With a little under two months left until the September primaries, Councilmember Helen Sears has angered two key constituencies.
The Latino organization Vamos Unidos (We Stand Together) and South Asian organization DRUM (Desis Rising Up and Moving) gathered in front of Sears’ office on Thursday, July 16, to protest her plan to create a “Vendor Free Zone.” The groups claimed that if this plan comes to pass, the immigrant community, that primarily operates the street food carts, would be hurt the most.
“In a newspaper article Sears said to get rid of street vendors. Her reasons are anti-immigrant and racist,” said Rafael Samanez, an organizer with Vamos Unidos. “She said that street vendors attract rats and are pigs. That’s why over 200 people met to protest these comments in front of her office.”
Samanez referenced an interview Sears gave a Queens newspaper on June 10. In this article, where the Councilmember promoted the “Vendor Free Zone,” she said that the combination of food vendors and a high volume of foot traffic along some commercial streets in Jackson Heights “Creates a greater likelihood of rodent infestation.”
While Sears said that street carts often force pedestrians to walk on the streets instead of the sidewalks because of the amount and sizes of the carts, and that the propane tanks can be another safety hazard, she was not quoted calling the vendors “pigs” or blaming them specifically for the rats.
A statement from Sears regarding the protests reiterated that a vendor-free zone would help the issue of public safety.” She also said that “many of the carts are operated illegally, and residents and small businesses have long taken issue with them.”
She concluded with “this area is a mosaic of cultures and people, and we have all worked hard to make it a harmonious place to live for everyone.”
In June, Sears announced her intention to create “a vendor free zone on 72nd Street from 35th to Roosevelt Avenue and extending east to 82nd Street on the north side of 37th Avenue and 78th Street on the south side,” to improve the flow of traffic and the cleanliness of the area.
“This vendor free zone can be accomplished the same way it was accomplished in other cities,” Sears said. “Through hard bargaining and working together the results can be a neighborhood transformed.”
However, the immigrants in Jackson Heights who operate the street carts feel that Sears wants to “transform” the neighborhood without them and not for them. Vamos Unidos and DRUM stressed that Sears has not included them in any discussions and their fear is that the neighborhood’s transformation means their displacement.
“Part of the reason that folks in the community, especially the South Asian, say that 37th Street has changed a lot, that Sears’ is trying to ‘clean-up’ the neighborhood. We think that’s code word for ‘getting the immigrants off the street’,” said Monami Maulik, co-founder and organizer of DRUM.
She said that Sears’ vendor free zone does not include Roosevelt Avenue between 74th Street and 82nd Street, a much dirtier strip.
“It’s not the vendors that throw garbage around. They welcome anyone to come and see,” she said, noting that vendors have to take their trash with them.
“Population has increased a lot but sanitation hasn’t. Hard working immigrants are being scapegoated for lack of city services.”
Vamos Unidos actually wants Sears to support legislation in the City Council to increase the number of street food vending licenses that are given out each year.
“Since there aren’t enough licenses, and there hasn’t been an increase in 30 years, this has caused many people to rent without licenses,” said Samanez, noting that this may have added to the number of carts on the streets. “Everything that she has supported has been anti-street vendor.”
“But we haven’t spoken to her,” he said. “We were protesting her comment.”
