Along St. Nicholas Avenue and 181st Street in Washington Heights, street vendors and their folding tables pack the sidewalks, offering everything from stuffed animals to designer watches, and pungent perfumes.
A shopper stops to check out some bracelets on a crowded sidewalk. Photo by Brett Teal/Northattan.
The vendors can satisfy almost any shopper’s needs, but not everyone is happy with their presence. Recently, they have been targeted by local businesses that think there are too many in the neighborhood and that the stands have an unfair advantage.
“They’re selling items that we have, but cheaper,” said Alex Min, who manages a sports apparel store, FootCo, on the corner of 181st Street and St. Nicholas Avenue.
For example, Min’s shop sells gloves for $20 and beanies for $10, but a vendor directly in front of FootCo sells similar items for $5 each.
New York City requires everyone selling merchandise such as clothing, dolls or watches to have a license. But the city grants only 853 licenses to nonveterans and has a waitlist of thousands, forcing many vendors to operate illegally.
Without a permit, vendors escape paying a $200 yearly license fee and they don’t have to pay taxes. If they’re caught selling without a license, they can be arrested and their merchandise can be confiscated.
One unlicensed vendor, Zouhair Hoteite, has been selling hookahs and perfume in Washington Heights without a permit since 1988. Last week he was arrested and this week he has already received two tickets.
“You’ve just got accept it,” Hoteite, who earlier in the year was fined $1,300, said.
“I can’t pay tickets, I don’t have money, my rent is $1,300 and I have a wife and kids,” he added.
Hoteite said he explained this to the judge, who dismissed the ticket. But he now has two more to deal with and knows it will happen again.
Another table on St. Nicholas Avenue pushed up against a fire hydrant is filled with eclectic belt buckles. Photo by Brett Teal/Northattan.
Many street salespeople have flocked to Northern Manhattan, and as many as 40 operate near St. Nicholas Avenue, according to the Washington Heights Business Improvement District.
“I mean it’s really crazy to have three to four tables,” Nash Siddiquv said about the vendors in front of his 181st Street T Mobile store.
The cluster of tables often block the building’s entrance, touching up against the windows and leaving a narrow path.
“There’s only two feet in between for people to walk,” Siddiquv said. “People complain, they’re in front of the door and they can’t get in.”
He said he would like the number of vendors, or at least their tables, lowered in the future. That wish may be closer to becoming reality.
The Washington Heights Business Improvement District, which oversees the area around 181st Street from Amsterdam Avenue to Fort Washington Avenue, has been taking in feedback from residents and local merchants in hopes of creating a solution to the vendor problem early next year.
“It’s a very important issue for Washington Heights,” Angelina Ramirez, its executive director, said, adding that vendors, “put a strain for maintaining cleanliness on the sidewalk and they create traffic.”
All of the area’s vendors will be surveyed to see who is operating without a permit and Ramirez hopes to find a group to represent the street salespeople to create a “win-win” solution.
“The economy the way it is, we just don’t want to blindly take this livelihood away from people who make their money by selling,” Ramirez said.
New York City Councilmember Ydanis Rodriguez, who represents Washington Heights, said he doesn’t want to outright get rid of vendors, but understands the complaints.
Zouhair Hateite's colorful goods include everything from tobacco smoking accessories to perfume. Photo by Brett Teal/Northattan.
“We have to support our small businesses that pay taxes,” Rodriguez said. “We need to be sure our streets are clean and pedestrians have the space to walk.”
Rodriguez said one possible solution would be to create a plaza specifically for street vendors where they wouldn’t clog the sidewalks. The salespeople would be able to purchase a temporary permit allowing them to set up their tables for the day.
This would be modeled after the street vendor market on 175th Street between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue, which was created in 1994.
Rodriguez and Ramirez have been in talks with the Department of Transportation to explore the possibility of a new location.
But vendor Zouhair Hoteite said he would rather risk being arrested than selling in a plaza.
“There’s no money, people don’t go there,” Hoteite said. “There’s no traffic.”
He said even if another plaza opened he would continue selling on St. Nicholas Avenue and 181st Street.
Without a permit, vendors escape paying a $200 yearly license fee and they don’t have to pay taxes. If they’re caught selling without a license, they can be arrested and their merchandise can be confiscated.
One unlicensed vendor, Zouhair Hoteite, has been selling hookahs and perfume in Washington Heights without a permit since 1988. Last week he was arrested and this week he has already received two tickets.
“You’ve just got accept it,” Hoteite, who earlier in the year was fined $1,300, said.
“I can’t pay tickets, I don’t have money, my rent is $1,300 and I have a wife and kids,” he added.
Hoteite said he explained this to the judge, who dismissed the ticket. But he now has two more to deal with and knows it will happen again.
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This is absurd. Whatever happened to the Rule of Law, or are our city pols (and media) too post-modern for such quaint notions as having a somewhat civilized, rules-based business environment?
For the rest of us who actually care about equality under the law and quality of life, it’d be great if the city started caring about these Third World practices. Most people don’t like having to dodge vendors selling counterfeit crap illegally and their customers all over the already-crowded sidewalks, fighting off their solicitations, etc.
I’m also sure many people wouldn’t mind selling illegal goods, not have to register their business or pay for any sort of real estate for it, and never have to pay taxes. Those things are illegal, however, so most of us get jobs the way the illegal vendors should. Just as we’d be in trouble for thinking we’re above the law and not paying taxes, so should the judge who pardoned Mr. Hoteite actually take his job and the laws of society seriously.
The upshot is that New York state and city have all these regulations and taxes governing every aspect of life (to the point that we soon won’t be able to have salt), but if you flaunt them *really*, *really* egregiously, they somehow don’t apply to you. Great logic there.
Stop taxing those who obey the law and start fining those who break it. NYC’s a joke. A joke.
The street are so crowded – heavy traffic, almost no space at the sidewalks… I realize those people must earn their living but their presence annoy people.