The Food Vendor Black Market Is Alive And Well

Street vendors are so hot right now, street vendors. And you know what is also, in most cases, hot? Street vendor permits. The Journal today takes a look at the crazy black market out there for street vendor permits and the numbers are, well, crazy. Though the city only charges $200 for a two-year permit, on the black market they can go for upwards of $20,000.

In total the city's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene issues 3,100 year-round permits plus another 1,000 seasonal permits. And many of the permit holders at this point apparently don't even work the carts. "According to a list of permit holders from the Health Department, some live as far away as South Carolina, Texas and Arizona."

If you want to get a permit you first need a vendor license and then you need to get on the waiting list. That list can take a good decade to get through and currently has 2,080 people on it! Which is why those with permits are so ready and willing to rent them out. Though the practice is illegal it is widespread, which even the DoH will admit. Especially since you don't even have to show up in person to get one renewed, you just need to send an "employee." To fix that loophole, "the department will soon propose changes requiring that permit holders appear when renewing permits and carts are re-inspected every two years."

And just so we are clear, the street vendor permits we're talking about are not the same as the vendor permits issued by the Parks Department which have their own insane prices.

So what to do about all those black market permits? There are a number of different options floating around including simply offering more permits, cracking down aggressively on the black market (and therefor on the guys simply trying to make a living), as well as the idea of auctioning off permits à la Taxi medallions (which, since the TLC started selling them in 1937 for $10, are some of the best investments in history). At least with the auction plan all that extra money would be going to the City rather than to retired vendors in Arizona.