“queensgirl46
Maryland
July 1st, 2009
12:44 pm
I have never condoned street vending of any kind – food or goods. I don’t care how “designer” the foods are they are selling, or how cheap the goods they are selling are compared to buying them in stores. They are unneeded competition for regular merchants, and always have been.”

You must’ve enjoyed the view from behind your desk … in Maryland.

But the Ballfields are not better off because of the new “regulations”. You can create healthy street food without forcing street vendors to go into ridiculous debt, just to conform to a code created by a bunch of people in city hall who probably had never even been to the Ballfields. And their only crime, really, was becoming popular (not getting anybody sick.)

So, while I support making sure that current carts are completely up to code, and I support cracking down on the black market that supplies illegal permits, I don’t support a plan that forces already established street vendors- who already make very little money- to have to bid against new vendors in order to keep the businesses they have fought years to build up.

If you think you can have your $5 chicken + lamb over rice, while simultaneously forcing the vendors to bid against well funded new mobile operations, you are sorely mistaken.

My friend from Singapore says that the food vendors that bid in an auction system for their permits. And arguably that’s the food cart capital of the world. But here in New York we don’t like the bidding system for some reason. I mean, we’re ok if there’s a bidding system for hot dog vendors in Central Park because well, we don’t eat lunch in Central Park.

There’s only so many ways to fix a broken system where you have an endless number of people who think they can run a food car. Hell, someone wanted to sell f’kn pb&j sandwiches on the street.

We all want some sort of utopian world where vending permits are easy to come by, vending permits are cheap, parking spots are plenty, food trucks don’t congest traffic, and the list is endless. But that proposed legislation from 3100 permits to 25,000 permits is only going to increase traffic congestion. Increase pollution. What else? hmm… I think it’ll help the situation, but it’s not going to help the city. With 8 times as many permits, it’s possible the permit supply will be more than permit demand. Just seems like a silly way for a city to do business. And just because there’s more people signing up for $200 dollar permits doesn’t make the system any better. You’re only going to have marginally more money in the budget. To do what? Inspect? I’m surprised they did this inspection because it’s just a waste of money in a time when the city can’t even afford to hire new teachers.