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PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by George Singleton, President of Disabled Veterans of New York, on Veteran Street Vendor Issues
1:32:25
·
3 min
George Singleton, President of Disabled Veterans of New York, passionately addresses the NYC City Council on issues facing veteran street vendors. He criticizes the council for relying on surveys instead of direct engagement with veterans and highlights long-standing problems that have persisted since 2003.
- Singleton calls for clarification of state law 35a to prioritize disabled veterans over other vendors.
- He expresses frustration with the unequal enforcement of vending rules, noting that non-veteran vendors often operate without licenses or restrictions.
- The testimony emphasizes the need for immediate action to address veteran concerns and prevent potential escalation of frustrations among the veteran community.
George Singleton
1:32:25
Yes.
1:32:28
Good afternoon.
1:32:29
My name is George Singleton.
1:32:31
I'm the president of disabled veterans of New York.
1:32:34
It's an organization that me and my veteran vendors started on our own.
1:32:41
The purpose of it was to bring the issues that we have, not as just vendors, as veterans in the city of of in the state of New York.
1:32:50
You know, the I challenge the city council to stop talking about surveys and go out into the street and talk to the veterans.
1:32:58
That's the best thing you can do.
1:33:00
We need to stop with all this playing around.
1:33:02
We're playing games here.
1:33:03
Oh, let's have a meeting.
1:33:04
We haven't I've been coming I've been a vendor since 02/2003.
1:33:08
I've been coming to meetings since 02/2003.
1:33:10
Is that ridiculous?
1:33:11
We still going through the same problems.
1:33:15
The biggest problem is the state has never clarified 35 a.
Armando Crescenzi
1:33:19
Yeah.
George Singleton
1:33:20
When they made the law for us disabled veterans that was given us during the civil civil war days, after the civil war, we was awarded that in New York state.
1:33:30
Now if the city meets with the the assemblyman and the state senator and say, listen.
1:33:35
Let's amend that line to make sure that every vendor on the streets of New York know disabled veterans have priority over any vendor.
1:33:43
Let's get this done.
1:33:45
What is the problem?
1:33:46
Why is it taking so long?
1:33:47
'23 I've been asking for this since 02/2004 when they kicked us out of Midtown, and they said, oh, well, y'all gotta go back because the law had sunsetted for one year.
1:33:57
They let it look like Bangladesh, and they made it made it look bad in the city for the veterans.
1:34:02
Now you got people from everywhere working in the streets of New York City with no license.
1:34:08
I drive past city past Central Park every morning to come to to come to come to Times Square.
1:34:15
You got a bunch of people down there with all type of big gigantic vendor things.
1:34:20
They're not following no law.
1:34:22
They I mean, we got restrictions on our tables.
1:34:25
There's no restrictions out here now.
1:34:27
I mean but you're gonna come running to the vets and give us a ticket.
1:34:30
That's a problem.
1:34:33
So I would challenge the city council, come out here and talk to us.
1:34:36
Don't sit in your office or go wherever you go.
1:34:39
Come talk to us.
1:34:40
We're the ones that's to keep kept y'all safe.
1:34:43
Don't we deserve that right?
1:34:45
We kept everybody in this country safe.
1:34:48
We deserve that right, and I'm tired of y'all of us being disrespected by everybody.
1:34:53
I mean, I'm born and raised in Brooklyn, so I'm a little bit loud, a little bit rough.
1:34:58
That's how it is in New York.
1:35:00
When you're a New Yorker, you're a New Yorker.
1:35:01
You don't like to take a bunch of crap off of nobody.
1:35:04
Come on, man.
1:35:05
We veterans, we've been trying to do this thing the nice way.
1:35:08
They taught us skills that can hurt a lot of people.
1:35:10
You don't really wanna unleash veterans out into the street and being all upset every day like they've been doing.
1:35:16
Come on.
1:35:16
Let's fix it before it gets crazy out here.
1:35:20
That's real.
1:35:20
I
Joann Ariola
1:35:22
couldn't agree more.
Disabled Veteran Street Vendor
1:35:23
I just wanna say I just wanna something.
1:35:26
There is 30 vendors, but the city are pushing only there is only 200 deserve that.
1:35:34
But the city are you know what?
1:35:36
They don't care about the the other 30,000, I mean, nonvectors.
1:35:41
Their problem is us.
1:35:42
Only the 200.
1:35:44
That's it.
George Singleton
1:35:44
You know why.
1:35:45
Right?
1:35:45
You know the reason why that is?
1:35:47
Because if they get rid of disabled veterans, then they can make room to give it to all the vendors.
1:35:52
Do you understand that, guys?
1:35:53
That's the deal.
1:35:54
The only one that y'all can't move in the city is disabled veterans.
1:35:58
That's the whole purpose of this whole everything with all these tickets.
Joann Ariola
1:36:01
Okay.