New York could soon be home to twice as many street food carts and trucks. According to DNAinfo, City Council will be introducing a law this week that would double the number of permits for street food vendors by 2023. That would bring the number of food carts and trucks to 8,000. Currently, about 2,500 people sit on a wait list for the permits — leading to a black market that means many vendors pay as much as $25,000 to run a cart. Permits currently cost just $200 for two years when legally obtained through the city. It’s a system that preys on working class immigrants, and one that advocates have been pushing to change.
Advocacy group Street Vendor project wrote in a post on Facebook that the proposed legislation is "not everything we wanted," but it is "a major step forward" for vendors and their families, who have long argued that they simply want a legal way to make a living. Under the new system, a two-year permit would cost $1,000, and people on the waiting list would be first in line to get one, according to the Times. Veterans and disabled people would receive preferential treatment for 35 of the permits.
Besides more food carts, more legal permits could potentially mean more innovative food on the streets, Street Vendor Project director Sean Basinski tells the Times. Many vendors want to try selling new items, he says, "but they can’t take that risk. They know hot dogs sell."
But increasing the number of legal permits for food carts has been a controversial topic. Some business corridors oppose the change, saying that food carts crowd sidewalks and skirt health code laws. To combat problems, the proposed law also imposes new regulations, such as an app that shows legal vendors and a new group focused solely on enforcing street cart laws.
Right now, many vendors aren’t operating legally. Street Vendor estimates that New York is home to as many as 12,000 food vendors, even though only a few thousand permits exist. Vendors argue that more permits would simply be helping them do what’s ultimately an honest business. "I’m not trying to break the law," vegan food cart Cinnamon Snail owner Adam Sobel tells the Times. "I want to be able to go to sleep at night and not have anxiety about getting arrested for some of my vegan sandwiches." The law will be introduced to City Council on Thursday.