Newsletter Spring Final

VENDOR NEWSLETTER Street Vendor Project 666 Broadway, 5th Floor New York, NY 10012 Leadership Board Khaled Abouelkhair Emad Ali Mohammed Ali Zenab Bangoura Luther Bolden Moustapha Cisse Janis Collado Josue Echavaria Diba Gaye Sophia Laskaris Mohammed Miah M’ b a y eMo u s s a Angelo Vega Sheldon Velazquez Michael Wells James Williams

Spring 2005 (646) 602-5679 or (646) 602-5681

New SVP Leadership Board !

Staff Organizer Judi Mukarhinda Project Director Sean Basinski Interns and volunteers Emilie Bouvier Ryan Devlin Matt Furshong Benjamin Galynker Katie Neilson N’ d e y eSa k h o Sara Sluszka Binan Xu

INSIDE: •Hal al hubbub. . . . . . . .p.2 •MemberPr of i l e. . . . .p.2 •I nt r o621. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 3 •T r uc kf ors al e. . . . . . . . p.3 •SVPT -shirts ........... p. 3 •MemberI nf o. . . . . . . . .p.3 •I nMemor y. . . . . . . . . . . . . p.4

pr o w: L u t h e r Bo l d e n , Kh a l e dAb o u e l k h a i r , Mi c h a e l We l l s , Mo u s t a p h aCi s s e , M’ b a y eMo u s s a , Di b aGa y e , Mo h a mme dAl i , women, By a resound- To Mohammed Miah, James Williams; Bottom Row: Josue Echavaria, Sheldon Velazquez, Illiassou Alhassane (not on Board), Zenab Bangoura, Sophia Laskaris, A.J. Laskaris (not on Board), Angelo Vega. Not Pictured: Emad Ali and Janis Collado. three veting unanimous eran venvote, all vendors, five food vendors, a book vendor, an art dors present at the June monthly meeting of the vendor, and several general merchandise venStreet Vendor Project elected sixteen of their own dors. to the new Leadership Board. More than a hunBefore the vote, every board nominee dred vendors turned out on a sweltering hot night made a short speech giving ideas for the future and jammed into the cramped SVP offices to elect direction of the organization. Common themes their representatives. It was one of the strongest in the speeches included unity, responsibility, turnouts in SVP history. commitment, and political strength. The board The new board consists of committed leadmembers will serve for a period of one year. ers from all walks of life and with many different Congratulations to the new board members! types of businesses. The group includes three

Planters Bloom Like Spring Flowers The Street Vendor Project has been receiving more calls than ever this spring about the proliferation of concrete planters blocking the sidewalk. As the city continues to fail to enforce the laws on these illegal obstructions, business owners and building managers have been emboldened to place them

almost everywhere, usually illegally. “ Iha v eaf a mi l yt of e e d, ”s a i dMohammed Miah, who arrived at work one day on 30th Street near Broadway, only to find plants blocking his s pot .“ The s epl a nt sa r eo nl y t a k i ng up s i de wa l ks pa c e . ” Mi a h found a compromise with the build-

ing owner, but only after a serious dispute that almost turned violent. Most planters on the street are illegal. The SVP is working hard to get the city to address this problem, so please call us at (646) 602-5681 to report any planters that are in your legal vending place.

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Halal Vendor Demands Right To Stay In Midwood, a largely Pakirant across the street had stani neighborhood in a quiet complained about him taking part of central Brooklyn, vent he i rbus i ne s s .“ The ya r ea dor Riaz Khan r e s t a ur a nt , ” he serves spicy s a i d.“ Ia mj us ta chicken and vendor in a rice from the t r uc k . ” grill inside his Mr. Kh a n truck. In May, very politely police officers agreed to move told him to his truck away move his busifrom the restauness elsewhere rant. But he did because he was not agree that the Bu yt h i sma n ’ sc h i c k e n ! vending on Avenue was reConey Island Avenue, which stricted. Rather than take the they said was a restricted pol i c e ’ swor df ori t ,het o oka street. Additionally, the restautrip to 42 Broadway to get the

official list. Afterward, sharing his plight with a downtown vendor, Mr. Khan learned about the SVP and called us for advice. For a while, Khan was s t i l lg e t t i ngt i c k e t s .“ Thepol i c e told me my truck would be t owe di fIdi dn ’ tmov e ” ,he said. They made him shut down twice, and he had to throw away all the meat. He presented his official list of restricted streets to the officers. Coney Island Avenue was nowhere on the list, but still the officers keep writing him tickets. Due to the heavy police

presence around his cart, his business dropped off as customers shied away: in this Muslim community, many people are wary of the police after 9-11. But lately things have been looking up. The SVP discovered the problem—the precinct was using the list of streets restricted to general vendors, but Khan is a food vendor. We wrote a letter to the precinct demanding they stop. In the meantime, Mr. Khan has joined the cause of vendor uni t y .“ Whe nIwa sa l one ,i twa s notp os s i bl et obe a tt he m, ”h e s a i d.“ Buti tc a nha ppe ni fwe wor kt og e t he r . ”

Member Profile: Mahbooba Parwana My name is Mahbooba Parwana, but people call me Maria. I was born in Afghanistan and came to the US in 1993, following my husband, when I was just 19. I sell fruits at the corner of 28th and Park Avenue. I have also worked at restaurants like KFC, Taco Bell, and at a delivery company. I started vending three years ago because the rest a u r a n tIwor k e df orwa s n’ t doi n g we l l ,a n d I wa s n’ t making very good money. My boss would tell me to go home on some days because

t h e r e ’ sn obu s i n e s s .Th e nmy cousin told me about street vending. I like what I do now because no one will tell me what to do, and I take care of everything myself, and I like talking to my costumers. I am currently divorced, but I have two kids, a 10-yearold son and a 9-year-old da u gh t e r .I t ’ sh a r d be i ng a single working mom, but I de a lwi t hi t .Idon ’ twa n tt o depend on any men to be able t ol i v e .I t ’ sbe t t e rt oj u s tdoi t y ou r s e l f .Idon ’ th a v e ma ny problems as a woman vendor on the streets, except for the

harassment from police and store owners. The police sometimes give me tickets unreasonably and the store owner always tries to keep me away from the streets by putting planters on the sidewalk or trying to close the streets. Once I just walked into the store and a s k e dt h ema n a g e r ,“ Idon ’ t

know how to read and write. If you want me to stop vending, will you hire me ins t e a d? ” He di dn ’ t say anything back. These people are so unreasonable sometimes. They don ’ tc a r ea bou t hardworking people who just want make a living. Th a t ’ s why I like the Street Vendor Project. We are all good people, and we will fight for our rights until the end.

Intro 621—Update This Spring the vending community has been filled with talk about a dramatic new proposal, known as Intro. 621 and introduced by City Council Member Philip Reed, to radic a l l yr e s ha peNYC’ sv e ndi ng laws. Intro. 621 contains many changes the SVP has been asking for for a long time. First, it increases the number of general vending licenses by almost 1,200. Second, it re-

duces the fines that ECB has continued to hike, despite our best efforts to prevent them from doing so. Third, it opens up every one of the hundreds of desirable city blocks that have been closed to vendors over the years. However, the bill generated controversy in the vending community for several reasons. First, vendors who did not want to be fingerprinted objected to this new

idea, which was designed to reduce counterfeit licenses. Some vendors also objected to the provision that would limit the number of vendors to 6 per block. Facing political pressure during an election year, the city caved to the business community, withdrawing its support for the bill. Now, the City Council is working on re-drafting the bill, and SVP will be working with Council Member Reed to do so.

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Sign up for Membership ! Join the 300 members who have already shown their committment

Benefits

Street Vendor Project Membership Card Expiration date: 06/08/06

● ECBT i cket sandappeal s ● Sal esT axHel p ● Cr i mi nalCour t( s omecas es ) Ali, Abdul ● For f ei t ur e&Li cens eRev ocat i ons ID No 296 666 Broadway, NY, NY 10012 ● Li cens eandPer mi t sAppl i cat i ons www.streetvendor.org ● Hel pwi t hFi l i ngPol i ceCompl ai nt s Sean Basinski, Director ● Fr eeCamer aand25f oott apemeas ur e ●I DBadge( s ees ampl e,r i ght ) ,news l et t er( f ourt i mesay ear ) ● Vot ei nAnnualEl ect i ons ,andmor e!

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SVP Reclaims Space at South Street Seaport Where does private property end and public space begin? This May, a hot dog vendor (and SVP member) decided to set up in what he thought would be a good spot near the South Street Seaport. The Seaport is a major tourist attraction; more than 10 million people visit it every year. But instead of hungry tourists, he met angry security guards from Seaport Marketplace LLC, a real estate company that owns the nearby buildings. A dozen guards surrounded the vendor and tried to intimidate him. They knocked over his sodas, pushed his cart into the street,

and called the police. South Street is not This man had an organization behind a restricted street, so what was the probhim with 300 members. l e m?I twa s“ pr i v a t epr opA little library ree r t y , ”t h eg u a r dsc l a i me d. search soon showed What private property? that the area was not It looked like a public so private after all. space to us. The vendor The company wanted stood his ground. The First to create their own Precinct said he had to go. shopping mall. Nice But with help from SVP, t r y .Th e ydi dn’ tk n ow he explained his case to the about vendor power. NYPD legal bureau. Many The hot dog man got No vending zone? Think again. vendors had tried to vend permission to stay, and there before and gotten their carts together we scored another win for seized. But this time it was different. vendors (and their customers) in NYC.

Street Vendor Project 666 Broadway, 5th Floor New York, NY 10012 (646) 602-5679 (646) 602-5681 www.urbanjustice.org

i ndi v i dualr i ght s•s oc i a lc hange

Mamemor Kebe, a much loved and well-respected street vendor who had sold on Water Street in downtown Manhattan since 1991, was tragically killed in a car accident in his home country of Senegal on May 5, 2005. He was a member of the Street Vendor Project and he will be sorely missed. At a recent meeting shortly after his death, vendors remembered Kebe as one of the most honest, generous, and hardworking men they knew. “ He c a l l e de v e r y one ‘ my f r i e n d, ’e v e nt he pol i c e when they were giving him at i c k e t , ”r e me mbe r e da vendor who knew him for 15 years. Kebe knew the people in the neighborhood and waved at them when they passed by. And he

Mamemor Kebe 1956 – 2005

was so honest that he if he bought an item for $3 he would sell it for only $5, even if he could have gotten much more. As a devout Muslim, Kebe respected others and always sought to avoid conflict. He made sure his fellow vendors had enough space to work. And once, when a friend of his had a problem with a policeman, instead of complaining, he went to the mosque and prayed that the problem be resolved. It was. The SVP has already raised $480 to send along to the wife and four young daughters Kebe left behind in Senegal. Donations may be made in cash or via checks made out to Street Vendor Project, Kebe Fund at 666 Broadway.