Street vendor Liliana Sanchez said she sells half as many aguas frescas since a scaled-down version of the Corona Plaza market reopened in Queens in November.
Vendor advocates say the new setup isn’t financially sustainable for vendors or the nonprofit organization managing the market, the Queens Economic Development Corporation. They’re calling for more stalls, longer hours, and financial help from City Hall. Hundreds of vendors plan to march to City Hall on Thursday morning to demand the City Council pass systemic reforms, including a bill to lift caps on the number of vendors allowed to legally operate in the city.
Barone said the DOT installed a large trash bin on the plaza and provided QEDC $40,000 to aid with plaza management and operations in fiscal years 2022 and 2023. That was before the agency's short-term agreement with QEDC to manage the plaza began in November.The market exploded in popularity during the pandemic, boasting over 80 stalls, some opened as early as 7 a.m. and as late as 2 a.m. daily.
Vendors and their advocates are calling for longer hours and more stalls; Bornstein wants at least double, 30 to 35, at a time. Some 1,000 clients and vendors have also recently signed a paper petition outlining those demands. Staff with the mayor's office recently surveyed neighbors around the plaza, including businesses that had complained about the vendors, he said.Before the crackdown, neighborhood resident Jefferson Perez, 27, said trash would pile up and oil would splatter the sidewalk, and it was difficult to walk through the crowds. But since the market reopened, he hasn’t seen any of those problems.
And safety concerns remain. Drunken brawls have erupted in the plaza, Troncoso said. One day in March, when she tried to intervene, she said an attacker entered her stall and hit her. So vendors would like additional security, particularly on the weekend, she said.