Waleed Salama spent two years studying vending regulations before setting up his own Halal cart along Eighth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan in 2002, where he travels from his home in Coney Island six days a week to work. But the 59-year-old said his preparations have rarely helped him fend off tickets, especially in the last two years as enforcement has intensified.
“The police will come every day and write a ticket. They might even come and write you two or three tickets on the same day,” said Salama, who holds a vending permit and moved to the city from Egypt in 2000. “They’ll write tickets about anything — they’ll find a thing to write a ticket for. And when I ask them, ‘Why are you here? Why are you bothering me?’ The police will say, ‘You know my boss sent me, you know it’s not up to me.’”
Salama’s experience is emblematic of many street vendors in New York City, as most vending tickets are issued in predominantly white and wealthy areas to immigrant and minority sellers living in much poorer outerborough neighborhoods, according to a new report by the Worker Institute at Cornell University…