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Testimony Of State Senator Liz Krueger Before The New York City
Council Committee
On Consumer Affairs
Regarding New York Street Vendors
October 9, 2003
Good morning. I am State Senator Liz Krueger. I represent the 26th Senate
District, which includes Midtown, East Midtown, and the Upper East Side. As the representative of several major
commercial areas, I am very aware of the many issues related to vendors
operating in New York City. It is
essential that New York State and New York City work together to develop a
balanced approach to vendors that both protects vendors and their customers
while ensuring that that vendors do not negatively impact the health and
safety of neighborhoods by overly exacerbating crowding in New York City’s
Central Business Districts. Unfortunately, New York State has
not done its part. By allowing laws
regulating vendor operation in the Central Business Districts to expire, the
state legislature has created an untenable and dangerous situation in certain
areas of the city, such as Times Square and parts of 34th Street,
and contributed to serious congestion problems in other areas of the city as
well. If you have been to Times
Square recently, you cannot miss the problems created by the proliferation of
both legal and illegal vendors. The
sidewalks are so overcrowded that large number of people walk in the street
on Broadway due to the wall of vendors on the sidewalk. As they walk in the street they must also
deal with illegally parked vehicles loading and unloading merchandise for the
vendors. I fear that these conditions
must inevitably lead to serious accidents. As a first step toward addressing
this problem it is essential that the state act to reestablish regulations
limiting vending on main arteries in the Central Business Districts. In doing so, the legislature should not
substantially weaken the old law by allowing additional vendors on restricted
streets, reducing sidewalk clearance requirements, or allowing additional
assistants for licensed vendors. Renewing the old law is only a
first step in establishing a more rational and effective system for
regulating vendors in New York City.
Even before the law expired, there were numerous problems with
enforcement of existing laws, as well as serious and legitimate concerns
regarding the distribution of specialized vendors licenses for disabled
veterans. Once the State does its job
by renewing the law, New York City must reevaluate its system of vendor
licenses to develop a more rational system.
Here are a few suggestions regarding issues that should be addressed
in such an evaluation. Enforcement Issues: Current vendor laws are extremely
difficult for police to enforce for a number of reasons. One problem is the proliferation of different
rules for different kinds of vendors, which can make it extremely difficult
to determine when a vendor is in violation of the law. One major goal of evaluation of vendor
rules would be to work toward standardization of rules across vendor categories
and, where possible, geographically, which would facilitate fair enforcement
of vendor laws. Another enforcement problem is
created by the fact that once any vendors are allowed in a particular area,
that area is effectively opened up to all vendors. This is the current situation in Times Square, where the fact
that disabled veteran vendors are now allowed there means that First
Amendment vendors also enter the area in large numbers. The congestion then creates significant
opportunities for illegal vendors to operate with impunity, because they are
able to use the mass of legal vendors as cover, making it hard for the police
to identify them. This is one reason
why it is essential that particularly crowded areas of the city continue to
be kept free of any vendors on main arteries in Central Business Districts,
in order to enable the police to more easily identify illegal vendors in the
Central Business District. It may also be useful to think
creatively about the methods by which vending zones are established. A standardization of street clearance
rules, for instance, might make it easier to determine and enforce bans on
vending on crowded sidewalks.
Furthermore it may be useful to consider the creation of vendor
licenses with specific geographic limits, perhaps by borough, which would
serve as a way of increasing the number of vendor licenses without increasing
congestion in the Central Business Districts. A final enforcement issue is the
difficulty in identifying recidivist illegal vendors, who frequently give
false identification. This
effectively means that even when police are able to arrest them, every
offense is treated as a first offense, and they simply return to the streets
immediately. Proposed state
legislation gives police the right to fingerprint vendors upon arrest, which
would provide a method of tracking them, and therefore of increasing
penalties for subsequent offenses.
This would be extremely useful in discouraging illegal vending. While there are significant and legitimate
concerns about fingerprinting because so many illegal vendors are
undocumented immigrants, as long as the city abides by the privacy
protections recently implemented by Mayor Bloomberg, fingerprinting can be
done without placing the vendors at risk for federal action based on their
immigration status. While rules can be improved to
make enforcement easier, that does not obviate the responsibility of the
police to make every effort to enforce existing law. Fingerprinting and other changes such as
standardization may resolve some of the problems with enforcement, but
regardless of whether these measures go forward, we need vigilant and
coordinated enforcement by police, including cooperation with companies going
after dealers of black market goods. License Distribution: There are important historical reasons
for recognizing the rights of disabled veteran vendors. At the same time, I believe it is
essential to review the process by which the distribution of “blue” and
“yellow” licenses is determined. This
process should be evaluated to ensure the distribution of blue licenses is
equitable. In addition, it has been
reported to me that there are a significant number of blue licenses that are
not currently being used. If this is
accurate they should be redistributed to active vendors. While I respect the desire to keep the
number of blue licenses to a minimum to reduce crowding in Central Business
Districts, since these licenses are particularly sought after it is essential
that the process by which they are distributed is both fair and transparent. Thank you for the opportunity to
testify today. I appreciate the
Council’s interest, and look forward to working with you in the future on
this important issue. |
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