Video: Faced With Restrictions, NYC Street Vendors Push Back

They sell fast food to New Yorkers on the go. But street vendors are considered outside of the movement to increase wages for workers at fast food restaurant chains. That doesn’t mean they don’t face challenges. Most of the city’s 25-thousand vendors are immigrants who work without a license, since the city only issues 5,100 vending permits each year. About half are women, and many are undocumented.

Meet a veteran street vendor and the head of a group that represents vendors across the city in this video.

 

For more coverage of New York City street vendors read our feature article Feeding the Street, and listen to Camila Osorio’s story on WNYC.

Join the conversation about street vendors across the country at #foodundocumented.

Co-produced by Maria Villaseñor, a multimedia reporter based in New York City.

Feet in 2 Worlds coverage of street vendors is part of Street Food: Meet the People Who Make It, a partnership with Oakland Local and In These Times. It’s supported in part by The Media Consortium and the Voqal Fund.

Fi2W is supported by the David and Katherine Moore Family Foundation, the Ralph E. Odgen Foundation, and the Nicholas B. Ottaway Foundation.

AboutCamila Osorio Avendano
Camila Osorio is a journalist from Colombia. She studied Political Science in Bogotá and an MA in Sociology at The New School. She is now a student in the Journalism and Latin American Studies program at NYU and she has done reporting in Colombia, South Africa and New York.