Mayor Eric Adams vetoed a City Council bill that would eliminate criminal penalties for street vendors in New York City. Eagle photo by Ryan Schwach 
By Ryan Schwach
Mayor Eric Adams vetoed a bill that would have eliminated criminal penalties for street vendors that the City Council passed with a veto-proof majority in June.
With the late night veto, Adams shot down the Council legislation that would have downgraded all misdemeanor criminal penalties for vendors and mobile food vendors to civil penalties.
The Council is already considering its options to overturn the veto, which it can only do in the next 10 days.
In a statement, Adams said the bill gets in the way of police trying to enforce quality-of-life concerns and illegal street vending, issues that have seen intense scrutiny in Queens.
“Since day one, our administration has been committed not just to making New Yorkers safe, but to making them feel safe, too — and that includes addressing persistent quality-of-life issues like illegal street vending,” he said. “Our law enforcement officers play a vital role in keeping our streets clear of unlicensed vendors and protecting small business owners who follow the rules from being undercut by those who don’t. We cannot be so idealistic that we’re not realistic — preventing the brave men and women of the NYPD from intervening, even in the most egregious cases, is unfair to law-abiding business owners and poses real public health and safety risks.”
The bill, Introduction 47-B, was sponsored by Queens Councilmember Shekar Krishnan and passed by the legislative body 40 to 8 on June 30. Support for the bill is large enough to override a mayoral veto.
The bill was intended to pull vendors, many of whom are immigrants who use the money earned from their small business to support their families, out of the criminal legal system.
“No vendor should face jail time and a criminal conviction for trying to feed their families,” Krishnan said when he introduced the bill in December 2023.
Krishnan, who represents the parts of Queens’ Jackson Heights community well known for its street vendors, criticized the mayor’s veto on Thursday.
“In the dead of night, Mayor Adams did Donald Trump’s bidding by vetoing my legislation that protects our immigrant small business owners, who are simply trying to provide for their families, from jail time and immigration consequences,” he said. “Rather than ushering in real change for our street vendors moving towards a fair, comprehensive, and well-regulated system – Mayor Adams is playing politics with the lives of our city’s smallest business owners.”
The veto came as a surprise to advocates, since the mayor’s administration and the NYPD were involved in negotiating the framework of the bill.
“It just seems completely out of line with what is being discussed across the board within the administration,” said Carina Kaufman-Gutierrez, the deputy director of the Street Vendor Project, which advocates for vendors. “Hs own administration…recommended this several years ago.”
The Council is considering their options with the veto, and could potentially override it.
“Int. 47-B implements a recommendation of the City’s Street Vendor Advisory Board, a collection of the city’s business, immigrant rights, real estate, and vendor leaders that developed solutions to improve the environment of vending for everyone’s benefit,” said Council Spokesperson Julia Agos. “While leaving in place the enforcement tools of violations, fines, and civil offenses, the bill simply removed the excessive criminal misdemeanor penalties that can block New Yorkers’ access to educational, employment, housing and immigration opportunities. The Council negotiated this bill in good faith with the administration, only to have the mayor disregard the work of the advisory board and his own staff with this veto.”
Both Krishnan and the Council said that the veto was just another example of the mayor cozying up to Trump and his heavy-handed enforcement of illegal immigration.
“As the Trump administration continues to attack working families and immigrant communities, Mayor Adams’ veto is yet another example of him supporting Trump’s agenda over New Yorkers,” the Council said.
Mayor Eric Adams vetoed a Council bill, sponsored by Queens Councilmember Shekar Krishnan, intended to help street vendors. Councilmember Shekar Krishnan/X
City Hall has shot back at the assertions that Adams has governed with the president in mind, noting that the city is fighting with Trump in court after his administration sued the city over its sanctuary city laws.
Vendor advocates also criticized the veto on Thursday.
“Choosing to veto a bill that simply removes the excessive criminal misdemeanor penalties that can block New Yorkers’ access to educational, housing and immigration opportunities, is nothing less than an attack on our city’s most vulnerable, hardworking families and entrepreneurs,” said the Street Vendor Project in a statement. “We look forward to working with Speaker Adams and The New York City Council to swiftly right this wrong, to ensure justice, dignity, and opportunity for the vendors who help make our city thrive.”
Kaufman-Gutierrez said the bill would have helped street vendors come more into the fold as legitimate businesses.
“The bill does not make it so that there’s no enforcement over vending,” she said, “If anything it comes more in line with treating street vendors as a small business that they are.”
The Council currently does not have a meeting planned in the next 10 days. Should they want to meet to override the veto, they’d have to schedule a special meeting.
Should they get their law to take effect, it wouldn’t be the first time the Council has overrode a mayoral veto.
In January 2024, the Council rejected the mayor’s vetoes of the How Many Stops Act – which increased NYPD reporting of police interactions with the public – and a Council bill that banned solitary confinement.
