Make your contribution now and help Gothamist thrive in 2023.The stretch of pavement in Queens where Liliana Sanchez used to sell aguas frescas has been empty since city sanitation police forced her to pack up her pop-up tent canopy. Her 16-year-old daughter now spends school nights and weekends busing tables to help pay rent.
The scene on a recent day in Corona Plaza, Queens, where a crackdown on unlicensed vendors has quieted a once-thriving street market.the bustling street vendor market in Corona Plaza in late July, citing ongoing complaints about blocked sidewalks, “dirty conditions,” and “illegal vending” that took place too close to storefronts.
Many nearby brick-and-mortar businesses have opposed the market, saying the plaza is cleaner and less congested without the vendors. But some shop owners and remaining vendors say their sales have dipped as less foot traffic spills into their stores, and ongoing problems around trash and crime remain.
“This was one of the most interesting places you could go to explore and see what people in that part of Queens were cooking,” Wells said in an interview, later adding: “It was unlike anything else in New York.”It should never have had to get to this place, where vendors are out of work.Joshua Goodman, a department spokesperson, said the plaza's health and safety conditions had become “untenable.
“It should never have had to get to this place, where vendors are out of work,” said Carina Kaufman-Gutierrez, the deputy director of the Street Vendor Project, a nonprofit advocating on behalf of street vendors in the plaza and across the city.Advocates for the vendors have repeated pleaded for the city to hire a manager to address ongoing local conflicts and concerns. The crackdown at the end of July also comes amid yearslong delays by the city to expand the supply of food-vending permits.
A few acknowledged the vendors’ need to work and support their families. They also cited concerns about garbage piling up, food sanitation, and the competition. And some expressed frustration that the vendors didn’t have to pay the rent and overhead fees required for a brick-and-mortar store. The scene in Corona Plaza, Queens, where street vendors are pushing back on the city's recent crackdown on unlicensed vendors.“They don’t contribute to anything,” Brisa Ramirez, 44, who sells fruit at a nearby grocery store. “They don’t pay taxes. They don’t pay anything.”
Vendors in the association take turns staffing a 24/7 booth in the plaza, where they’ve amassed over 13,000 signatures on theirurging the city to formalize the market. Occasionally, passersby will criticize them, calling them “idiots,” among other insults. They need to pay rent. If you can’t work, you can’t survive in this country. Everything’s expensive. And the authorities aren’t doing anything to lower the rent.The vast majority of the plaza's vendors also formed a nonprofit organization this spring, called Asociación de Vendedores Ambulantes de Corona Plaza.