy, convenience, and safety of the neighborhood. The more the merrier!
STOP THE FOOD CARTS. They’re smelly, ugly, and take biz away from the merchants paying rent.