After street vendor crackdown, Corona Plaza market is a changed place - Gothamist
The stretch of pavement in Queens where Liliana Sanchez used to sell aguas frescas has been empty since city sanitation police forced her to pack up her pop-up tent canopy. Her 16-year-old daughter now spends school nights and weekends busing tables to help pay rent.
Across the street from Corona Plaza, sales at Alondra Cardoso’s hair salon have dipped 30%, or some $200 to $300 dollars a week, since the clientele from the former street vendor market no longer venture into her shop.
Delivery worker Jorge Marin, 35, now orders breakfast from a bakery at a nearby intersection. He used to load up on tamales and yogurt and steaming cups of champurrado at the market, which expanded during the height of the pandemic. Now, at the bakery, he said he spends more for less.
“It’s been dead,” Queens Borough President Donovan Richards said of the plaza since the vendors’ departure. “It’s taken the life out of the community.”
The scene on a recent day in Corona Plaza, Queens, where a crackdown on unlicensed vendors has quieted a once-thriving street market.
Christian Rodriguez/Gothamist
New York City sanitation police shut down the bustling street vendor market in Corona Plaza in late July, citing ongoing complaints about blocked sidewalks, “dirty conditions,” and “illegal vending” that took place too close to storefronts.
Vendors without one of the city’s limited and highly coveted permits and licenses were told to leave. Just a handful of stalls and long-time vendors remain, joined by a handful of newcomers who arrived in the wake of the clear out.
The crackdown's consequences continue to reverberate throughout the largely working-class immigrant neighborhood.
Street vendors protest a crackdown on unlicensed food carts in Corona Plaza.
Arya Sundaram / Gothamist
More than 80 vendors — who are mostly women and immigrants without any legal immigration status, according to advocacy groups — lost their livelihoods and income following the crackdown, after helping to revive the neighborhood, which was among the hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Gothamist spoke with over two dozen plazagoers, nearby shop workers, current and former vendors, and former market customers in recent weeks. Market regulars say they miss the cheap, quick meals they once bought on their early morning commutes before boarding the 7 train at the subway station overlooking the plaza.
Many nearby brick-and-mortar businesses have opposed the market, saying the plaza is cleaner and less congested without the vendors. But some shop owners and remaining vendors say their sales have dipped as less foot traffic spills into their stores, and ongoing problems around trash and crime remain.
Petitions seeking the revival of the street vendors market in Corona Plaza have garnered some 13,000 signatures. A crackdown against unlicensed vendors has been taking a toll on family budgets in the neighborhood, which is dominated by immigrant families.
Arya Sundaram / Gothamist
The neighborhood also lost a local hangout spot and, for immigrants like Marin, a nostalgic reminder of home. The market was the closest thing the city had to the open-air markets, or tianguis, common in Latin American towns.
“Unfortunately, when people come here and make a little money, they call those working in the street ‘the people of the third world,’” Marin said of local criticisms of the market. “But we really all came from the same place.”
“It was what we did in our countries to survive. Because there wasn’t any other option besides vending in the street,” he added.
'It was unlike anything else in New York'
The market used to lure weekend tourists from across the boroughs and even outside the state. TikTokers advertised the “cheap eats” — dollar tacos! — and home-style cooking from across Latin America. This spring, New York Times food critic Pete Wells pegged the venue as No. 48 on his list of The 100 Best Restaurants in New York City.
“This was one of the most interesting places you could go to explore and see what people in that part of Queens were cooking,” Wells said in an interview, later adding: “It was unlike anything else in New York.”
Nonetheless, the Department of Sanitation stands by its sweep.
It should never have had to get to this place, where vendors are out of work.
Joshua Goodman, a department spokesperson, said the plaza's health and safety conditions had become “untenable.” He said the department began posting written warnings in English and Spanish about future vendor enforcement a month before the sweep.
Councilmember Francisco Moya, who represents the area, has said that his office receives up to 20 complaints a week about vendors, including that they steal customers from brick-and-mortar businesses, block the sidewalk, and improperly dispose of trash. Moya, who supported the sweep, has blamed the market for unsanitary conditions, rising crime and unruly behavior. “What is happening in Corona Plaza and all along Roosevelt Avenue is just out of control, it’s chaos,” Moya told the Jackson Heights Post.
“Enough is enough. Now we're going to start taking our streets back,” Moya said at a rally in August backing the enforcement. “We’re going to clean these streets. We’re going to make them safe for everyone.”
The scene in Corona Plaza, Queens, on a recent day.
Christian Rodriguez/Gothamist
But Moya, who could not be reached for additional comment, added that he wanted a solution for vendors where they could “operate in the right and appropriate way.”
The Department of Transportation, which created the plaza, plans to hire an outside company or nonprofit to manage a long-term market in the plaza where vendors would be required to pass a food safety exam but may be able to sell without one of the city’s limited food vending permits.
But agency spokesperson Vincent Barone said the request for proposals likely wouldn’t be released for months. In the meantime, the agency is looking into temporary options for the market to return.
“It should never have had to get to this place, where vendors are out of work,” said Carina Kaufman-Gutierrez, the deputy director of the Street Vendor Project, a nonprofit advocating on behalf of street vendors in the plaza and across the city.
Permit delays alongside crackdowns
Advocates for the vendors have repeated pleaded for the city to hire a manager to address ongoing local conflicts and concerns. The crackdown at the end of July also comes amid yearslong delays by the city to expand the supply of food-vending permits. More unlicensed vendors would secure permits if they only had the opportunity to do so, vendors and their advocates have said.
For decades, food vending permits have been capped at a total of 2,800 for the city's over 20,000 and rising estimated street vendors in New York City. Like the majority of the city’s street hawkers, most food vendors in Corona Plaza operate without a permit.
Local Law 18, passed in 2021, required the city to increase the cap on food vending permits by 445 each year. But for the last two years, the Department of Health has run behind schedule.
The scene in Corona Plaza, Queens, on a recent day.
Christian Rodriguez/Gothamist
As of mid-August, the health department said it issued just four such permits. New applicants join an over 10,000-person-long waiting list. (Vendors without work authorization have been eligible to apply since the tenure of Mayor Mike Bloomberg, who signed a law removing citizenship status checks for applicants.)
In a letter to the mayor last week, City Comptroller Brad Lander called attention to those delays, alongside the high-profile crackdown at Corona Plaza.
“I am concerned that the slow pace of implementation of this legislation and the simultaneous escalation in enforcement actions are failing the city’s street vendors, many of whom are women, people of color, and immigrants,” Lander wrote. “This lack of accessible permitting forces workers into an informal economy, rather than expanding legal work opportunities and promoting a functioning regulatory system of vending.
Community concerns — and misconceptions
Several shop owners, managers and workers around the plaza said that it was cleaner and less congested in the days following the vendors’ departure.
A few acknowledged the vendors’ need to work and support their families. They also cited concerns about garbage piling up, food sanitation, and the competition. And some expressed frustration that the vendors didn’t have to pay the rent and overhead fees required for a brick-and-mortar store.
“It’s not a market. It’s a park that we pay for with our taxes,” said Felix Vargas, who manages a clothing store across from the plaza.
“Everybody has the right to life, to earn a living. Because when you prohibit someone from working, you’re supporting delinquency,” said Rafael Abreu, 46, a nearby barber. Citing public health concerns, he added: “But you have to adapt to the rules of the city.”
He added: “There has to be another way to put them to work.”
Evangelina Nuñez, 40, who works at a bakery across the street from the plaza, said sales have increased by 3% since the vendors were cleared out.
But misinformation and misconceptions also abound about the vendors. Nearby shop workers said that the vendors don’t pay taxes, despite the vendors association requirements. And onlookers regularly lump together the vendors with other issues plaguing the plaza, associating them with ongoing concerns around crime and prostitution in the area.
The scene in Corona Plaza, Queens, where street vendors are pushing back on the city's recent crackdown on unlicensed vendors.
Arya Sundaram / Gothamist
“They don’t contribute to anything,” Brisa Ramirez, 44, who sells fruit at a nearby grocery store. “They don’t pay taxes. They don’t pay anything.”
Meanwhile, Sanchez tearfully showed Gothamist her state tax registration certification, saying, “We're not robbing anyone. I pay taxes.”
Sanchez, whose parents were fruit stall vendors in Mexico, said she has struggled to find other jobs since the crackdown, and has only been hired for occasional day-long dishwashing shifts ahead of a stomach surgery scheduled for next month. Rosario Troncoso, head of the Corona Plaza vendors' association, said Sanchez wasn’t the only one struggling to find work, adding that the crackdown has financially devastated many of the former vendors.
Sanchez, Troncoso and other advocates say that most issues were localized to a handful of vendors who didn’t join the association. Troncoso said she had asked the rulebreakers several times to reduce the size of their setups, not to leave their tents overnight, and to keep a cleaner space — to no avail.
Street vendors doing business in Corona Plaza market.
Christian Rodriguez/Gothamist
"They didn't care, because they had a permit," Troncoso said. "They did not want to abide by the rule because they already had their plan B."
Vendors in the association take turns staffing a 24/7 booth in the plaza, where they’ve amassed over 13,000 signatures on their petition urging the city to formalize the market. Occasionally, passersby will criticize them, calling them “idiots,” among other insults.
On a recent weekday afternoon, Manuel Alvarado, 37, visited the plaza with his 2-year-old son as commuters traversed the above-ground 7-line subway station. Alvarado agreed that the plaza looked more open after the vendors left, but he said he wished the vendors would return. He said he could also take his son to the Park of the Americas a block away.
“They’re my people. They’re Hispanics, like me,” Alvarado said of the vendors. “They need to pay rent. If you can’t work, you can’t survive in this country. Everything’s expensive. And the authorities aren’t doing anything to lower the rent.”
Working toward a solution
“No one has ever said that Corona Plaza is perfect,” said Richards, the borough president. “It's perfectly imperfect.”
Richards launched the Corona Plaza Task Force with city agencies and vendors last year to address community complaints. As proof of the progress made, he and vendors point to the installation of trash bins in the plaza this spring to avoid garbage pile-ups.
They need to pay rent. If you can’t work, you can’t survive in this country. Everything’s expensive. And the authorities aren’t doing anything to lower the rent.
The vast majority of the plaza's vendors also formed a nonprofit organization this spring, called Asociación de Vendedores Ambulantes de Corona Plaza. Members must sign onto a list of agreed-upon rules, like registering to pay taxes, passing a food safety exam, and following the city’s size requirements to avoid obstructing the sidewalk.
The Queens Economic Development Council, another member of the task force, also received a multi-year grant from the Department of Business Services to help run cultural events and manage the plaza. But their contract expired at the end of June.
In task force meetings this spring, the development council's President Seth Bornstein said he urged the Department of Transportation and Department of Small Business Services to hire another plaza manager for the beginning of July.
“Anybody at that June meeting remembers me making a passionate remark saying, we need to continue something in Corona Plaza. Somebody needs to be there,” Bornstein said in an interview last month. “Passionate is a soft word.”
He added that he recalled saying: “We can’t let this die June 30.”
'It shouldn’t have happened this way'
Since the crackdown, Bornstein and Richards said, the Department of Transportation has fast-tracked a shorter-term contract for a plaza manager — a process that usually takes months. The manager would be responsible for ensuring vendors follow city health and safety rules, and help resolve conflicts with local brick-and-mortar storefronts nearby.
“It shouldn't have happened this way,” Bornstein said. “But something good came out of it.”
The city has tested similar long-term contracts, like at the Bronx Night Market. But details of the vendors’ future — including when and how they’ll be able to return — remain unclear.
Part of the market's uniqueness was thanks to its spontaneous and open nature, said Wells, the Times' restaurant critic.
“The question is really: can it be operated in a way that the city’s OK with, and still be that vibrant, exciting, and very open market that it was?” said Wells. “By open, I mean, just open to anyone with a folding table and a pot.”
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