City Council Decreases Fines for Street Vendors

VAMOS Unidos and SVP members celebrate after passing of Intro. 434

After a coordinated effort between street vendor organisations; VAMOS Unidos and Street Vendor Project, the City Council voted to decrease certain street vendor fines from $1000 to $500. This is a monumental win, as it reverses most of Bloomberg’s hike of street vendor fines since 2006. Mayor Bloomberg increased the fines from $250 to $1000, which has led to undue burden on working families that work as street vendor across New York City. Bloomberg is expected to veto the bill. City Counsel has enough votes (44) to override the veto.

Vendors like Clementina Garcia and her family have paid over $30,000 in the 18 years of working selling hot dogs and icies in the Bronx. "This money could have been used for my college, for paying our rent, and making our lives better," says Ms. Garcia, who has been vending since she was a youth.

VAMOS Unidos’ leadership and street vendor members across the city thank all our supporters and allies for their work to make this a reality. "We also greatly appreciate our funders who, throughout our five years, have generously made our work possible to improve the lives of all working families," stated Victoriana Navarro, a leader of VAMOS Unidos. Brooklyn leader Rogelio Gonzalez states, "This is a major victory, but our efforts to improve all of street vending continues."