Even before the pandemic, New York’s street food vendors often struggled to earn a living hawking hot food and water bottles to residents and tourists. Now, their advocates say, the only major American city with a hard cap on legal permits has extended a much-needed helping hand.

On Thursday, New York City Council voted 34 to 13 for a bill to lift a limit on full-time vending permits for the first time in nearly four decades. The bill, Intro 1116-B, authorizes the city to issue 4,000 new permits over the next decade, beginning in 2022. It’s a move that will help more of the city’s estimated 10,000 street food vendors go legal, and escape a vicious underground economy that can trap them in debt. The bill now goes to the desk of Mayor Bill De Blasio, who has indicated he will sign it into law.

The bill is the culmination of years of efforts to reform New York’s uniquely punitive regulations. Virtually no other big city actively limits the number of street food permits, says Alfonso Morales, a University of Wisconsin, Madison sociologist who studies informal food economies. The cap effectively makes street vending illegal for thousands of operators, and fuels a black market where two-year permits, originally purchased for $200, are leased for upwards of $25,000.

“It’s almost like a worse version of the medallion system for taxis,” said sociologist Kathleen Dunn, referring to the system that New York City uses to limit its supply of yellow cabs which is also corrupted by predatory lending. The new law aims to curb that black market by requiring new permit-holders to be physically present at their food cart or truck. It will retroactively apply to permits already issued beginning in 2032.

Read the full article about street vending in New York by Sam Bloch at The Counter.