Carina Kaufman-Gutierrez
5:38:02
Good afternoon, chair Aviles.
5:38:04
Thank you for, the opportunity to testify today.
5:38:06
My name is Karina Kaufman Gutierrez, and I'm the deputy director at the Street Vendor Project.
5:38:10
I wanted to share about a call I received on New Year's Day from a vendor who called crying because she'd been selling hats and glasses for New Year's the night before when an NYPD officer stopped her and asked for her vendor license.
5:38:23
She didn't have one through no fault of her own, and the officer gave her a ticket.
5:38:27
A family members of her a family member of hers who was there to film the interaction with the NYPD, which they have the right to do, and the officer got upset at how the vendor was having a conversation with the family member, decided to put the vendor in handcuffs and bring her back to the station, to the precinct, where she was issued a criminal summons for vending without a license, which can be prosecuted as a misdemeanor charge, and she was also charged with disorderly conduct, for having that converse a conversation with her family member.
5:38:55
Now this vendor is undocumented.
5:38:57
She is terrified that when she goes to criminal court on January 21st, the day after Trump takes office, that she won't make it home to her family, that she will be picked up by ICE or get a criminal record.
5:39:09
This type of interaction happened because city government for too long has failed our city's smallest businesses and has allowed vendors to be caught up in a system like this which is designed to fail.
5:39:20
This particular vendor was caught up in one of our mayor's ongoing quality of life operations, showing just how real it is that these harsh enforcement enforcement actions can quickly ensnare vendors and have much more drastic consequences.
5:39:34
Of note is that the department of sanitation, the lead vendor enforcement agency, has publicly stated in front of this council in this very room that they will not issue criminal summonses.
5:39:46
However, the NYPD with the same commissioner now is playing an outsized role in vending enforcement and does routinely issue criminal summonses.
5:39:54
In the last year, in 2024, criminal summonses to street vendors has skyrocketed.
5:39:59
In the 1st 3 quarters of 2024, NYPD surpassed the number of criminal summonses issued to street vendors, that were issued in all of 2023.
5:40:09
There were 1244 criminal summonses in 2023 as a whole, And in just the 1st 3 quarters of 2024, over 1500 have were issued.
5:40:20
This inconsistency in policy is not just poor management of the city's operations.
5:40:26
And just to close, that we are there's action that city council can take to change this.
5:40:31
We do not have to wait for the mayor because it's not gonna happen.
5:40:35
This city council has legislation before you, the street vendor reform package, which will protect New York City's immigrant communities, will improve the safety of goods sold, and increase compliance in our sidewalks, raising tax and revenue fees for the city during this fiscally time fiscal time.
