Street vendors are an iconic part of New York City, whether they're selling roasted nuts at Times Square, halal food in Washington Square Park, mangoes in Coney Island or purses on Canal Street.
But many work somewhere along a complicated thicket of rules and regulations, and can be especially vulnerable to both crime and law enforcement crackdowns.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani recently established the city's first Office of Street Vendor Services as a division of the Department of Small Business Services, with a goal of helping the city’s vendors navigate the city's bureaucracy and laws.
Carina Kaufman-Gutierrez is the office’s first executive director. She recently discussed her role and the office’s mission with "Morning Edition" host Michael Hill. Here is a transcript of their conversation, which has been edited for length and clarity.
Hill: Carina, you must be excited.
Kaufman-Gutierrez: I'm so excited. Thank you so much for having me on.
Why does this administration feel the city needs this office?
As you mentioned, street vendors are such an essential part of our city's ecosystem, our small business ecosystem. But for so long, street vendors have been facing significant challenges, even as they're powering our communities every single day — be it uneven enforcement, a labyrinth of regulations across city and state agencies, and extremely long, outdated city regulations.
Carina Kaufman-Gutierrez
And so I'm thrilled that Mayor Mamdani is so committed to supporting these small businesses to not just survive but thrive in our city.
What about people who are clearly unlicensed, not even pretending to be authorized? I'm thinking about people selling candy on trains or hawking water bottles outside Yankee Stadium. Does your mission include those vendors?
Absolutely. I think street vendors, for so long, have really been excluded from our city's formalized economy. And the City Council has taken such a strong step this year in passing a series of regulations to expand permitting and licensing for street vendors, to enable those without either to access them and enter into our formalized economy.
So really the mission of the Office of Street Vendor Services is to support that transition to make sure that the vendors who are such an integral part of our city are now able to access licensing. We have a dedicated team at Small Business Services through the Office of Street Vendor Services that will work with them to learn the rules and regulations that exist and unlock all of these resources.
Before this job, you worked as a codirector of the Street Vendor Project at the Urban Justice Center, an organization which helps vendors through things such as legal representation and small business training. How does that inform your approach to this job?
It informs every step that I take because I have worked side by side with street vendors for the last seven years at the Street Vendor Project, hearing the challenges that they faced, the struggles and their hopes and dreams as well.
And so I'm really excited to bring that with me and to have this dedicated office to support street vendors and continue to hear from them, so we can make sure New York City is a place where 23,000 street vendors, who are working from our streets and sidewalks, can continue to grow.
Twenty-three thousand vendors?
That's correct — both food and merchandise — and that's including the character artists you see in Times Square. Really, the breadth of the diversity and vibrancy that we see on our city streets are represented by our city’s street vendors.
What do you want people to know about vendors?
I think street vendors are some of the most visible businesses in our city. You walk out of the train and right there you’re used to having somebody selling you a coffee, just like I did this morning outside of the WNYC studio. I'm hoping people get to learn about the challenges that they face, and continue to respect the hustle that street vendors are bringing to our city.
