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Q&A
Council Member Marmorato inquires about veteran street vendors and DVS outreach
0:55:56
ยท
169 sec
Council Member Kristy Marmorato inquires about veteran street vendors in New York City, discussing the number of vendors, license fees, and potential fee waivers. The conversation then shifts to the success of recent DVS events in her district and plans for future outreach.
- Commissioner Hendon promises to provide specific data on veteran street vendors and license fees.
- Discussion of potentially waiving permit fees for veteran street vendors.
- Marmorato reports on the success of recent DVS events in her district and plans for increased outreach.
- Hendon mentions upcoming initiatives to provide council members with detailed veteran data in their districts to improve outreach and event attendance.
Kristy Marmorato
0:55:56
Thank you.
0:55:56
Can I talk?
0:55:57
Oh, thank you.
0:55:58
Thank you so much for coming today.
0:56:00
So I kinda wanted to build off of the veteran street vendors.
0:56:04
Do we know how many there are currently in New York City?
James Hendon
0:56:07
Gotta get the number back to you.
0:56:08
I'm so sorry.
0:56:09
We have that.
0:56:09
We did get information from the Department of Consumer Workforce Protection with our number our live number because we had an event back in November 2023 for the group, and so we gotta get back to you about that.
0:56:18
I will say that it's it's more than 200 but I will get back to what we're tracking.
0:56:24
Thank you so much for that.
0:56:25
Yep.
Kristy Marmorato
0:56:25
And do you know about how much the fee is to have a street license?
James Hendon
0:56:30
I don't know offhand we can we can get back to on that and I gotta say I think I saw him before, Robert Belkabir, who's one of our leaders in the street vendor community, I believe is behind me right now who may be testifying.
0:56:39
I don't wanna speak out of term, but I'm hoping that we'll we'll work to get you these data points as far as a number that we're tracking and price point for some of the licenses.
Kristy Marmorato
0:56:47
Okay.
0:56:47
And has there been any discussion about potentially waiving the permit fees for veterans, who are wishing to obtain these street licenses?
James Hendon
0:56:56
Not that I know of.
0:56:56
It's not that the discussion hasn't occurred.
0:56:58
I'm not aware of it, madam councilman.
0:56:59
We can we gotta do the homework and get back to you with these answers.
Kristy Marmorato
0:57:01
If not, would you consider exploring this?
James Hendon
0:57:04
Yes.
Kristy Marmorato
0:57:04
Okay.
0:57:05
Great.
0:57:06
I did want to also say that at, the last DVS event in my office was a complete success.
0:57:13
We had about 10 people, family members as well, veterans and family members.
0:57:17
I was happy because I think the first two we did wasn't less maybe less than five, but I felt like it really picked up this time.
0:57:25
And once we start coming once a month, I'm gonna start going to all of the legions and areas in the community where we're gonna make the flyers, and we're gonna put it out, and we're gonna try to do the outreach to our community specifically to hopefully have another successful event like that.
0:57:41
So I thank you for the services, and I appreciate it.
0:57:44
And district thirteen, obviously, always appreciates it.
James Hendon
0:57:46
No.
0:57:47
We appreciate you.
0:57:48
This is it's about it's crawl, walk, run for us and that once we get you all the folks in thirteen who are veterans, we believe that the numbers that come to those pop up VRCs will increase for everyone here, all all in And so the hope is that this spring, within the coming weeks, you'll get your first drop from us of all the veterans that we're tracking in your districts.
0:58:08
On average, the city council member has about 71,000 members on average of people who live in their district.
0:58:13
We believe somewhere around 4,000 or so are veterans on average.
0:58:15
And so as we get you this and you have it down to the the email address, the phone number, the physical address, that it can help amplify things so even as this veteran resource center initiative really comes into into play that you'll have folks coming, you'll do events and people will be there.
0:58:30
And so this is the next step for us as we go from just connect to the mobilized piece.
Kristy Marmorato
0:58:33
So It was not just veterans.
0:58:35
It was their spouses and family members, and it was just it was just really like, I felt good seeing it.
0:58:41
So I appreciate that.
0:58:42
Thank you guys so much for your time.
0:58:44
Thank you,
James Hendon
0:58:44
chair.
0:58:44
Yep.