Street vendors applauded that the Council passed legislation 1116, which will grant 4,000 new permits for these vendors.
But many wonder how the initiative will work.
According to Councilor Carlos Menchaca: “Now we have the opportunity to modernize a permit system to expand for street vendors.”
Under the measure, the authorizations, which will now be called supervisory licenses, will be granted within 10 years, that is 400 each year, starting in July 2022.
Given the high demand, priority will be given to those on a waiting list that the city closed in 2007; as well as those who have a five-year health license.
This makes people like Luis Barrera happy, who has been selling tacos in Sunset Park for 17 years: “There are a lot of people who are just taking out and suddenly it will come to them first and it would be a bit unfair for people who have been waiting for years.”
The new permit will no longer be granted to the sales position but to the business owner, who must also be present in the space.
This is how Crystal Stella Becerril, lead organizer of the Street Vendors Project, explains: “In 2032, any permit from the current system that reaches 2032 will become part of the new system.”
The annual cost of the permit will be $ 500 and a municipal office will be created to supervise the vendors, which must begin operations no later than next September.
Of the 400 permits per year, 100 can be used anywhere in the city and 300 in any county except Manhattan.
In order to obtain a new permit, it will be necessary to pass a new municipal certification in which the rules for street vendors will be taught, such as the distance they have to be from emergency exits of residential buildings and also from bus stops.
The city government will have to publish a map showing which sidewalks vendors cannot stand on.
This initiative only covers those who sell food and not those who offer other products; for whom – currently – there is a limited number of permits.
According to the Street Vendor Project group, it is estimated that at the end of the delivery of these licenses, there will still be more than 10,000 vendors who will not have a permit.
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