Quenia Abreu, President New York Women’s Chamber of Commerce 212-491-9640 Testimony NYC Council Committee on Consumer Affairs October 26, 2016 Int 1303-2016 A Local Law to amend the New York City charter and the administrative code of the city of New York, in relation to expanding the availability of food vendor permits, creating an office of street vendor enforcement, and establishing a street vendor advisory board. Good Morning. Thank you Chair and City Council Members for giving me the opportunity to testify today. My name is Quenia Abreu, | am the president of the New York Women’s Chamber of Commerce, an organization that advocates and actively works to support and assist women, specially disadvantaged women, become economically empowered through business ownership, microenterprise ownership and self-employment. One of the most valuable things we can do for our women is to provide them with the tools that will help them become economically sufficient. In the city of New York, a street vendor's permit is one of those tools. Street vending offers incredible opportunities for countless women to make a decent living while taking a critical first step in the direction of growing a business, without sacrificing the care they take of their families. Moreover, for formerly incarcerated women street vending is a ly accessible way to reenter the workforce as they rebuild their lives. Reason why, the New York Women’s Chamber of Commerce supports Int 1303-2016 with the following observations and recommendations: in the spirit of economic justice, a plan must be put into place immediately to end the street vendors permit black market to ensure that only one permit is giving per individual. We need to punish those who have made a practice of taking advantaged of others by renting the permits at exorbitant annual cost. In the spirit of entrepreneurial fairness and diversity, new permits should not only be available to food vendors, but other industries should also be considered, so we don’t end up overpopulating the neighborhoods and saturating the city with taco trucks and halal food (as much as | love them). We need to have a diverse and healthy mix of products available by our street vendors. Order and safety must prevall, therefore a plan that addresses organization, regulations, inspections and enforcement should be implemented sooner than later. As itis, some neighborhoods are over-crowded with street vendors activities making it difficult to walk on the sidewalks. Street vendors should not become a nulsance and an inconvenience to business owners, residents and pedestrians. They should add value to our neighborhoods and make our city more attractive. Since we started the Women’s Chamber in 2002 we had to turn away hundreds of women who came to our office seeking assistance to get a street vendor's permit to start a microenterprise that would allow them to generate an income to support their family. Every time we said no, we took an economic opportunity away from these women. We are excited to see the city is working to change that! The Women’s Chamber applauds the efforts of Council Member Levine and other Councilmembers who are working to increase the number of opportunities women will have to enter the street vending industry and we look forward to working with you to make it happen. ‘Again thank you for the opportunity to testify today.