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Peddling Uphill

A report on the conditions of street vendors in New York City

A REPORT BY THE STREET VENDOR PROJECT OF THE URBAN JUSTIC CENTER, 2006
Street Vendor Project

The Street Vendor Project


The Street Vendor Project of the Urban Justice Center is a membership-based, vendor-
led, grassroots organization of more than 500 New York City street vendors from all back-
grounds. Our mission is to provide a unified voice for vendors across the city in a move-
ment for economic justice and civil rights. We hold legal workshops to educate vendors
about their rights and responsibilities under the law. We work with policy makers to help
them understand the important role street vendors play in the life of our city. We also help
vendors grow their businesses by facilitating access to small business loans and training.

We believe that, in a city that increasingly resembles a suburban strip mall, there should
still be a place for ambitious and hard-working individuals to come to New York and make
a living selling things on the street.

Acknowledgements
This report was written by Sara Sluszka and Sean Basinski from the Street Vendor Project.
The surveys were conducted by Judi Mukarhinda, SVP staff organizer, and the following
interns and volunteers: Nathan Brustein, Hai-Ching Yang, Brien Van Wagner, Sarah Yahm,
Matt Furshong, Binan Xu, and Ryan Devlin. Jessica Arabski, Molly Coe and Alexa
Rosenberg helped edit and produce the report.

Thank you to Daniel Rabinowitz, professor of statistics at Columbia University, and


Suzanne Wasserman, associate director of the Gotham Center for New York City History
at the CUNY Graduate Center, for reviewing our findings and providing their valuable
input. Special thanks also to Jason Patch, assistant professor of sociology at Queens
College CUNY, for offering his helpful comments and mapping assistance.

The Street Vendor Project’s all-vendor Board of Advisors was instrumental in shaping the
survey and making it relevant to our mission: Khaled Abouelkhair, Emad Ali, Mohammed
Ali, Zenab Bangoura, Luther Bolden, Moustapha Cisse, Janis Collado, Josue Echavaria,
Diba Gaye, Sophia Laskaris, Mohammed Miah, Mbaye Moussa, Angelo Vega, Jr., Michael
Wells, and James Williams.

Thanks also to Doug Lasdon, Executive Director of the Urban Justice Center, for his
thoughtful advice and unwavering support for SVP.

Funding was provided by the Rose & Sherle Wagner Foundation, the Whistler Trust,
Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, and the many individual donors who support our work.
The findings and conclusions in this report do not necessarily represent their positions.

Cover photo courtesy of Rebecca Lepkoff.

© Street Vendor Project of the Urban Justice Center, 2006.

Street Vendor Project


666 Broadway, 10th Floor
New York, NY 10012
Phone: 646-602-5679

www.streetvendor.org 2
Street Vendor Project

Table of contents

Executive Summary.........................................................4
Introduction......................................................................5
History of vending in New York City..............................5
Findings
Who are street vendors?...................................................6
What do they sell?.............................................................7
Why do they vend?............................................................7
Where are they from?........................................................9
Education and family........................................................10
Earnings and working conditions.....................................11
Challenges
What problems do vendors face?....................................13
The laws...........................................................................13
The tickets........................................................................14
The courts and fines........................................................15
Police misconduct............................................................16
Businesses and BIDs.......................................................17
Conclusion
Summary..........................................................................18
Recommendations...........................................................18
Appendix A: Methodology................................................20
Appendix B: Survey..........................................................21

www.streetvendor.org 3
Street Vendor Project

Executive Summary
For generations, New York City has offered individuals with modest means a chance to
participate in the American Dream by selling food and merchandise on the street. With a
dense, on-the-go population, a lively street life, and an inexhaustible supply of ambitious
immigrants and entrepreneurs, New York offers ideal conditions for street-level small busi-
nesses to thrive. Today as ever, in every neighborhood throughout the city, thousands of
hard-working people make their living in this manner.

Yet for all their visibility, vendors are rarely noticed, and even more rarely studied. This
report presents the findings of the first comprehensive survey of New York street vendors
to be undertaken in more than 80 years. Over the last two years, the Street Vendor Project
of the Urban Justice Center selected 100 vendors in Lower Manhattan and asked them a
detailed series of questions about their life and work. The results of the survey dispel many
myths about vendors that have developed over the years. They also show why the leg-
endary success stories of the past are nearly unthinkable today; vendors are faced with so
much regulation and harassment that they can barely subsist. Rather than being support-
ed, they are targeted as “quality of life” criminals and hindered at every turn.

This report demonstrates that today’s street vendors – whether Chinese, Senegalese,
Bangladeshi, Egyptian, Afghani, Mexican, Russian or another ethnicity – are direct
descendants of the primarily Jewish and Italian pushcart peddlers of yesteryear. Vendors
are still an amazingly diverse group of entrepreneurs who provide an astounding variety
of items inexpensively and conveniently on the street. They are honest and enterprising
people who sell quality merchandise and delicious food. While many choose to vend
because their other options are limited, they are motivated principally by ambition and self-
reliance. The vast majority are educated, legal immigrants who support large families both
here and abroad. Just as they always have, vendors still work long hours in unhealthy con-
ditions for shockingly low wages.

Yet this report makes clear that vendors today do not have the same opportunity for suc-
cess as in the past. The free market system that once enabled vendors to grow their busi-
nesses has been replaced by so many government-created obstacles and layers of regu-
lation that few vendors, if any, strike it rich. Our survey found that vendors can scarcely
understand the bewildering rules they are subject to. Enforcement is so strict that vendors
inevitably receive tickets for minor violations that have nothing to do with health or safety.
Along with the tickets sometimes comes police harassment, including physical abuse and
racial insults. With no interpreters or lawyers provided, vendors struggle to represent
themselves at court. Moreover, with each ticket now carrying a maximum penalty of
$1,000, few vendors prosper. In fact, they are barely scraping by.

While the results of this survey are grim, we lay out a few simple steps that would help
return economic opportunity to our streets. Vendors are not asking for any hand-outs; they
just want a chance to work. The City should reduce the vending penalties so that our
smallest of businesses are not crippled before they even have a chance to grow. It should
raise the licensing cap so more people can vend legally; it should open up more public
space to vending by re-opening streets and removing illegal street furniture; it should
reform enforcement to ensure that vendors are treated fairly by the system, and it should
provide language access to help vendors understand the law and navigate the system.

www.streetvendor.org 4
Street Vendor Project

Introduction
It is estimated that more than 12,000 vendors work on the streets of New York City today.1
They sell hot dogs, handbags and almost everything in between, in every neighborhood
from the Battery to the Bronx. They are there, with their tables and pushcarts, on the most
sweltering day of summer and the most bone-chilling, snowy day in winter. They are as
emblematic of New York as the Statute of Liberty.

Yet vendors are such a fixture that many people scarcely notice them. For all their lore,
vendors are rarely studied. The city agency that licenses them keeps no statistics on who
they are, where they come from, or why they vend. Few academic studies on them have
been undertaken. In fact, no comprehensive survey on vendors has been conducted since
1925, when the U.S. Department of Agriculture put out the seminal study, “Push Cart
Markets in New York City.”

This report seeks to fill the holes in the data and dispel the myths that have been created
over the last 81 years. In 2004 and 2005, the Street Vendor Project of the Urban Justice
Center conducted an in-depth survey of 100 street vendors in Lower Manhattan. We locat-
ed the subjects on the streets and in the garages where they store their pushcarts at night,
and we conducted interviews in five languages. This report, which summarizes our find-
ings, seeks to determine who vendors are and what issues affect their ability to earn a liv-
ing. We also make commonsense recommendations in hope of inspiring policy makers to
undertake some badly-needed reforms.

Throughout this report we ask the fundamental question that anyone familiar with the
proud history of vending in New York City cannot possibly ignore: does self-employment
through street vending still provide the same opportunity to achieve upward economic and
socio-cultural mobility as in the late 19th and early 20th centuries?2 In other words, is
vending still a viable way of achieving the American Dream? We hope this report will serve
as a starting point for a dialogue about vendors, how they contribute to New York, and
what we must do to ensure they are forever part of our city.

History of vending in New York City


As early as 1691, when pushcart peddlers were first regulated here, vendors have been a
hallmark of New York’s streets. New York is a city of immigrants, and in the bustling eth-
nic neighborhoods where those immigrants first settled, everything – from pickles, sweet
potatoes, soda water, and chickpeas, to shoelaces, balloons, and soap – was available on
the street. For people who came through Ellis Island with little more than what they could
carry, vending was the ideal entry-level job because it required little capital (with seventy-
five cents you could rent a pushcart) and rewarded hard work. Shopping on the street was
1. See chart, page 6.

a familiar activity that enabled millions of impoverished new immigrants to purchase inex-
2. See “Ever Higher Society, Ever
Harder to Ascend,” The
pensive goods close to home. By the turn of the century, there were more than 25,000 ven- Economist, Vol. 374 (8407).

dors in Manhattan alone.3 3.See Suzanne Wasserman, The


Good Old Days of Poverty: The
Battle Over the Fate of New York

Although New York vendors have always faced opposition and hardship, wave after wave
City’s Lower East Side During the
Depression, May 1990.
of immigrants and entrepreneurs used vending as a stepping-stone to financial security.4 4. See Karen Kreps, “The Road
The ambitious peddlers of yesteryear often worked their way off the streets into store- to Riches: Success Can Start in

fronts. Many successful New York businesses, including D’Agostino’s supermarkets,


the Street,” New York Daily News,
January 6, 1981.
Cohen Fashion Optical, and Odd Job Trading stores got their start as pushcarts on the

www.streetvendor.org 5
Street Vendor Project

Lower East Side. Even Bloomingdale’s and Macy’s, who now lead the charge against
vending, were founded by door-to-door pack peddlers.5 There is no denying that the vend-
ing experience has served as a valuable incubator for the small businesses that drive the
New York City economy, nor that over the last 100 years vendors have become a vital part
of our city’s social, cultural and economic life as a whole.

Findings

Who are street vendors?


“A band of flower peddlers infests my neighborhood. They are dirty, defiant, unlicensed
peddlers, and the flowers they sell last about ten minutes … I don’t know what diseases
these peddlers carry around with them.”

– Deputy Mayor Henry H. Curran, in a letter to the chief city magistrate, 1938 6

New York City street vendors have traditionally been characterized as dirty, dishonest, and
greedy – sentiments that frequently carry overtones of racism, classism and xenophobia.
In 1893, the New York Times described the “putrid” fish and “half-decayed” fruit that ven-
dors sold on Essex Street, where “filthy persons and clothing reeking with vermin are seen 5. See “Balancing Safety and
on every side.”7 These same perceptions exist today. In 2002, for example, vendors were Sales on City Streets,” New York

denounced in the press as “money-grubbing hucksters” simply for responding to the


City Department of Consumer
Affairs, February 1991.
demand for patriotic goods around the World Trade Center site.8 Similarly, while police 6. See Daniel Bluestone, “The
acknowledge that most vendors buy their goods from legitimate wholesalers, the popular Pushcart Evil: Peddlers,

imagination still conjures up images of shady characters hawking “stolen gold” in dark
Merchants and New York City’s
Streets, 1890-1940,” Journal of
alleyways.9 Vendors have even been accused by a leading member of Congress (with no Urban History, November 1991.

evidence to support him) of financing terrorism!10 7. See “East Side Street


Vendors,” New York Times, July
30, 1893.

The results of our survey show a drastically different reality. Our interviews with vendors
8. See Ikimulisa Sockwell-Mason,
Larry Celona and Tracy Connor,
reveal that they are humble and resilient people who overwhelmingly sell legitimate goods “So This is How We Honor our

and wholesome food. Moreover, our quantitative findings show that vendors are estab-
Heroes: Counterfeit NYPD &
FDNY Items Sold at Ground
lished, hard-working New Yorkers who earn modest incomes and are motivated primarily Zero,” New York Post, January 9,

by a desire to make life better for themselves and their families.


2002. Ironically, many of these
vendors were disabled military
veterans who should have bene-

Street vendors by category


fited from the patriotic fervor dur-
ing that period.

9. See John Singleton, “A


Bargain? It’s a Steal” New York

TYPE NUMBER ISSUED


Daily News, December 8, 1992
(“Every day, peddlers turn New

Food (full-year) 3,000


York City’s streets into a sprawl-
ing department store where

General (non-veteran) 853a


scamsters get rich and customers
get gypped.”)

Military Veterans 1,704b 10. At a Capitol Hill hearing on


July 16, 2003, U.S.
First Amendment 1,000c Representative Henry Hyde,
Chairman of the House
Unlicensed 6,000c International Relations
Committee, warned, "everyone
Total 12,557 loves to make a deal, or get a
bargain, but these days, the
buyer really should beware...the
a. In 1979, the City capped the number of licenses for general merchandise vendors at 853. There are currently 3,133 non-veterans on the waiting
list at the Department of Consumer Affairs, which has been closed to new applications since 1991. counterfeit item you purchase
b. Rozhon, Tracie and Rachel Thorner, “On the Streets, Genuine Copies (And a Few Originals),” New York Times, May 26, 2005. from a street vendor or on the
c. Estimated. Internet may be helping to
finance terrorism."

www.streetvendor.org 6
Street Vendor Project

What do they sell?


The items available for sale on New York City’s streets today are as diverse as ever. In
contrast to 1925,11 when food accounted for a large majority (72%) of street sales, the
market is now host to relatively equal proportions of different items.12

In Lower Manhattan, 46% of vendors surveyed sold some type of food. To satisfy hungry
residents and visitors alike, vendors stock everything from coffee and bagels in the morn-
ing, to fruit, roasted nuts, ice cream, candy, shish kebabs, and, of course, hot dogs and
pretzels later on in the day. Street food reflected the diversity of the neighborhood: ven-
dors in Chinatown sold breakfast rice noodles, for example, while coffee vendors catered
to the early-rising Wall Street crowd.

About one quarter (26%) of vendors surveyed sold merchandise, often catching wind of
fashion trends weeks in advance of big retail stores. Their diverse wares included the well-
known handbags and sunglasses, but also shoes, skirts, jewelry, cell phone cases, DVDs,
toy cars and even finger puppets. A noticeable number of merchandise vendors supply the
throngs of downtown tourists with affordable “New York City” clothing and memorabilia.
And, despite popular opinion, most items sold on the street were authentic; only 6% of
vendors surveyed sold counterfeit goods.

Twenty-eight percent of downtown vendors chose to exercise their First Amendment rights
by selling books, magazines, or art on the street.13 While some of these vendors were
motivated by political or artistic ideals, others chose to do so because of their inability to
obtain a license to sell food or merchandise. Whatever the reason, their variety of materi-
als was impressive. For example, one bookseller stocked bulky computer manuals while
the woman next to him specialized in racy African-American romance novels.

Why do they vend?


The survey respondents expressed a wide range of motivations for vending. About half the
people surveyed vend because they want to, while the other half do so out of necessity.
While vendors were proud of their jobs, they expressed disappointment at being “stuck” in
the same position after many years, contrary to dreams they may have had of rising as
entrepreneurs in the fabled business world of New York City.
11. See “Push Cart Markets in
New York City,” United States

Of the vendors who are drawn to the positive aspects of vending, the freedom of entrepre-
Department of Agriculture, 1925
(on file with Street Vendor
neurship was the greatest benefit. Eighty-three percent of vendors surveyed work for Project).

themselves, and most highlighted the flexibility that comes with being their own boss. 12. While our survey was limited

Indeed, vending is an ideal job for the elderly, people with child care responsibilities, and
to food and merchandise, Lower
Manhattan is also home to a wide
others who seek non-traditional work schedules. Many vendors enjoy working outdoors, variety of individuals who sell

and they also like interacting with their daily customers. “Even when they are not hungry,
services on the street, such as
Chinatown fortune-tellers and
my customers come by to see me,” said one hot dog vendor. “We are like a family.” lower Broadway shoe-shiners.
See also Joseph Berger, “The
Overhead? Just a Scaffold: For
City’s Repairmen, Shop May Be
While freedom was a motivating factor for many vendors, money was not. Only six percent the Sidewalk,” New York Times,

of vendors reported vending because it was more lucrative than their other options.
September 10, 2003.

Similarly, very few vendors surveyed expected to ever grow rich from their sales. While
13. See Bery v. City of New York,
97 F.3d 689 (2d Cir. 1996) (grant-
many saw vending as the starting point on the economic ladder to success, few had ing artists the right to sell art on

moved past the first rung. Survey respondents were still vending after 6.2 years, on aver-
the streets without a license).

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Street Vendor Project

age, and a significant number have been doing it for more than 15 years.

Vending was a last resort for many others. Thirty eight percent of people reported that vending
was the only job they could find. Many of these respondents chose vending because they faced
barriers to finding more traditional jobs. Among these were lack of language skills, lack of social
capital, and the inability to obtain authorization to work in the U.S.14 As one coffee vendor said,
“I didn’t even finish high school in my country. In New York, that won’t take you very far.” He,
like many new arrivals, also lacked economic capital to start a more profitable small business.
“I would like to open a store, but with no money, vending is my best option,” he stated.

Additionally, some vendors (7%) reported disabilities that kept them from holding other
jobs. Disabled veteran vendors often carry with them the burden of combat-related physi-
cal trauma that prevents them from doing more strenuous jobs. “I have hospital appoint-
ments every week,” said one disabled vet vendor. “I’m unemployable.” Some of these vet-
erans also suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and other mental illnesses
that keep them from functioning in the regular workplace.

Reasons vendors choose to vend

Can’t find
another job, 38%

Loves the
freedom, 27%

Other, 11%

Has a Enjoys
vending,
14. Many vendors reported that

disability,
their language difficulties played

mult. 10%
a role in their decision to start

7% Good
vending. In fact, 38% of vendors

money, responses
reported that they chose to vend
because they could not find

11%
another job. See Heide Spruck

7%
Wrigley, et al., “The Language of
Opportunity: Expanding
Employment Prospects for Adults
with Limited English Skills,”
Center for Law and Social Policy,
August 2003.

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Street Vendor Project

Where are they from?


Since the earliest wooden carts were pushed down the cobbled streets of the Lower East
Side, street vendors have been a reflection of the most recent waves of immigrants. At
the turn of the century, 93% of all vendors were foreign-born; primarily Jewish and Italian,
with a smaller number of Irish, German, Russian, and “Spanish” vendors.15 Today, New
York City street vendors are still overwhelmingly immigrants. The survey revealed that
83% of Lower Manhattan’s vendors are immigrants hailing from more than 20 countries on
four continents. The top represented nations are Bangladesh (18%), China (16%), and
Afghanistan (12%). The average immigrant vendor surveyed had been in the United
States for more than 11 years.

Despite the myth that most vendors are “illegal” immigrants, our survey revealed that the
majority of immigrant vendors were documented and authorized to work in the United
States. Most were green card holders, not citizens; the number of immigrant vendors who
are naturalized U.S. citizens has declined from 63% in 1925 to 36% today. This decline
mirrors a national trend: in the year 2000, only 40% of the general population of foreign-
born U.S. residents were naturalized citizens.16 This may be due to stricter immigration
policy or to the transnational lifestyle of many immigrants today who plan on eventually
returning to their home countries rather than settling here permanently.

Native-born vendors were a minority; 17% of vendors surveyed were born in the United
States, and all but two of those were military veterans. Ever since 1896, New York State
has granted military veterans a licensing preference to vend merchandise on the street.17

“We fought for this country. The least they can do is let us come out here and make a cou-
ple bucks,” said one disabled veteran vendor.

17 16
5 12
4 18
16

3
15. See Push Cart Markets,
supra note 10.

16. 2000 United States Census


data.

Vendor regions of origin


17. Military veterans are exempt
from the 853-license cap on mer-
chandise vending licenses, for
example, while disabled veterans
are permitted to sell in certain
areas of the city that are restrict-
ed to other vendors.

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Street Vendor Project

Primary languages spoken by vendors

French, 2%
Wolof, 2%
Urdu, 2%
Tibetan, 2%
Other, 5%
Spanish, 6%
Arabic, 7%
Fulani, 8%
Farsi, 10%
Mandarin/Cantonese, 15%
English, 20%
Bengali, 21%

Interestingly, what vendors sold is largely determined by their country of origin. For exam-
ple, fruit and vegetable-sellers were either Bangladeshi (44%) or Chinese (56%). Eighty
percent of coffee vendors hailed from Afghanistan, while 82% of U.S. born vendors sold
either clothing or arts and crafts. The small number of unlicensed vendors surveyed were 18. See, for example, Fred

either from West Africa (78%) or China (22%). This phenomenon can be explained by
Ferretti, “A Culinary Little India on
East 6th Street,” New York Times,
social and ethnic ties whereby new immigrants are often introduced to vending by friends March 4,1981 (discussing how

or relatives who teach them how to vend a particular good.18


family ties led many Bengali
immigrants to open restaurants
on one street in Manhattan).

19. Indeed, 70% of vendors who


Downtown vendors represent a veritable Tower of Babel. Only 20% of vendors reported were not comfortable speaking

English as their first language. Vendors surveyed spoke sixteen different primary lan- English either did not understand
the vending laws adequately, or
guages, with no language representing more than 21% of the total. did not understand them at all.
Although the City has attempted
to accommodate non-English

The survey showed that a significant number of vendors (40%) are uncomfortable speak-
speakers in other contexts (the
City’s 311 call center provides
ing English. Language difficulties presented real problems for this group, who received immediate access to over 200

more tickets due to their inability to understand the vending laws or communicate with the
languages, for example), the
vending rules are available only
police.19 Predictably, these vendors were only half as likely to feel able to defend them- in English.

selves in court or to navigate the city’s complex licensing bureaucracy.20 20. In one example, an
Administrative Law Judge

Education and family


became irate when a vendor
addressed her as “miss” instead
of “judge,” showing how a lack of
familiarity with the nuances of the
English language can have
adverse effects on vendors.

The survey results show that street vendors are generally well-educated individuals who
21. Comparatively, according to
the 2004 U.S. Census Bureau
are primary breadwinners for large families, both here and abroad. They are not being held American Community Survey,

back by a lack of education. Forty-three percent of vendors surveyed had a college educa-
27% of the surveyed U.S. popula-
tion age 25 or older had a
tion or higher, and among them were professionals in the fields of engineering, social work, Bachelor’s degree or higher. See

and medicine.21 In their domestic lives, vendors were typically married with children. They
U.S. Census Bureau, 2004
American Community Survey:
Educational Attainment, S1501.

www.streetvendor.org 10
Street Vendor Project

repeatedly communicated dedication to their families, with many grateful that their children
would have access to a U.S. education and the opportunities that come along with it.
“Maybe if I make money now, my kids can go to college and get a degree,” said a coffee
vendor. “Then they won’t have to take my job.” Vendors support an average of 4.2 people,
with some managing to feed as many as thirteen mouths from their meager wages. Almost
50% of immigrant vendors reported regularly sending money to their home countries.

Portrait of typical New York City vendors

78% are married

85% are men

88% provide for a family


96% pay taxes 22. Cited in Bluestone, supra
note 6.

23. Coffee and bagel vendors, for


example, usually arrive at their

Earnings and working conditions


garages around 3 a.m. to begin
preparing their carts, start selling
around 5 a.m., and do not get
back to their garages until noon
or later. By the lunch hour of
many New Yorkers, they will have
already worked a ten-hour day.

“It is a hard life. [The peddlers work] under broiling sun, in torrents of rain, in desperate
24. The average American work-
er works 247 days per year
cold, and in the midst of swirls of snow….For what? For the most beggarly pittance – not (assuming an 8 hour work day).

enough, scarcely, to live on.”22


See Niall Ferguson, “Why
America Outpaces Europe,” New
York Times, June 8, 2003.

– An observer, New York City, 1899 25. See U.S. Census Bureau,
2004 American Community
Survey: Income in the Past 12
Months (In 2004 Inflation-
Not surprisingly, the survey results reveal that vendors still work long hours for low wages. Adjusted Dollars), S1901.

The average workday for vendors surveyed was nearly nine (8.7) hours long, not count- 26. This $7,500 self-reported fig-

ing the time each vendor spends at the garage or transporting goods to and fro. While ure was significantly lower than
the $14,309 calculated by multi-
most vendors theoretically set their own hours, many worked irregular shifts.23 While ven- plying vendors’ average daily

dors stated that they work 4.2 days per week on average, this figure was affected by fac- earnings by the average number
of days worked. This discrepancy
tors such as inclement weather, family obligations, street restrictions, and the desire to could be due to vendors’ desire

avoid police harassment. Similarly, vendors reported working between 200 and 250 days for privacy regarding their
income, lack of accurate record
per year, even factoring in the winter months when many vendors stop working entirely keeping, or sampling error. While

due to cold weather, trips to their home countries, and the expiration of seasonal vending much higher, $14,309 still puts
the average vending family well
permits.24 During the summer, most vendors work six or seven days a week. below the 2004 poverty level of
$18,850 for a family of four.

27. See, for example, Joseph


Despite their hard work, few vendors rise above the poverty line. Those surveyed report- Fried, “Lower Manhattan

ed earning a median net income of only $7,500 per year, placing them in the bottom 9%
Retailers Still Suffer Without Foot
Traffic,” New York Times, May 18,
of wage earners in the country.25 While it is likely many vendors under-reported their 2002. In fact, some vendors were

incomes to our survey-takers,26 many downtown vendors were still suffering during the
surveyed shortly after they had
been evicted from their spots
survey period from the loss of business related to September 11, 2001.27 Whatever the along Broadway, the most heavily

reason, vendors clearly struggle financially. While a small proportion of vendors were able
trafficked downtown street, and
the 16-block area around Ground
to climb into the lower-middle class (7% made more than $25,000, and one vendor made Zero. See Mark Santora, “Albany

more than $35,000), nearly half of vendors surveyed reported earning less than $5,000,
Ready to Reinstate Vendor
Laws,” New York Times, February
27, 2004.

www.streetvendor.org 11
Street Vendor Project

leaving them at a level nearly below subsistence. In fact, some vendors reported that they
were incurring debt just to make ends meet. Most vendors surveyed lived in outer-bor-
ough, immigrant neighborhoods where the cost of living is lower.

In addition to low income, vendors reported a variety of hazardous working conditions.


Food vendors reported frequently sustaining minor injuries, such as cuts and burns, while
cooking. Many vendors also suffer back problems from prolonged standing, as well as uri-
nary health problems resulting from limited access to restrooms.28 “At the end of the day,
I can hardly walk,” said one shish kebab vendor. Even while faced with such frequent
injuries, 60% of vendors surveyed lacked health insurance.

Vendors face many hazards simply by working on the streets of New York City. Since ven-
dors deal in cash, they are frequently targets for robbery29 and are sometimes struck by run-
away vehicles.30 Air pollution is also a problem. For example, vendors along Canal Street
(where street-level air quality frequently violates federal standards) run a serious risk from
prolonged exposure to diesel emissions, which are linked to asthma and other respiratory ill-
nesses.31 Some downtown vendors also reported health problems from exposure to the toxic
pollutants that were released into the air on September 11th.32 “For a few months, the air
smelled every day,” said a hot dog vendor. “I don’t even know what was in there.”

Vendor residences by city zipcode

28. According to the National


Institute of Diabetes and
Digestive and Kidney Diseases,
the failure to use restrooms as
needed throughout the day can
have serious health conse-
quences. See “Understanding
Urinary Tract Infections,” NIH
Publication No. 88-207, National
Institute of Diabetes & Digestive
and Kidney Diseases, April 1988.

29. In 2002, for example, a ven-


dor in the Bronx was shot and
killed while returning his cart to
his garage. See Hannah Adely,
“Murder of Popular Hot Dog
Vendor Stuns Community,”
Norwood News, March 13, 2002.

30. As recently as May 18, 2006,


a fruit vendor near Canal Street
was struck and killed by a run-
away vehicle. See also Todd
Maisel, “Struck in the Street,”
New York Daily News, May 16,
2001.

31. See Bernard Stamler, “The


Traffic Downtown Seems Worse
Than Ever. Is the Verrazano the
Villan?,” New York Times,
December 13, 1998; Kelly Crow
“Idling Buses Leave a Stain of
Pollution on a Jewel of a Park,”
New York Times, October 8,
2000.

32. See Julie Scelfo and Suzanne


Smalley, “The Air Down There,”
Newsweek, September 6, 2002.

www.streetvendor.org 12
Street Vendor Project

Challenges

What problems do vendors face?


The survey results paint a picture of vendors faced with challenges that make it difficult for
them to earn a living. When they first receive their license (if they are lucky enough to get
one), they are given nothing but an imposing book of regulations. When they go out on the
street, the police order them to move. Wherever they go, security guards tell them they
cannot vend there. If they work for years to establish a good spot, they may arrive one day
to find it obstructed by concrete planters or other “street furniture.” If they stand their
ground, or even if they do not, they will likely receive a flurry of tickets. When they go to
court, they are expected to make legal arguments on their own, in English. No matter what
their defense, when the decisions arrive in the mail, they may owe thousands of dollars. If
they cannot pay, their license will be revoked.

The laws
Vendors are perhaps the most highly regulated small business owners in New York. Rather
than being governed by a single department, they are under the control of as many as
seven different city agencies who administer city regulations, state law, constitutional law,
and ever-changing city policy toward vendors.33 This multi-agency approach has created a
“complex net of restrictions” that are nearly impossible to abide by.34 Nearly half of vendors
(46%) surveyed reported that being trapped in this net was their greatest problem.

These disparate regulations are a source of confusion for both vendors and city agents.
Only 26% of vendors surveyed felt that they adequately understood the vending laws, and
12% admitted they could not grasp them at all. Their confusion is understandable. For
example, there are more than 20 separate rules about where vendors can place their
tables or pushcarts, and they vary according to what is being sold. Additionally, different
types of vendors are restricted from different streets on different days of the week and
times of day. “These laws are too confusing,” said one book vendor. “With the police, the
right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing.”

“I live in New Jersey. I wake up at 4:30 every


morning. My husband drives me in to the
city. At 5 a.m., we go to the flower market on
28th Street, when they open up. We need to
go early to get the good flowers. My hus-
band has a flower store on Orchard Street.
I sell flowers on Elizabeth Street. I’ve been
33. Vendors are under the
enforcement power of the
doing it for 13 or 14 years.” Departments of Health & Mental
Hygiene, Consumer Affairs,
Sanitation, Environmental
We start to pack up at 3 p.m. At about 4 or Protection, Finance, Parks &

4:30 p.m. we go back to New Jersey. But now the traffic is crazy, so we wait
Recreation, and the NYPD. In
addition, vendors confront the
until 7 p.m. when there is no traffic jam. It’s a very long day. We work very state Penal Law, Tax Law, and

hard. Like the sun shine today? We work. Raining? We still work.”
General Business Law governing
disabled veteran vendors.

34. New York City Council,


– Mei Wah Lo, Elizabeth Street near Canal Street Legislative Declaration: Int. No.
621, 2005.

www.streetvendor.org 13
Street Vendor Project

Some of the laws are arbitrary, others are confusing, and some are simply unreasonable.
Vendors may not vend “within any bus stop,” for example, but with no clear definition
given, vendors reported receiving tickets while set up more than 200 feet from a bus stop
sign. Similarly, vending licenses are required to be “conspicuously displayed while vend-
ing,” a regulation the police seem to enforce most strictly during the coldest months, when
licenses are sometimes hidden under bulky winter clothes. “They always tell me, ‘I’m
sorry, my captain told me to do it,” said one jewelry vendor. “I wish the captain would pay
my tickets.”

The tickets
Tickets were the number one challenge vendors reported facing. Vendors reported receiv-
ing an average of 6.7 tickets in the prior year, but six vendors received more than 20 tickets
each, and two received over 40 tickets each. With more than 59,000 vending-related cases
in New York City every year, it is not surprising that vendors reported such high numbers.35

Vendor tickets issued by violation

Too close to
Health
storefront, violations,
15% 10%

Street too
narrow, 8%
Restricted
street, 16%
Unlicensed, 8%

License
not visible,
Too far from No 5%
prices
curb, 22% posted
4%
Other, 12%
35. See Testimony of Robert
Hettleman, Legislative Counsel to
the New York City Criminal
Justice Coordinator, to the New
York City Council Committee on
Consumer Affairs, April 7, 2003
(on file with the Street Vendor
Project).

www.streetvendor.org 14
Street Vendor Project

Many vendors expressed frustration that the tickets they received were for such minor vio-
lations. Indeed, the majority of summonses vendors reported receiving were not for endan-
gering the health of others, but instead for violating the strict laws on where their carts are
positioned on the sidewalk. Only 10% of the tickets involved food safety, while almost as
many were issued for failure to properly display one’s license. In fact, 38% of tickets ven-
dors reported receiving were either for being within 20 feet of a building entrance or for fail-
ing to vend “on that part of the sidewalk which abuts the curb.”36

The courts and fines


“I work in the industry 30 years. I have never had another job. I never asked for help
from the city or the government. I just want to tell you that there is no way somebody
working in the street can pay a $1,000 fine. That’s it. That’s all I’m going to say.”

– Mor Gueye, a vendor, testifying at ECB public hearing, November 18, 2004

Once they receive tickets, vendors have difficulty fighting them in court. While some vendor
summonses are adjudicated in criminal court, the vast majority are handled at the
Environmental Control Board (ECB), an administrative agency that hears violations for a
wide range of civil infractions, including building and sanitation code cases. The hearings are 36. See NYC Administrative
informal, the rules of evidence are relaxed, and lawyers are neither required nor provided. Code §20-465(a). To add to the
confusion, police insist that ven-
dors must be flush with the curb,
but the ECB has interpreted the
Unfortunately, this relaxed system does not provide the due process protections that are law to allow vendors to legally set

granted in criminal court by the U.S. Constitution. Without court-appointed lawyers, ven-
up within 18 inches of the curb.
This ECB policy only became
dors must present evidence and make legal arguments on their own. Moreover, without known to the Street Vendor

interpreters provided, many immigrant vendors find it impossible to even fill out the intake
Project after a FOIL request; nei-
ther the police nor most vendors
forms, let alone explain their case. “If somebody doesn’t speak English, they can’t explain are aware of it.

everything, so the judge just thinks they’re wrong,” said a coffee vendor. Nearly 60% of 37. Even among those who felt

vendors surveyed said they did not feel able to defend themselves at ECB.37
comfortable speaking English,
48% did not feel able to defend
themselves in court.

In fact, the ECB process is so daunting that 41% of vendors surveyed did not even appear
38. The ECB imposes a graduat-
ed penalty structure, known as a
for court. Some vendors, unable to leave their spots, chose not to go in order to avoid the “multiple offense schedule,” for

long wait periods and repeat trips that are often required. Others hired for-profit expeditors
each vending violation of any kind
within two years.
who process paperwork and appear on tickets for a fee. “I can’t close down,” said one 39. In August 2004, the Street
shish kabob vendor. “If my customers come and I’m not here, maybe they won’t come Vendor Project filed a lawsuit

back.”
claiming that ECB’s fine increase
violated the City Administrative
Procedure Act. State Supreme
Court Justice Carol Edmead

Even though it is not criminal court, the stakes at ECB are high. Penalties increase rapid-
agreed, calling the City’s actions
“unreasonable, unfair, and clearly
ly for vendors within two years, with fines at the time the survey was conducted ranging undemocratic,” and ordered the

from $25 for the first violation up to $250 for fourth and subsequent violations.38 With ven-
city to stop imposing the $1,000
fines. The Street Vendor Project
dors receiving so many tickets, these fines can be crippling. Vendors surveyed paid an launched a second successful

average of $433 in fines each year, which was 5% of their median income. Some vendors
challenge in August 2005 that the
City has appealed. In September
in the survey reported paying as much as $3,500 in penalties. 2005, the ECB put in place the
current fine structure: for the first
violation of any vending regula-

Whatever it was before, the impact these fines have on vendors will soon increase. In
tion within two years, the penalty
is $50. For the second violation:
September 2005, after two successful court challenges from the vending community, the $100; third violation: $250; fourth

ECB increased vendor penalties for non-health related offenses to a maximum of $1,000
violation: $500; fifth violation:
$750; sixth and subsequent viola-
per violation.39 Legislation is currently pending in City Council that would undo the effect tions: $1,000.

of this increase.40 40. New York City Council, Intro.


64 of 2006.

www.streetvendor.org 15
Street Vendor Project

Police misconduct
“When the police officer come to you one thing they ask is give me your license. The next
thing you know they bring you a bunch of tickets. You cannot talk to them. They don’t allow
you to talk to them. We are treated like an animal.”

– Kalidou Gadio, a vendor, testifying at ECB public hearing, November 18, 2004

Nearly a quarter (23%) of vendors insisted that police harassment is the biggest problem
they face.41 With New York’s “quality of life” crackdown leading to so many vendor and
police encounters every day, it is no surprise that some result in police harassment. While
rare, the most serious form of harassment reported was physical abuse. Unlike licensed
vendors, who generally receive tickets, unlicensed vendors are arrested and detained by
the police. These encounters sometimes result in the use of excessive force causing seri-
ous injuries.42

More common than physical abuse are discourtesy and racial discrimination. Some ven-
dors reported receiving rude treatment almost every day. One vendor, for example, said
that an officer always called him “hot dog guy,” despite his repeated requests to the con-
trary. More troubling still was racial harassment. Fifty-seven percent of survey respondents
were Muslim, and some of them reported experiencing anti-Muslim harassment by the
police after September 11th. For example, one officer asked a Muslim hot dog vendor,
“you guys blew up the building; what else are you gonna do?” While racism toward ven-
dors occurs across the city, it was likely more acute for downtown vendors, who often work
only blocks away from Ground Zero.

Vendors also felt police harassment in the widespread confiscation of goods. Almost 40%
of vendors surveyed had had merchandise confiscated, even though in many cases the
police had no right to do so. While police procedures require that seized property be
promptly returned, the process was so onerous for vendors that they usually failed to fol-
low through. Only 21% of vendors surveyed ever had merchandise returned to them.

“With what I make, it just doesn’t add up. My garage


is $500 per month. My rent at home is $800. I have
to pay my electricity. I have to buy the food. I only
make $300 a week, so I add things to my credit
card bill, which is now almost $15,000. How much 41. “Police harassment,” for the
did I make today? Forty-five dollars, and it’s purposes of the survey, includes

already 4 o’clock. the following four categories as


defined by the Civilian Complaint
Review Board (CCRB): discour-

I came to this country to support my family. I have tesy, abuse of authority, bad lan-
guage, and discrimination.
a wife, three boys and one baby daughter. I don’t 42. As recently as March 2006,
need food stamps. I don’t need anything from the an unlicensed vendor had his leg

city. I just need them to open up the streets so I can work.” broken after being tackled by
police officers on Canal Street.
These encounters are not only

– Mohammed Ali, Liberty Street and Broadway dangerous for vendors. On


January 31, 2004, NYPD
Sergeant Keith Ferguson col-
lapsed and died while chasing
after an unlicensed vendor near
Canal Street.

www.streetvendor.org 16
Street Vendor Project

Despite these problems, vendors have not been effective in combating police harassment.
For example, while the Civilian Complaint Review Board exists to investigate police mis-
conduct, few vendors surveyed even knew the agency existed. Some vendors could not
conceive of filing a complaint. “He is a police officer,” said one vendor. “Whatever he says,
we have to respect it.” Others feared retaliation or expressed skepticism that the CCRB
disciplinary process would achieve real reform. One food vendor remarked that after filing
a complaint, the offending officer simply “sent his friend instead.”

Businesses and BIDs


Finally, seven percent of Lower Manhattan vendors reported problems with nearby busi-
nesses or Business Improvement Districts (BIDs). Security guards at downtown office
buildings frequently harass and intimidate vendors to get away from their premises. “The
standard is 20 feet [from a store entrance], but the managers don’t care,” said one vendor.
“They tell me to leave. I had to move so many times.” Some vendors also experienced
being displaced from their spots by businesses that block the already-narrow downtown
sidewalks with concrete planters.43 “The planters don’t serve any purpose,” remarked one
clothing vendor. “They put them here to get rid of the vendors.” Thus, in addition being the
driving force behind laws that limit licenses and restrict streets to vending, the survey
shows that businesses create problems for vendors in a direct way every day.

“Life on the street changed after 9-11. Some people left


me because of who I am. They walk up to me and tell me
they are scared. When I ask them why, they say it is
because of how I look. What happened there, it hurt me. It
affected my life. But why should I have to pay for someone
else’s crime?

Yeah, my cart is moveable, but it’s like a store. If some-


thing happens here, I have no job. So I care about the area very much. If you
take me out of here, I am dead. I am like a fish out of water. This is our liveli-
hood.”
– Khaled Abouelkhair, Wall Street and Pearl Street

43. See David Dunlap, “Adding


Barricades, and Trying to Avoid
the Feel of a Fortress,” New York
Times, September 23, 2004.
Many vendors have also been
displaced by street construction
as Lower Manhattan is rebuilt.
See Amy Zimmer, “Where’s the
Falafel Guy?: Liberty Plaza Park
Vendors say Renovations
Displaced them from Regular
Customers,” Metro, August 23,
2005.

www.streetvendor.org 17
Street Vendor Project

Conclusion

Summary
Since the late 19th century, street vendors have represented New York City’s cultural
diversity in a highly public way. The city’s dense, bustling crowds continue to provide immi-
grants and native-born entrepreneurs the opportunity to own their own small businesses
through vending. Clearly, the hope of attaining the American Dream – freedom and eco-
nomic success – is still very much alive.

Today’s vendors inevitably discover, however, that prosperity is elusive. This survey
showed that vendors tend to work long hours in hazardous conditions for poverty-level
wages. The majority are well-educated, married men who support large families both here
and abroad. The vast majority are immigrants – but, contrary to existing stereotypes, most
are lawful permanent residents who possess vending licenses, pay taxes, and sell legiti-
mate merchandise or wholesome food. They are primarily motivated, as vendors have
always been, by a desire to own their own businesses and reap the fruits of their labor.

So many government-created barriers have been put in place over the past 80 years, how-
ever, that it is difficult to imagine any of today’s vendors becoming the Bloomingdale’s or
Macy’s of tomorrow. The vending regulations, enforced by seven separate city agencies,
are so confusing that few vendors adequately understand them. This confusion has a real
impact: vendors receive many summonses for violations which, while relatively minor, cur-
rently carry a maximum penalty of $1,000 per ticket. Vendors are not effective in dealing
with police harassment that occurs on the street. Moreover, the court where most vending
cases are now heard does not provide lawyers or interpreters, leaving vendors little
chance of presenting an effective defense.

In conclusion, while vendors are just as industrious as their counterparts a century ago,
they lack the same opportunities for success due to the city’s complex and punitive
bureaucracy. If New York City wants to make it possible again for vendors to succeed, it
will need to have an understanding of who they are and what problems they face. It will
also need the courage to undertake reform on behalf of a population with little political
influence. We hope this survey will serve as a starting point.

Recommendations
We recommend the following policy changes:

Reduce Vending Fines. Vendors work long hours and earn low incomes while supporting
large families. They frequently receive tickets for breaking laws they don’t understand.
With the recent increase to as much as $1,000 per violation, the penalties vendors incur
will make it nearly impossible for many of them to continue to earn a living. Other busi-
nesses pay less for more serious violations while having a greater ability to pay. Vending
penalties should be commensurate with what vendors earn. The fines should be reduced
to take into consideration that vendors are entry-level small business owners for whom
such large fines can be devastating to both their businesses and their families.

www.streetvendor.org 18
Street Vendor Project

Raise the License and Permit Caps. Every day, street-level entrepreneurs play a crucial
role in our city’s economy. Yet many people are still denied the chance to even put their
ambition to use. Long waiting lists of up to 30 years have created a large contingent of unli-
censed vendors whose precarious position makes them more vulnerable to abuse and
economic insecurity. The license and permit caps also create a black market, forcing many
food vendors to work for vending bosses when they are unable to obtain their own per-
mits. For these reasons, the current limits on licenses and permits should be raised. By
doing so, the city would bring many practically unregulated vendors into the system, giv-
ing them an incentive to follow the laws and a chance to legitimate their businesses.

Increase Access to Public Space. Even licensed vendors have few legal locations where
they can vend. Many streets have been closed to them entirely. Even on open streets,
dozens of complicated rules make it illegal to set up. Vendors are also barred from other-
wise open sidewalks by illegal obstructions such as planters. The city should take steps to
open up more space by reviewing which streets are closed to vending and, where appro-
priate, re-opening them. While ensuring pedestrians clear access, city planners should
seek ways to maximize the public space available to vending by widening sidewalks and
removing illegal obstructions. The city should also examine whether some streets can be
closed to vehicular traffic to create pedestrian areas where vendors are allowed to work.44

Reform Enforcement. Vendors are confused by the Byzantine regulations and the scat-
tered city agencies that have power over them. They are forced to gather the complex
rules from disparate sources. When the police approach them on the street, they are often
mistreated because the police are ill-equipped and ill-informed. If their goods are seized,
vendors must go to great lengths to retrieve them. Worse, when these things happen, they
do not know whom to notify for help. To remedy these problems, police should undergo a
mandatory vendor training to help them better enforce the laws and treat vendors with
more respect. The city should streamline the procedure for retrieving seized property.
Additionally, vendors should be made aware of their right to file a police complaint and
assisted in doing so. All of these resources should be compiled, along with the laws, into
one easy-to-use manual for wide distribution to vendors and police.

Provide Appropriate Language Access. With so many vendors unable to read or com-
prehend English, they have trouble negotiating their daily routine. The city does nothing to
assist them. None of the vending regulations have been printed in any language other than
English. The police officers that issue tickets rarely speak the vendor’s language. Even
when a vendor shows up for his court hearing, he must proceed without the benefit of an
interpreter. Basic fairness and due process demand that the city provide translation serv-
ices to ensure that justice is done at ECB hearings. In addition, vending laws should be
translated into the most common languages vendors speak. These changes would not
only benefit vendors, but would also help increase compliance.

44. See “Building on Progress,”


New York City Streets
R e n a i s s a n c e ,
http://www.nycsr.org /nyc/build-
ing.php (discussing how Stone
Street in Lower Manhattan was
closed to cars, creating a “highly
desirable retail space.”) However,
vendors are excluded from Stone
Street any many other similar
areas.

www.streetvendor.org 19
Street Vendor Project

Appendix A: Methodology
This survey of 100 vendors was conducted by staff and interns of the Street Vendor
Project during the period from September 30, 2003 to January 15, 2005. Lower Manhattan
(defined as the area below Canal Street) was chosen because it presented the broadest
known cross-section of vendors due to its mix of commercial areas, residential areas, and
tourist districts.

The vast majority of interviews were conducted on the street; a few took place at vending
garages, at the offices of the Street Vendor Project, or at the Environmental Control Board.
To ensure the most accurate sample possible, we mapped the entire area, divided it into
plots, and approached vendors from each plot at various times of the day and days of the
week. The map below represents the vending locations for each of the 100 vendors inter-
viewed. Interviews were conducted in English, Cantonese, Mandarin, Spanish and
French. The small number of vendors who declined to be surveyed were not recorded.

Our research has several limitations. First, while Lower Manhattan was seen as an ideal
study area, vendors there are not necessarily representative of vendors throughout the
entire city. Similarly, the relatively small sample size limits our ability to draw precise con-
clusions about the greater city-wide vending population. Finally, because our data is
derived from interviews, our findings depend on the truthfulness of our subjects and the
accuracy of their assessments. We hope that our research will encourage government
agencies and the academic community to fund and undertake more comprehensive stud-
ies of New York City street vendors in the future.

Vendor locations
used in survey

www.streetvendor.org 20
Street Vendor Project

Appendix B: Survey
DATE_______________________________ SURVEY #______

Urban Justice Center – Street Vendor Project Street Vendor Survey


This survey is voluntary, anonymous, and confidential. Only survey project members will
have access to the specific information provided in your answers. Your answers will be
used only for the purposes of this survey. Your name and personal information will not
be connected to your survey answers.
Are you married? o Yes o No

What do you sell?


o Food (specify) _______ o Drawings/paintings o Jewelry o Clothing o Books
o CDs/DVDs o Handbags o Phone clips o Other art/crafts o Other _______

Do you make your own merchandise? o Yes o No

Do you sell counterfeit merchandise? o Yes o No

Where do you vend? (list cross streets) ______________________

How long have you been vending?


o Less that 1 year o 2-4 yrs o 5-7 yrs o 8-12 yrs o 13+ yrs

Do you have a vendor’s license?


o Yes o No
If not, would you like a license?
o Yes o No

How much money did you make vending last year (profit before taxes)?
o $0-5000 o $5,000-10,000 o $10,000-15,000
o $15,000-25,000 o $25,000-35,000 o 35,000+

Is vending your only source of income? o Yes o No

How many people does your income support (including yourself)? _______________

How many of those are children? _________________________

Are you the only income earner in your family? o Yes o No

Do you send money to relatives in your home country? o Yes o No

Do you have health insurance? o Yes o No

Are you in debt? o Yes o No How much? $________________

Do you pay taxes? o Yes o No

How many hours did you work yesterday (or the last day that you worked)?

How much money did you make yesterday (profit)? $_____________

How many days did you work last week?

Approximately how many days have you worked in the last twelve months?
o Less that 60 o 61-100 o 101-150 o 151-200 o 201-250 o 251-300 o 301-
365

Do you work for yourself? o Yes o No

www.streetvendor.org 21
Street Vendor Project

In which country were you educated?

What level of education do you have?


o Less than high school o High school o College o Professional or graduate

Why do you choose to vend (as opposed to other jobs)? Check all that apply.
o Can’t find another job o Money is better than other jobs o Freedom
o I enjoy vending o Chance to produce merchandise o Disability
o Other ___________________

How many tickets were you issued last year?

How much did you pay in fines last year? $______________

On tickets from last year, how much do you still owe? $_______ o Don’t know

What have you received tickets for? Check all that apply
o Don’t know o Too far from curb o Too close to storefront o License not visible
o Unlicensed o Health violations o Not posting prices o Restricted street
o Sidewalk too narrow o Other _______

Have you had merchandise confiscated? o Yes o No


Did you get it back? o Yes o No

How many times did you go to ECB court last year?

Do you feel capable of defending yourself in ECB court? o Yes o No

How many tickets did you have dismissed in ECB court last year?

How well do you understand the laws associated with vending?


o Not at all o Not adequately o Adequately o Completely

What would you consider to be your biggest problems associated with vending?
o Tickets o License/bureaucratic issues o Police harassment o Restricted streets
o Weather o Problems w/suppliers o Problems with businesses
o Sidewalk obstructions (planters, etc.) o Specific vending laws
o Other _______________

Which vending laws would you most like to see changed?


o Distance from curb o Distance from storefront o Number of licenses
o Health code o Required posting of prices o Number of open streets
o Other

How would you suggest changing these laws?

Was your business hurt by the events of September 11, 2001?

Are you still affected by the events of September 11?

www.streetvendor.org 22

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