Queens Street Vendors Tout New Study As Reason To Nix Permit Cap

CORONA, QUEENS — Queens street vendors are championing a new study that finds they work well with local brick-and-mortar businesses.

Jackson Heights and Corona street vendors are touting a study released Thursday that pokes holes in an argument used to justify a cap on the number of food-vending permits issued by the city — that the vendors unfairly compete with brick-and-mortar shops.

The research by Pratt master's student Kathryn "Kurt" Wheeler found that street vendors avoid selling in front of similar businesses. Some business owners on Roosevelt Ave. in Queens told Wheeler that street vendors help their business and that they send each other customers, according to the study.

Queens street vendors gathered in Corona on Thursday to call for the City Council to eliminate food-vendor permit caps in light of the new findings, which they said provides proof they are an asset to their communities.

"We want to make sure that we are enabling the entrepreneurial spirit of our immigrants and neighbors as much as possible," said State Sen. Jessica Ramos, who represents the area.

The City Council next week will consider a bill to double the number of permits the Health Department doles out to food vendors citywide, which is currently about 3,000. The waiting list for the permits stretches to about 1,500 names, according to THE CITY, leading to a bustling black market for reselling permits at a profit.

Corona resident Laura Matute, an Ecuadorean immigrant, told Patch she has been selling ice cream on the street for 25 years, working seven days a week. She just paid a woman $6,000 for a food-vendor permit that will last her six months, she said in Spanish, because she can't get one from the city.

Critics argue the city should limit the number of permits because the city already struggles to enforce food safety guidelines with existing vendors, according to the New York Daily News. Opponents of eliminating the cap include business and property owners, who say street vendors bring sidewalk congestion and litter, the New York Times has reported.

But Ramos, an Elmhurst native, said immigrant street vendors see their stands as a stepping stone to brick-and-mortar businesses. Without a permit, the vendors are subject to hefty fines.

"I’ve been eating street food my entire life,” Ramos said. "What we need is for them to be able to be permitted."