Your guide to NYC's public proceedings.
PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Yomara Reyes, Street Vendor and Leader of Brunswick Vendors
5:01:01
·
113 sec
Yomara Reyes, a street vendor selling t-shirts and artisanal goods, testifies about the challenges faced by vendors in New York City due to outdated laws and unjust persecution. She urges the council to reform and update the laws governing street vending to promote fairness and end discrimination.
- Reyes emphasizes the daily challenges vendors face, including the risk of losing their merchandise and facing abuses from authorities.
- She describes current vending laws as tools that promote discrimination and segregation in the community.
- Reyes calls on the council members, as representatives, to change the laws and provide hope for thousands of vendor families.
UNKNOWN
5:01:01
Good afternoon, chair and distinguished members of the council and the honorable members of the council and who are here from our beloved city.
5:01:15
My name is Yomara Reyes, and I'm a street vendor.
5:01:19
I sell t shirts and artisanal goods in the city.
5:01:28
Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to address you.
5:01:33
And I do all of this in New Brunswick.
5:01:35
I'm also a leader of the Brunswick vendors.
5:01:38
I have made an appointment today to fulfill our obligations as essential workers in New York.
5:01:46
Being a vendor in this city demands courage and resignation, resignation to suffering unjust persecution by the authorities who, using an outdated law that inflicts injustice and violates our rights.
5:02:00
I'm sorry, to say that they are using that type of law and that it's outdated.
5:02:05
Every day is a challenge.
5:02:08
Thank God we live safely, however, we don't know if we will return home with our merchandise and be able to hug our loved ones.
5:02:17
As long as these current laws, as per I see here it's quoted, justify the abuses we face, They will continue to be a tool that serves to promote discrimination and segregation in our community.
5:02:31
Therefore, I urge you as our representatives to reform and update the laws that govern us to turn the page on the dark past and to change for the just hope or the fair hope that thousands of families demand and which now rest in the hands of God and in your hands.
5:02:54
Thank you.