VivirLatino

In my hood street vendors are part of the landscape. I love that I can buy and eat elotes, tacos, ice cream, tamales, puerco, tacos and buy socks and flowers all on the same block. Pero the harassment of these vendors is also part of the landscape. I know when there are undercover police nearby when the mujer that sells water and the mujer that sells churros all cover their wares under garbage bags in an effort to make themselves look like normal shoppers and avoid being ticketed. I don’t have statistics but most of the street vendors I know and see are immigrants trying to survive. Tomorrow there will be a protest in the Bronx in support of street vendors, demanding that the city finally move on increasing the current caps and to temporarily stop the outrageous fines.

Date & Time: Monday, October 26, 2009 at 11:30 am

Location: Supreme Court House, 851 Grand Concourse, Bronx, NY (Corner of 161st Street and Grand Concourse on the steps of the Court House)

Street Vendors From Across NYC Demand an Increase of the Caps and a Temporary Stop to Cruel Fines

Bronx, New York – Hundreds of Street Vendors will be gathering in the Steps of the Supreme Court House in the Bronx to demand that the city finally move on increasing the current caps and to temporarily stop the outrageous fines. Street vendors in the Fordham Road area in the Bronx have almost disappeared temporarily as the 46th and the 52 precinct increased their raids and fines. Relationships with both precinct deteriorated this summer as constant raids and absurdly high fines began being imposed on the street vendor community in the recent months.

The lack of permits has forced many vendors to sell without cart licenses which in turn causes arrests and summons of up to $3,000.00. With the upsurge of job losses in the past year, an increasing number of people have turned to street vending as a means of work. The result has been an intensified crackdown of street vendors that cannot access the cart permits by police and the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Street vendors have had to face an upsurge of arrests, fines, and confiscations of merchandise.

“Street vendors are working families, we have been asking the Bloomberg administration to increase the current caps and to decrease the current fines for the past 3 years to no avail,” states Rafael Samanez, Director of VAMOS Unidos. “Their enforcement only solutions further criminalize working families trying to survive,” he added.

Street vendors organizations have began meeting with the offices of Melissa Mark Viveritto, Senator Serrano, Assemblyman Nelson Castro, Senator Squadron, and other high profile political figures in New York to begin addressing the current dire situation that street vendors have to face in a daily manner.

VAMOS Unidos, Street Vendor Project and Esperanza del Barrio, three street vendor organizations in New York City will be holding a succession of events to bring attention to this grave situation street vendors face.

Image Via/ MetroMix