New York City Comptroller Brad Lander pressed City Hall for answers in a letter to Mayor Eric Adams regarding the delayed implementation of Local Law 18 passed in 2021 to provide a path for unlicensed street vendors to obtain licenses, in light of escalation of enforcement actions against street vendors in recent weeks.
As ticketing and sweeps of street vendors have increased, the Comptroller’s office is concerned that the City has failed to issue new vendor permits in a timely manner as directed under Local Law 18.
“Street vendors are an integral part of New York City’s economy and have contributed to the vitality of our streets and public spaces for decades,” Comptroller Lander wrote in the letter. “For too long, the City’s approach to these workers has been overly restrictive, preventing our city’s smallest businesses from acquiring the permits needed to formalize their businesses and contribute to our city coffers, while also failing to implement constructive regulatory enforcement without resorting to overly punitive measures.”
Local Law 18 was passed in 2021 to provide relief for street vendors, requiring the release of 445 new supervisory licenses for food vendors annually for ten years, starting in July 2022. However, the City missed the law’s first two deadlines in 2022 and 2023. Between March and May 2023, only four vendors received new permits, while over 10,000 remain on City-administered waitlists.
Despite the delay in issuing new supervisory licenses and expanding opportunities for legal vending, multiple City agencies increased enforcement activity against street vendors across the City, including the Department of Sanitation, which conducted an aggressive, high-profile sweep in late July against vendors operating in Corona Plaza who had been working for months with the Department of Transportation to obtain a concession agreement to formalize the market.
“This escalation of enforcement actions, in the absence of the legally-required expansion of permits, is in contradiction to the spirit of Local Law 18,” Lander wrote in his letter. “I am concerned that the slow pace of implementation of this legislation and the simultaneous escalation in enforcement actions are failing the city’s street vendors, many of whom are women, people of color, and immigrants. This lack of accessible permitting forces workers into an informal economy, rather than expanding legal work opportunities and promoting a functioning regulatory system of vending.”
The letter asks for detailed information from the relevant City agencies about licenses and permits, vending waitlists, sweeps and tickets, and vendor engagement in order to hold the City accountable to Local Law 18 and advocate for the rights and fair treatment of street vendors in New York City.
Read the full letter to Mayor Adams.
“From the tamaleras of Sunset Park to the souvenir vendors of Times Square, street vendors fold our city’s unrivaled diversity into our streets and sidewalks. The historic passage of Local Law 18 in 2021 was intended to bring our smallest businesses into the formalized economy – but its severely delayed implementation has only pushed vendors further into the shadows. The current system is discriminatory and punitive: a lack of available business licensing, the absence of an agency to lead education, coupled with escalating enforcement. We ask for swift action to support, not harm, our street vendors and our city’s economy as a whole,” said Mohamed Attia, Managing Director, Street Vendor Project at the Urban Justice Center.
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