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Q&A
Engagement with BIDs and addressing their concerns
2:08:28
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163 sec
Council Member Julie Menin inquires about the Street Vendor Project's engagement with Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) and how they've addressed concerns raised by small businesses. The SVP representatives discuss their meetings with BIDs and their stance on balancing vendor rights with enforcement concerns.
- SVP has met with BIDs over the past decade to discuss concerns
- They oppose limiting vendors or creating specific vending zones to eliminate competition
- SVP supports fair enforcement but opposes rules that treat vendors as 'second class businesses'
- They emphasize the historical presence of vendors predating other business types
Julie Menin
2:08:28
Have you met with the bids who are raising objections to this?
2:08:34
Because I have obviously heard from many bids and other groups that have concerns about impact to small business, many immigrant owned small businesses who are saying they're struggling to survive.
2:08:49
What impact will this have on them?
2:08:51
So have you sat with them to address their concerns that they're raising?
Mohamed Attia
2:08:56
We have, chairman, and we have over and over again over the last ten years met with a lot of bids and a lot of other groups who are concerned, and some of them are in the position that we should limit the vendors or create specific places for vendors and get them away from our storefronts to eliminate the competition.
2:09:18
We shared over and over again that this is illegal.
2:09:21
This is not something we will ever support.
2:09:22
We believe that this city should work for everyone.
2:09:25
If you have $500 to start a business on a table, you should be able to have that opportunity.
2:09:31
If you have half a million dollars to start a supermarket, good for you.
2:09:34
But you cannot really come down on the little person.
2:09:37
In the conversation, their main concern is the enforcement.
2:09:41
We're not against enforcement.
2:09:43
We are against enforcement of a system that doesn't make any sense to anyone.
2:09:48
We are against enforcement that a DSNY agent is going to a vendor yelling at them, telling them, Go get a license.
2:09:56
It's cheap.
2:09:57
And then the vendor goes to DCWP, and they are turned away saying, Sorry, we don't have a license.
2:10:03
This is the kind of enforcement we are against.
2:10:05
If there is some middle ground where we can have a functioning system that protects everyone's rights, we're 100% for it.
2:10:13
But I'm not gonna sign off on something, on a rule that says, Oh, the vendors are second class businesses.
2:10:20
They don't deserve the same opportunities as storefronts.
2:10:22
We're gonna keep them a thousand feet away from every storefront.
2:10:26
This is something we cannot support.
2:10:28
Because before there were supermarkets, there were vendors.
2:10:31
Because there were bodegas, there were vendors.
2:10:33
Because there were supermarkets and restaurants and any other brick and mortar, people were selling on the streets.
2:10:40
So if someone is reasonably discussing the topic with us, we're more than happy to discuss with them, find the middle ground, find how we can work together.
2:10:50
The only problem that they have, and some of them mentioned off the record, that they don't have any problem with increasing the number of permissive licenses.
2:10:58
Their main issue is enforcing the laws, which is, again, we're not against enforcing the laws if the laws make sense.
2:11:05
If they don't make sense, we're against every single ticket that's written to the vendor that the vendor cannot comply with.