Tag Archives: Councilmember Mark Levine

Let’s Lift the Caps on Permits for Street Vendors

United for Small Business NYC (USBnyc), a working group convened by ANHD, supports lifting the caps on permits for street vendors.

After 30 years of waiting, many of New York City’s street vendors may finally be able to operate legally. United for Small Business NYC (USBnyc), a working group convened by ANHD, supports lifting the caps on permits for street vendors.

Permits for street vendors have been capped at 3,000 since the early 1980s, frozen since the Koch Administration. This has led to a booming underground market in which permits are valued at up to $25,000; this is in comparison to just $200 for the rare few who are able to get a permit direct from the City. As a result, many hard working vendors are operating without a permit and risking criminal penalties or paying to go to work.

The proposed Street Vendor Modernization Act, spearheaded by the Street Vendor Project, lifts the caps on permits and decriminalizes vending while increasing economic opportunity for New Yorkers across the City. Last week, the New York City Council held an eight-hour hearing on Councilmember Mark Levine’s proposed legislation that would create enforcement of the street vendor permitting process and incrementally double the number of vendor permits over the next seven years.

New York’s street vendors are small businesses. They are central to our neighborhoods and communities by providing jobs and culturally relevant goods. In a climate where small businesses routinely face displacement, vendors are among the most vulnerable.

United for Small Business NYC (USBnyc) includes community organizations from across New York City fighting to protect New York’s small businesses and non-residential tenants from the threat of displacement, with a particular focus on owner-operated, low-income, minority and immigrant-run businesses that serve low-income, immigrant, and minority communities.  New York’s small businesses and vendors need robust and strong protections to ensure their success.

Street vendors are struggling for many of the same reasons many brick and mortar businesses are closing: high cost of rents, gentrification, and harassment. Lifting the caps on permits for street vendors is a necessary part of a larger toolkit for establishing meaningful protections for all small businesses.