![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/2a9ad42e92e641be017aca3b84ee8b7158-GettyImages-2214027544.rhorizontal.w1100.jpg\")
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\n Street vendors by the Brooklyn Bridge.
\n Photo: Anthony Devlin\/Getty Images\n <\/p>\n
In December, New York\u2019s City Council voted overwhelmingly to pass three bills aimed at reforming street vending. The most significant of these<\/a> addresses the long-standing low cap on licenses for food vendors \u2014 currently just 6,880 \u2014 by raising it with an additional 11,000. The other two bills will create a Division of Street Vendor Assistance (for education and training) and require that the city distribute the new licenses within five years. But on his way out of office, former mayor Eric Adams vetoed<\/a> the bills along with 16 others that he described as \u201creckless legislation.\u201d Raising the cap on food carts, he said, would \u201cundermine our small businesses with an untested new licensing regime for street vendors.\u201d<\/p>\n The move wasn\u2019t a surprise. Last year, Adams vetoed another bill \u201crepealing the misdemeanor criminal penalties\u201d faced by licensed street vendors for violations like being too close to a subway station. (City Council overrode<\/a> the veto.) Now, the three other bills are back with City Council, which will have 30 days to repass them with a two-thirds majority. In an interview<\/a> with the New York Post, the new City Council Speaker, Julie Menin, said she was planning to override the veto on \u201cmany\u201d bills, including street-vendor reform.<\/p>\n To become law, each bill must be brought back in front of City Council for a revote. To overturn Adams\u2019s veto, the bills must pass with a two-thirds majority. This seems like a decent bet given that, in December, each passed with enough votes to overcome the veto. If voted on again and passed, the bills will automatically become law and won\u2019t require mayoral approval.<\/p>\n \u201cI am the daughter and granddaughter of street vendors. Street vendors in New York City are treated as second- or even third-class citizens of our city,\u201d Councilmember Pierina Ana Sanchez, who sponsored the legislation, says. Raising the cap on licenses will, she adds, bring \u201chard-working\u201d New Yorkers into compliance, despite Adams\u2019s parting gesture. \u201cI\u2019m disappointed he went out without class on this issue and many others, but I\u2019m really optimistic that with the new leadership in the City Council and City Hall, we are going to, first, override this veto and, second, work on implementation that really works for all New Yorkers.\u201d<\/p>\n On December 31, Adams\u2019s final day in office, the Department of Worker and Consumer Protection issued a statement about the mayor\u2019s veto, arguing that the cap increase reduces \u201cregulatory barriers on small businesses.\u201d In a statement shared by a rep, the new department head, Sam Stein, described the cap increase as a \u201ccritical reform.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNo longer will these small-business owners be treated as invisible,\u201d Stein says. \u201cI look forward to supporting incoming Speaker Menin and the City Council as they move to override this veto in the coming weeks, and working with Mayor Mamdani to deliver the promise of street-vendor reform \u2014 processing new licenses and allowing vendors to operate with dignity.\u201d<\/p>\n Eat like the experts.<\/p>\n Sign up for the Grub Street newsletter.<\/p>\n Vox Media, LLC Terms and Privacy Notice<\/p>\n