By Sean Basinski

Whether they are classified as traditional workers, independent contractors, or self-employed entrepreneurs, street vendors in recent years have been asserting their rights to a greater piece of the economic pie – or hot dog, as the case may be.

This is happening on the global scale, as vendor and other informal sector workers are now being included in UN-level negotiations about urban labor. It is also happening in New York. In April, 2014, the Murphy Institute hosted a panel entitled “Taking It to the Streets,” where members of the Street Vendor Project and allies kicked off their campaign to lift the outdated and arbitrary caps on vending permits, which limits the number of vendors on the street, producing a secondary market for permits and subjected street vendors to countless fines.

More than two years later, that campaign is now gaining steam. A recent undercover investigation by Jeff Koyen in Crain’s New York detailed how the complex permitting system has created a black market that enriches a few, while leaving most vendors earning poverty wages. Continue reading Street Vendors & the Battle to Do Business →