Vendor Status Law Hurts Everyone Editorial

Last week Mayor Michael Bloomberg signed Introductory Bill Number 491-A into law at ceremonies in the Blue Room at City Hall. The last of four bills to become law, Intro 491-A repeals the provisions of the food vendor law and the general vendor law that requires officials to check the citizenship status of an applicant for a food or vendor’s license.

The mayor approves of this law because it brings the vending law into conformity with the rest of city law and with the policy of the Bloomberg mayoral administration. The mayor’s policy is contained in Executive Order 41, which forbids city employees from asking the immigration status of those who do business or have contact with the city.

We know that in years gone by many an immigrant rode a pushcart to financial success and a solid place in American society, with no one bothering to check on their status along the way. But a lot has changed in the past 100 or so years and street vendors are no longer the commercial lifeblood of the Lower East Side and other, similar neighborhoods around the city. A century ago, it was more than likely the pushcart vendors, scissors grinders and curbside fruit-and-vegetable stand proprietors, besides trying to make honest and honorable livings for themselves and their families, wanted to leave the pushcart to a newer arrival and open their own store or service.

Today the descendants of those same one-time pushcart vendors who opened their own stores are threatened by street vendors, many of them undocumented immigrants. Many a shop proprietor has swept the sidewalk in front of his business only to get a ticket because an itinerant, street vendor later spread a blanket on that sidewalk and proceeded to hawk his wares without bothering to pick up the attendant litter and debris before packing up and moving on. Some vendors of food and goods come from societies in which litter is routinely left where it has fallen so that municipal agencies can see to its disposal and bring the custom with them to these shores, even though litter baskets are ready to hand. The result is the same—the steady, stable business that contributes to the good of the neighborhood gets the summons while the vendor is long gone.

Causing shop owners to be the recipients of unwarranted Sanitation Department summonses is not the only problem vendors bring to the doorsteps of taxpaying, property-maintaining purveyors of goods and services. Recently warehouses in several boroughs were raided and tons on tons of counterfeit goods seized by law enforcement authorities. Legitimate, licensed shop owners and vendors don’t push this stuff—street vendors do. Besides depriving designers and manufacturers of the just compensation to which the work of their brains and their hands entitles them, knockoffs cheat the purchasing public. Any guarantees or warranties offered by the purveyors of fakes are as worthless as the goods themselves. Purchase the real thing from a legitimate seller and the consumer protection laws of New York City apply. Buy a knockoff from a street vendor and you’re on your own.

The pushcart aspirants of a century ago wanted to assimilate, to become truly American. It’s not that way today. As in the past, many immigrants send money home. The difference is, too many of the newcomers don’t want to save up to bring the rest of their families here. They send money back home to support the families they know will never leave their homeland. Instead of making its way back into the American economy, the money these new immigrants send back home—wherever “home” may be—stays there. Some of it goes to support people and causes opposed to the United States and our way of life. The possible consequences of such a one-way currency flow became all too evident in London, another city receptive to immigrants, two weeks ago on July 7.

It seems to us, especially in light of recent events, that checking the immigration status of anyone selling food or goods on the streets of New York is proper, prudent and entirely reasonable. Checking vendors’ status and posting the information will aid consumers in making informed decisions about where they really want to spend their money and will at the same time go far to help ensure the safety and security of all city residents. Legitimate vendors and those aspiring to become citizens will have no cause for concern. Especially in these times, we must be ready to show that everyone who lives and works in New York City is subject to the same rules in order to ensure the greater good of us all.