The Latin American food vendors in Red Hook Park will continue their struggle with the city to set up stands in a once-outcast location that became a weekend haven for foodies.
Despite significant hurdles to overcome, the vendors decided unanimously at a closed-door meeting on Wednesday night to submit a proposal under the city’s new open-bidding process for vending permits at the Red Hook ballfields, which are on Bay Street, between Clinton and Henry streets.
“They decided to stick on, which is good news,” said Cesar Fuentes, who acts as spokesman and advocate for the 13 vendors.
One of the food vendors, Rafael Soler, added: “This is a very important decision. We tried to keep it together because when everyone is together, we’re stronger.”
The decision to dig in culminates months of hand wringing that began after the city decided to put the vending sites, where the food hawkers have been operating for decades, up for open bid.
At the time, the Parks Department said its “request for proposals” would be written to give the existing vendors a leg up. But the RFP unveiled last month would bar the purveyors from setting up folding tables, tarps and grills as they have been doing.
Instead, vendors must get mobile units, licensed by the Health Department, which cost $15,000–$30,000.
“For a corporation, that’s pocket change,” said Fuentes. “But for hardworking people holding down two other jobs, it’s a lot.”
The city says it wants a lively marketplace at the ballfields, but a spokesman recently suggested that the city is less concerned with who actually runs it — the longtime vendors or a new corporation.
“We want to retain the kind of market that existed,” said Phil Abramson, a Parks Department spokesperson, but “we have to make it more permanent.”
Red Hook Park is an unlikely hot spot for vending, given its remote location. For decades, the vendors had sold tacos, pupusas and ceviche in relative anonymity until being “discovered” by gourmands, who spread the word.
Crowds followed.
But the vendors’ success led to greater city scrutiny. Last summer, the Parks Department said it would not reissue the Latin American vendors’ longstanding, though year-to-year, permits. Instead, the vendors would have to win the long-term concession from the city in an open-bidding process.
The Health Department entered the picture, too, citing some vendors for supposedly unsanitary conditions, including the lack of running water. At one point, vendors appeared likely to be booted even before their season ended in October.
But a groundswell of supporters, from food bloggers to Sen. Charles “Chimichanga Chuck” Schumer, buoyed the vendors and won them a reprieve until the season ended.
