Alfonso Morales's blog

In New York, and around the country, street vendors are asked to comply with various regulations about their businesses, health, food safety, merchandise, and even cart or stall design.

Standards are important, but in New York there are complaints about over standardization, including problems like inadequate locks and the boring similarity of the stalls.

Street Vendors help make places unique, we cannot hobble them with unrealistic design goals. Not everyone will approve of the "street furniture" merchants use to market their wares, but context matters and if cities INSIST on design standards then cities should also CONSULT with merchants on how to make the standards serve the goals of the city, the public, and the merchant.

Together cities and merchants can identify desirable and important features of vending stalls, features that enhance the business and the neighborhood, both of which are important goals merchants serve when they do business on the street.

Good Day Folks,

The following is adopted from the work of Sean Basinski, the Executive Director of the Street Vending Project in New York City.

Last week Mayor Bloomberg signed into law Intro. 777, legislation spearheaded by the Street Vendor Project in NYC. The SVP was organized to give vendors a voice in that great city.

The new law requires the city to provide interpreters for vendors and other small business owners at the Environmental Control Board, where vendors fight tickets issued by various regulatory authorities. A recent article in Crains New York discusses the bill and the case of Cheikh Fall, a vendor and SVP board member.

For a "Kafka meets John Belushi" look at the what happened before Intro. 777, was signed into law take a look at this transcript http://streetvendor.org/media/pdfs/Munnu%20Dewan%20hearing.pdf of SVP member Munnu Dewan trying to represent himself in a hearing, without an interpreter and with little success. Munnu was ordered to pay a $300 fine.

In short, our diverse society benefits from vendors and merchants, the "third places" they help create, the eyes on the street that they are, but these benefits to the public are not without some costs, costs that are entirely reasonable and commonly born: equal standing before a court.

La Vida Locavore is the blog for anyone whose crazy life includes planting, growing, weeding, fertilizing, raising, picking, harvesting, processing, cooking, baking, making, serving, buying, selling, distributing, transporting, composting, organizing around, lobbying about, writing about, thinking about, talking about, playing with, and eating food!

Check it out!

Recent research by the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation and the UCLA School of Public Policy indicates how important street vendors and markets are for promoting health.

The RWJF report lauds markets for providing fresh and inexpensive produce to underserved populations. The report says that markets are "a promising way to increase fruit
and vegetable consumption among low-income families," but it also cautions that "limited transportation
alternatives in some urban areas may still hinder many families’ ability to
access farmers’ markets."

Planners and Policy makers need to build on the legislative initiatives discussed in this report, found at:

http://www.rwjf.org/files/research/balance122007.pdf

It is patently clear that sustainability, economic and community development, placemaking and other important goals are served by creating markets. Partnerships should be crafted, including public and private organizations, in enhancing food security and addressing public health by way of public markets.

With regard urban economic development James Rojas Goetz editorialized for planning report about the important role street vendors play in community life. It is ironic that street merchants under attack in LA are seen as one of the city's best tools for addressing a number of public problems. See the report at:

Gregg and I would like to welcome Miguel Granier to OPENAIR.ORG. Miguel has a MA in Urban Planning from Georgia Tech.

He is currently a Project Manager for Market Street Services in Atlanta. His experience is extensive, he was the Consulting Director of Operations at Appalachian Community Enterprises (ACE), a North Georgia based microfinance organization. Previously, as a Loan Consultant for ACCION New York, he helped secure loans for small business owners and entrepreneurs. He has also conducted several public seminars on managing credit and starting small businesses.

He will be blogging about markets, particularly indoor markets as well as street vendors in Atlanta and the Southeast. We hope he will help with questions on micro-credit, real estate, finance and insurance. We’re excited to add him to the team!