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BlackMarket forFoodVendorPermits
El Diario, July 8
th
2008
New York
–
Marco Tulio Valencia, 77 years old, sells garlic sausages and roundmaize loaves in a food cart every day. He pushes his cart along Roosevelt Avenue,in Queens, until arriving at 83
rd
Street. “I have always been in this corner”, explains
Valencia. He mentioned that he was finally able to get his own permit nine years ago.Before, he was required to rent the permit from someone else to sell food from a cart.
“The licenses for vendors a
re easy to get, but the permit for the carts is nearly
impossible to obtain.”
says Valencia. In order to sell food in carts in New York City,two permits are needed. There is no limit on food vendor licenses. However,obtaining a permit for the cart is quite difficult. In 1983, the Department of Healthstipulated a maximum of 3,100 permits with validity of two years and 1,000temporary permits (from the April 1 to the October 31). This limit was instated toreduce the number of food carts in the city. The result of this high demand forpermits have created a black market for permit renting, in which those that legallyown the carts rent them to
those who need the permit to work. “They rent the permits
for two years at $6,000, whereas renewing the permits only cost $200. It is goodbusiness,
” reveals Valencia. “Here, on Roosevelt Avenue, the majority of the people
who are seen working rent
the permit from somebody”, comments Valencia.
Although renting permits is illegal, the business still exists, said the own
er of Stevie’s.Stevie’s is the
second largest manufacturer of food carts in the city and is criticizedfor renting cart
permits. The Greek owner of Stevie’s denied the accusation. “I, here,only rent carts, they must get their own permits”, he assured. Se
an Basinsky,director of the Street Vendor Project, is dedicated to fight for the rights of thevendors in New York City. He
thinks that it is not right to rent the permits. “Nobody
becomes rich acquiring $6,
000 every two years” Basinski says,“The problem
is inthe han
ds of the Department of Health.”
The city would have to give more permits orrecirculate those existing permits to those who are working at the carts,
”
Basinskiadds. The Department of Health has confirmed that the permit renting of carts isillegal and that the amount of permits that are given out is regulated by the
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