This past summer, conditions for vendors came to a boiling point, as Mayor Eric Adams cracked down on local vendors and vetoed efforts his administration once claimed it wanted to pursue to make street vending safer for locals and more accessible for vendors. Adams worked overtime to ensure that, instead of receiving a fine for civil offenses, those found vending unlawfully could be charged criminally, requiring a court hearing. Under the Trump administration, Adams\u2019 efforts could trigger immigration consequences<\/a> for thousands of the city\u2019s undocumented vendors.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt makes undocumented vendors in particular extremely vulnerable to the increased enforcement efforts through the federal administration with the support of our mayor,\u201d said Shamier Settle, a senior policy analyst at the research think tank the Immigration Research Initiative. \u201cIt\u2019s not just undocumented vendors, because this administration has made a point of not only targeting people who they\u2019re going after, but anybody else who they come across.\u201d<\/p>\n Even before the Adams and Trump administrations, street vendors in New York City have long faced threats from city agencies\u2014and these aren\u2019t the only serious problems that plague the more than 23,000 street vendors<\/a> in the city, an estimated 20,000<\/a> of whom are currently on the waitlist for permits.\u00a0<\/p>\n The vendor community itself is fragmented.\u00a0<\/p>\n This was evident when they rallied in support of a recent street vending bill. While members of various street vendors organizations were present to support the same cause, they stood on opposite sides and aligned themselves with different advocacy groups, often depending on their borough.\u00a0<\/p>\n All are fighting for vendors\u2019 rights, but disagreements persist over how to approach the struggle.\u00a0<\/p>\n Widening divides\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n A 2024 study<\/a> from the Immigration Research Initiative found that 96% of street vendors are immigrants and, among general merchandise street vendors, 13% are undocumented. In the case of food vendors, the number of undocumented immigrants rises to 27%. The largest percentages of food vendors come from Mexico, Ecuador, and Egypt, with general merchandise vendors coming from Senegal, Mexico, and Ecuador.<\/p>\n For unlicensed street vendors, the main challenge is to avoid being fined by authorities such as DSNY, NYPD, and NYC Parks. But even licensed vendors face challenges, such as being ticketed for leaving trash in their area or, more broadly, the looming threat for undocumented vendors that any interaction with law enforcement may lead to immigration consequences. Before September, a fine from local authorities translated into a criminal charge, which could result in deportation<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Adding to these problems is the fear of persecution, in large part due to Trump\u2019s anti-immigrant political rhetoric and nationwide raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). In Manhattan\u2019s Chinatown this week, ICE targeted<\/a> street vendors in a raid. Despite its designation as a sanctuary city, half of the immigration arrests inside courts<\/a> have also taken place in NYC, causing a chilling effect for the undocumented street vendors who must attend proceedings in these same courtrooms. Ramping up their fears, Adams has repeatedly attempted<\/a> to collaborate with the Trump administration to widen the scope of ICE\u2019s power in NYC. Adams himself has also gone out of his way to target immigrant vendors.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Before June 2023, there were approximately 90 vendor stands <\/a>operating in Corona Plaza, the heart of the Corona neighborhood in Queens. The mostly immigrant vendors who made up the informal marketplace sold an array of foods from across the world, including empanadas, kabobs, arepas, and tamales.<\/p>\n After complaints regarding trash and traffic, in July 2023, the DSNY and the Department of Transportation (NYC DOT) made an agreement with the vendors that if they kept the area clean and the nearby streets accessible, they could continue operating. According to city officials, the vendors failed to meet those commitments.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Department of Transportation told us that if we really wanted a market to operate within Corona Plaza, we first had to constitute as an association. That\u2019s how I got involved, because no one else wanted to take on the task of inviting our fellow vendors to form that association,\u201d said Rosario Troncoso, a vendor and leader of the Asociaci\u00f3n de Vendedores Ambulantes de Corona Plaza (AVA), an offshoot<\/a> of the nonprofit advocacy organization the Street Vendor Project <\/a>(SVP).<\/p>\n The DSNY and NYC DOT came to the plaza to inspect compliance<\/a> in late July.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThey tried to show vendors what they were doing wrong, but many didn\u2019t listen,\u201d Troncoso said.<\/p>\n On July 27, around dawn, the DSNY cleared the plaza<\/a>. \u201cThey said it was chaos\u2014food everywhere, and you couldn\u2019t walk,\u201d recalled Troncoso.\u00a0<\/p>\n To bring back the market, vendors staged a four-month sit-in, demanding the right to work. The protest ended in November 2023 after negotiations between vendors, city agencies, elected officials, SVP, and AVA.<\/p>\n During the negotiations, the cracks in the Corona Plaza street vendor community began to show. The resolution granted 14 vendors temporary licenses for four months, with the option to renew. Seven licenses were for food sellers and seven for merchandise vendors. At the beginning, dozens of vendors were in support of these conversations. However, as it became clear just how few vendors would have the opportunity to lawfully return to the plaza, many left to sell elsewhere. For participating in negotiations, Troncoso received harassment from fellow vendors both online and in person.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThey filmed me, shouted at me. On Facebook, they threatened to beat or kill me,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n NYC DOT and the Queens Economic Development Corporation (QEDC) were tasked with overseeing vendors\u2019 compliance in Corona Plaza.<\/p>\n \u201cThe public can still use the space while street vendors can still use it, so more types of members of the community can use it at the same time. And I think that it\u2019s better for everybody, and it\u2019s a symbiotic relationship, because now the public can come here. They can patronize us if they want to,\u201d said Suny Hendre, QEDC\u2019s manager of Corona Plaza.<\/p>\n By 2024, some Bronx-based vendors split from SVP to form yet another affiliation. They called it Bronx Street Vendors (BSV), citing a lack of representation. According to Bronx vendors, they were never given the opportunity to discuss their insights on the Street Vendor Reform Package with the City Council.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWhat we want to propose is the opportunity to sit at the table where these agreements are reached with the authorities to take us into account, because we are being underestimated. We are spokespersons for our fellow workers, and we have countless significant projects addressing informal commerce,\u201d said Vicente Veintimilla, founder of BSV.<\/p>\n Members in the Bronx hoped to be permitted by 2025 and wanted the decision-making of the Street Vendor Reform Package in the City Council to happen this year. Some of the members asked SVP to speed up the City Council process. SVP told Prism that while they are aware of the urgency of the reform package, they can only pressure lawmakers\u2014not pass laws.<\/p>\n Erratic enforcement<\/p>\n During his time in office, Adams has taken an aggressive approach with the street vendor community. In April 2023, he issued an executive order<\/a> authorizing DSNY to fine street vendors.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cMayor Adams designated DSNY as the lead agency on street vendor enforcement. Prior to that date, the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (DCWP) handled street vendor enforcement,\u201d explained DSNY spokesperson, Vincent Gragnani.\u00a0<\/p>\n In November 2024, New Yorkers voted to support the DSNY\u2019s ability to fine street vendors in city law through Ballot Proposal 2<\/a>, which increased DSNY authority to hold street vendors accountable if they didn\u2019t follow rules on city properties.<\/p>\n Gragnani told Prism that the agency\u2019s enforcement focuses on \u201csituations where vending has created dirty conditions, safety issues, items being left out overnight, and setups that block curbs, subway entrances, bus stops, sidewalks, or store entrances.\u201d<\/p>\n But vendors say the enforcement is erratic.<\/p>\n \u201cSanitation doesn\u2019t check who\u2019s breaking the rules,\u201d Veintimilla said. \u201cThey show up, and whoever they catch, they catch.\u201d<\/p>\n According to NYPD data analyzed by the local publication City Limits<\/a>, in 2024 sanitation issued 4,144 tickets and confiscated 4,323 vendor items. Despite DSNY\u2019s expanded enforcement role, that same year, the NYPD issued the most vending tickets, 9,376\u2014and more than twice as many as the 4,213 issued in 2023. In the first two quarters of 2025, the NYPD issued<\/a> 867 tickets.\u00a0<\/p>\n Vendors say the fines are financially devastating, and it\u2019s impossible for them to pay such large sums of money. According to the Immigration Research Initiative study<\/a>, food vendors\u2019 incomes are usually between $250 and $1,000 per week BSV member Miguel Varela, a merchandise vendor originally from Mexico, has been bombarded by a series of debilitating fines.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe NYPD gave me eight tickets during the last two years. Some of them are over $7,000. It\u2019s hard to support my family like this,\u201d Varela said.<\/p>\n The other agency with the power to ticket street vendors is NYC Parks. Vendors ticketed by the agency are often accused of being unlicensed and selling in city parks, interfering with park use, or operating grills in the parks.<\/p>\n For two decades, Marlene Ensaldo supported her family by selling fruit from a public park in the Parkchester neighborhood of the Bronx. That changed in 2023, when she received three $1,000 fines from NYC Parks for selling without a license. Now she sells just outside of a subway station to avoid further penalties.<\/p>\n \u201cI applied for the license years ago, but never got an answer. Now I don\u2019t even know where to go to avoid tickets,\u201d said Ensaldo, a vendor, SVP leader, and BSV organizer.<\/p>\n NYC Parks told Prism that enforcement begins with education.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe collaborate with NYPD to ensure that park rules are observed and enforced. Our first course of action is to educate the public on our rules and regulations. If not followed, the next step would be to issue a summons,\u201d said NYC Parks spokesperson Kelsey Jean-Baptiste.<\/p>\n SVP knew that its members were tired of having their livelihoods threatened by what often seemed like arbitrary enforcement, so the organization partnered with a powerful resident to try to reform local laws.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cNot going to happen overnight\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Bronx Councilmember Pierina S\u00e1nchez has a history of going to bat for street vendors. In 2018, she worked as a labor adviser for former Mayor Bill de Blasio, and they co-authored Intro 1116, a bill that passed in 2021 and called for issuing 4,000 new street vending permits over 10 years. This bill was enacted as Local Law 18<\/a> on Feb. 28, 2021, when S\u00e1nchez was elected as a councilmember.\u00a0<\/p>\n The law, which went into effect in July 2022, mandated the city to issue 445 new supervisory licenses for food vendors annually over 10 years. The supervisory license is a necessary step before vendors can qualify for a full permit. However, the city failed to meet its own targets when it came to supervisory licenses. According to the Comptroller\u2019s Office<\/a>, only four vendors received new permits between March and May 2023. ABC News<\/a> reported that just 127 were issued in all of 2024.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are many street vendors who will come to me and say, \u2018You need to move this bill now.\u2019 My response is I\u2019m one of 51 [councilmembers], and we have to work by building the numbers. \u2026 We have to be strategic and tactical. The last reform for street vendors took 10 years. This one is not going to happen overnight as well,\u201d S\u00e1nchez said.<\/p>\n In 2024, following the approval of Local Law 18, S\u00e1nchez and SVP introduced the Street Vendor Reform Package during the new legislative session. The package consists of four proposed laws: Intro 0431<\/a> aims to guarantee access to licenses and permits for street vendors without caps on permits. Intro 0408<\/a> focuses on creating a division within the Department of Small Business Services to assist street vendors. Intro 0047<\/a> aims to decriminalize street vending, while Intro 0024<\/a> defines where vendors are legally permitted to set up on city streets.<\/p>\n The bills received public hearings and in June, Intro 0047 passed in the City Council. However, on July 30, Adams vetoed Intro 0047<\/a>, arguing that it was a matter of \u201cquality of life\u201d for New Yorkers.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWhat is really disappointing [is] to see him flip against one of his own recommendations,\u201d said SVP Managing Director Mohamed Attia. \u201cSomething that his administration has advocated for and actually recommended to the city government to do. This just signals to us and to all New Yorkers that now the mayor is really playing politics, and he\u2019s using our people.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n City council members voted again on Sept. 10 and overr<\/a>o<\/a>de<\/a> the mayor\u2019s veto, with two-thirds supporting the bill, which means that street vending without a permit or license can no longer lead to a criminal penalty. Now considered a civil offense<\/a>, unlicensed vendors can pay a fine if they\u2019re cited.\u00a0<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/IMG_7812-2.jpg\")
Rosario Troncoso is a street vendor who sells merchandise in Corona Plaza, Queens, and led the legalization of the Asociaci\u00f3n de Vendedores Ambulantes de Corona Plaza. Credit: Ana Mar\u00eda Betancourt<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/IMG_7874.jpg\")
Miguel Varela goes through a folder of all the fines the New York City authorities have given him. Credit: Ana Mar\u00eda Betancourt<\/p>\n