Sean Basinski takes the New Yorker love of street cart food to the next level. He is the founder of the Street Vendor Project, an organization of about 2,000 vendors that works to raise awareness of vendors’ legal rights and responsibilities. Baasinski gained interest in street vendors when he decided to build a burrito cart and sell the food on 57th Street and Park Avenue.
“I thought it would be a fun thing to do for the summer, and now it’s really become my life,” Basinski said. Little did he know that his burrito cart was the first step in his career as vendor activist.
Basinski graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and Georgetown Law Center before creating the Street Vendor Project in 2001. He spoke to an NYU journalism class and explained more about street vendors, the hoops they have to jump through and his new campaign Lift the Caps.
- Most people think of street vendors as just people who sell food or other goods. However, they also serve as a security precaution. They are the eyes and ears of New York streets and can alert the police of any suspicious behavior.
- “The vendors are the have-nots,” Basinski said. Opening up a restaurant takes a lot more capital than running a cart.
- There are certain restricted streets for vendors, mainly due to traffic patterns and lack of sidewalk room, but vendors can go anywhere else in the city, so long as they have a permit.
- New York limits the number of permits issued to 3,000. “Lift the Caps” is an attempt to lift this restriction.
- Vendors buy permits on the black market and may get placed on a waiting list for 10 to 20 years. Permits from the city cost $200, but obtaining a permit on the black market can cost up to $20,000.
