At the age of 26, the street saleswoman Guadalupe Sosa has worked with her mother selling chopped fruits, fresh juices and snow cones in summer near her apartment in the east of Harlem for almost half of her life.
It is native New York, which makes it an exception among street vendors that are characteristic of life in New York City. His mother, who emigrated from Mexico in the late 1990s and has been selling since then, has a history that is much more common among the community of vendors.
“We grew up loving to be outside and sell, you know? And that’s how I became one of them,” he said.
Until recently, it was difficult to say precisely how Sosa fit into the broadest fabric of New York vendors. Therefore, the Street Vendor Project carried out what he considers the largest survey of the city vendors to date and published his findings in a new report that tries to respond empirically “who the vendors are and how they work and live.”
The complicated system of laws and regulations of the city and the State that makes it difficult to become a seller totally allowed and with a license also complicates the exact number of street vendors operating throughout the city. To this end, the survey assumed the arduous task of estimating the many unauthorized or unauthorized street vendors operating in the five districts.
In total, he found that there are around 23,000 street vendors, of which an overwhelming majority of 20,500 works as mobile food vendors. Other 2,400 work as sellers of general merchandise. The data show that about 75% of mobile food vendors have no permission.
To get to these estimates, researchers from the George Mason University took a sample of more than 2,000 street vendors and approached the results for the entire city.
The results are related to the long -standing political campaign of sellers to increase the number of permits and licenses for food vendors. A 2021 council bill created a system in which the Health Department offers at least 445 supervisory license applications per year. The Health Department said it has issued all license requests for the current period, but there are still 7,643 vendors waiting to apply to the program in the future.
The city limits the licenses of general sellers to not veterans to 853, and the latest data in the city indicate that 11,926 vendors are waiting to apply.
Lack of Lack of License
The survey documented how a license or permit means more income for sellers. Sosa knows too well the disadvantages of being without a license.
Although his mother assumed the license of another neighborhood seller when he retired, Sosa still operates outside the system. Being without permission severely limits where and when you can operate, he said.
“With someone who has no license, it is different because if you see a lot of police activity, you wonder, ‘I want to sell? Do I want to risk receiving a fine?'” He said.
Sosa said that unauthorized vendors can often be recognized because they are organized in such a way that “in a second, he could simply push his cart and run away from a place.”
Beyond the scope of the city’s regulations, the survey gathered revealing information about the demography of sellers and their reflections on their own work.
Almost 96% of street sellers who are not military veterans were born abroad. From respondents, they come from 60 different countries, being the most common Mexico (30%), Ecuador (24%), Egypt (20%) and Senegal (7%).
For the vast majority, his work is a long -standing profession and his main source of income. 75% have worked as sellers for four or more years.
Many respondents shared that they became street vendors not only out of economic necessity, but because they love it. It is common to enjoy being your own boss and flexibility at schedules.
Sosa told our sister publication, Amnewyork Metro that, although it can be stressful and difficult, finds meaning in his role in the neighborhood and with his clients. Talk with their neighbors and help the elderly in their daily proceedings.
“Because we, like street vendors, are there every day, create a relationship with the community and worry about them. So when things like that happen, you know what to do,” he said.
Your dream for your business is to facilitate sellers to obtain policy education and avoid fines and confiscation of their carts and products. That, and of course, an accessible place to use the bathroom.
“For the community, for all. Public baths would be a big thing,” he said.
Read more about the results of the Street Vendor Project survey at Immresearch.org/publications/street-vendors-Of-new-york.
Related notes: from the son of undocumented immigrants to Creator de Maza: the platform that empowers Latinos without Social Security
