The Illegal Vendor Wars – Stores and restaurants battle street hawkers and food carts for business

For the past seven years, George Espinoza, owner of Suaderos Tacos on Roosevelt Avenue, has competed with the growing swarms of illegal and licensed street vendors outside his eatery for business. However, he doesn't know how much longer he can stay in business before being forced to close up shop.
&#8220They are killing our business,” Espinoza complained, explaining that several years ago far fewer street vendors lined the street outside of his restaurant in Jackson Heights.
The battle between vendors and restaurants has gotten so bad that Councilman Hiram Monserrate is drafting legislation to regulate where, when, how far apart and what size carts vendors can use in Queens - aimed in particular at those on Roosevelt Avenue in Jackson Heights.
&#8220We can't have a system that allows an unlimited number of vendors,” Monserrate said of the bill he plans to introduce sometime over the summer with the support of several other Councilmembers.
The bill would be aimed exclusively at legal vendors.
&#8220I have zero-tolerance for unlicensed vendors using our public streets to engage in activity that is unlawful,” Monserrate said.
Monserrate said that he began working on the bill after receiving a number of complaints from community members who were outraged by the sidewalk congestion and litter they attributed to vendors and restaurant owners who saw potential customers flock to street food carts and peddlers selling similar items oftentimes for a few dollars cheaper.
&#8220It doesn't make a difference what kind of food [vendors] sell; it's food. And we pay the rent,” Espinoza said.
Espinoza declined to say what he pays to rent the space that his restaurant occupies, but the average rent for restaurants in the area now tops out over $7,000 a month, said Louis Macari, owner of Lewis & Murphy Realty Incorporated, a real estate agency on Roosevelt Avenue that opened over 60 years ago.
Macari said that his agency has found rental space for seven restaurants within about 100 feet of one another and that restaurant owners are very unhappy that unlicensed carts often take away their customers.
&#8220The restaurants, they are suffering the most. How can you compete with these people [street vendors]?” Macari said, adding that the vendors cram the streets on the weekend and leave behind a disgusting mess on Monday mornings. &#8220Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays are the worst. There are probably 100 people on the block.”
&#8220The sidewalks are all black with grease. Smoke comes into your office from their barbecues. There are two full-sized pigs being roasted outside the office,” he said about vendors on the corner of Roosevelt Avenue and Warren Street - just within the border of Jackson Heights. &#8220If you come around on a Saturday or Sunday, you would not believe what is going on here. It's like fiesta every night.”
For the full pig, vendors charge about $300, and an ear goes for $3 or $4. Rice dishes with sausage cost about $4 from the cart, but restaurants nearby often charge a few dollars more for similar meals.
Right outside one of restaurants that Macari represents - an Ecuadorian restaurant on Junction Boulevard a few blocks away - sits a cart selling Ecuadorian food.
&#8220That's direct competition,” Macari said.
&#8220I get a huge number of complaints on 74th Street [and Roosevelt Avenue] because of vendors selling the same types of goods,” said Assemblyman Jose Peralta about kabob vendors selling in front of the Kabob King. &#8220The biggest issue is the food quality because some people get sick,” Peralta said.
Macari said that he has complained numerous times to Community Board 3 and to the police, even stopping police officers on the street to point out the vendors, but little has been done.
&#8220The city just seems to have a hands-off policy,” he said. &#8220When the police come, [some street vendors] disappear like flies and then come back when the coast is clear.”
According to Deputy Inspector Douglas Rolston, the commanding officer at the 115th Precinct, some of the carts on Roosevelt Avenue are licensed, so when community members complain, the police oftentimes have their hands tied.
&#8220Legal and illegal street vendors are a reality of the area - I don't want to say they are an accepted part,” Rolston said, explaining the aggressive tactics the precinct takes with vendors.
In the past six months, the 115th has made 30 arrests, 22 confiscations of carts and wares and handed out 395 criminal court summonses to illegal peddlers in their area. The precinct's area includes 28 square miles between the Grand Central Parkway to the north, the Brooklyn Queens Expressway to the west, the north side of Roosevelt Avenue to the south, and including Junction Boulevard to the east.
In particular, Rolston's officers have targeted the corner of 90th Street and Roosevelt Avenue - where the 115th has made 22 arrests in the past six months.
&#8220I've been here over two years now . . . I think we've gotten a handle on the peddlers,” Rolston said.
Because the area - from 104th to 74th and Roosevelt Avenue to 37th Avenue - is one the city's IMPACT zones, Rolston said that 60 officers and supervisors patrol the area from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. in shifts. In addition, the 115th - sometimes along with officers from the 110th Precinct and once per month with the city's Health Department - has conducted 31 vendor sweeps and patrols in Jackson Heights in the past six months, oftentimes covering both sides of the street. The 110th Precinct covers the south side of Roosevelt Avenue in Jackson Heights.
Although legal peddlers are allowed to hock their food and wares on Roosevelt Avenue, they are required to stay out of the 82nd Street Business Improvement District area from Monday to Saturday - with the exception of disabled veterans who have vendors' licenses.
The city capped the number of food vendor licenses at 3,000 in 1983 - and the number of non-food vendors at 853 in 1979 - but there are an estimated 5,000 vendors citywide. These non-licensed street vendors operate without a license, do not pay taxes or rent, are not subject to health inspections, and sometimes illegally sell alcoholic beverages outside the control of city and state laws.
The list is so long right now to apply for a merchandise vendor's license that the city stopped accepting applications in 1992 - with the exception of disabled veterans and their spouses.
Nevertheless, vendors have found ways to skirt some of the licensing restrictions. Because carts must display their licenses prominently, licensed vendors sometimes let unlicensed vendors use their carts so that they can sell food from early morning late into the night. In addition, many illegal peddlers have their wares in easily movable handcarts, so that if they spot a police officer headed their way, they have a chance of escaping arrest, wares confiscation or a summons.
With the weather turning hot, Jackson Heights community members like Macari have noticed many more vendors selling ice cream and Italian ices at Roosevelt Avenue and Junction Boulevard.
On Sunday, July 9, as a police squad car patrolled the corner of Roosevelt Avenue and Junction Boulevard, several vendors - selling DVDs from tablecloths spread out on the pavement - scattered, but food cart operators stayed put as the police drove by. Rolston said that a good portion of the peddler arrests that the 115th makes are for bootleg CD and DVD sellers.
&#8220[The vendors] ran away because they knew that they were going to get arrested,” Rolston said.