Nov 14, 2008 7:40 pm US/Eastern
Street Vendors Take The Fight To NYC Council
Artists Say They Are Fed Up With Massive Restrictions, Lodge Protest Outside City Hall On Friday
Reporting
Jay Dow
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
It's a fight that's already been taken to the streets. Sidewalk vendors say the city is unfairly trying to kick them to the curb.
They sell everything from muffins and hot dogs to custom artwork. Despite their usefulness, New York City's street vendors -- a large percentage of them immigrants -- are now fighting for their independence, starting with a protest on the front steps of City Hall.
Artists chanted for the right to do business away from a host of restrictions proposed by City Council.
Street artist Blue Bayer told CBS 2 HD that what he and many like him do is what makes New York New York.
Minutes later, the City Council Committee on Consumer Affairs and Immigration took up almost a dozen bills that make up what would be the most comprehensive overhaul of the street vending industry seen in years.
"The current regulations are not working," Councilman Alan Jay Gerson said.
Among the proposals: Creating a special vending district in Sunset Park, Brooklyn and limiting the number of artists permitted on certain narrow streets in Midtown and lower Manhattan, all in an effort to cut down on sidewalk congestion, and vendors who often get near traditional grocers.
"We don't want them selling unhealthy stuff. Plus, it hurts our bottom line," one Gristedes employee told CBS 2 HD.
The Council also wants to raise the cap on the number of pushcart vendors to 25,000.
"The cap on vendors is wrong," Councilman Charles Barron said, adding that raising the cap to 25,000 is a good start.
The Bloomberg administration -- to the frustration of Council members -- said it would rather put the focus on enforcement, starting with fingerprinting vendors caught doing business without a permit.
Another contentious issue is increasing the number of "general vending" licenses to 1,023. The waiting list for them has been closed for years, and is reported to have over 1,000 names on it.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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