New York City street vendors will no longer be subject to enforcement by the city’s police department, moving the regulation of unlicensed mobile food sellers to other city departments, according to a recent announcement from Mayor Bill de Blasio.
De Blasio also said the city would create a new civilian agency to regulate mobile food vendors.
The move, which comes amid nationwide protests against the killing of George Floyd while in custody of Minneapolis police, will allow NYC officers to “focus on the real drivers of crime instead of administrative infractions,” de Blasio said in a press release.
New York City has had a cap on street vending license for decades, leading to a large number of unlicensed vendors. The city allows 5,100 street vendor licenses, with 1,000 of them being short-term, seasonal permits and another 1,000 for vendors who can sell produce but not cooked food.
The NYPD issues an average of 18,000 tickets per year to street vendors, according to research conducted by the Street Vendor Project advocacy group cited in Eater. Vendors, many of whom are immigrants or people of color, have long complained of heavy-handed police enforcement.
The Street Vendor Project called the mayor’s move “a major step forward to reaching our goal of legalizing street vending in New York City.”
Street vendors have had an often-contentious relationship with restaurant operators in New York City, with brick-and-mortar establishments complaining that the carts do not have to pay rent and are not subject to the same health and sanitation standards as restaurants.
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