The New York City Department of Small Business Services announced Thursday a first-of-its-kind program to help street vendors operate legally on city streets via a mobile phone app.
Across the five boroughs, about 120 streets are off-limits to food vendors. Vendors operating in prime locations like Times Square and the Financial District can face a fine of up to $250 if caught operating their business in a restricted area.
The new program, called Venture Forward, promises to help the city’s 23,000 street vendors avoid these fines. It includes an app that will show vendors a map of where they can vend legally, as well as provide other resources and access to city agencies. The app is currently in a pilot phase and will be available for vendors later this year in multiple languages, including Arabic, Spanish, and Mandarin, the Department of Small Business Services said.
According to the department, data obtained via the app won’t be shared with law enforcement agencies such as the NYPD.
In the app, a map shows street vendors the streets where they are allowed to vend. Vendors will also be able to submit feedback and report issues to relevant city government agencies through the app.
A second component to Venture Forward will be a vendor outreach and education campaign to help them understand recent changes to the city’s laws governing street vending as well as ensure they can access city services.
“Venture Forward redefines the pathway to success for entrepreneurs running the smallest of small businesses here in New York City,” said SBS Commissioner Kenny Minaya in a statement shared with Documented. “For too long, street vendors have navigated a maze of rules and regulations that created obstacles and delays on their journey.”
To develop the program, this year, the city awarded a combined grant of $750,000 to Live XYZ, a developer of mapping software, and the Street Vendor Project (SVP), which pitched the project to SBS.
As part of the grant, Live XYZ developed the “Street Vendor Site Selection Tool,” a multilingual, interactive live map that shows vendors which public spaces in New York City they are legally allowed to operate in compliance with city restricted vending zones. Live XYZ had previously developed the Live NYC Map for the city in 2023 — a comprehensive map featuring occupancy and vacancy data, as well as high-resolution photos of more than 150,000 storefronts throughout the city.
The Street Vendor Project is additionally tasked with developing multilingual content and visual educational tools to explain recent changes to the city’s vending laws and the license application process. The organization will also facilitate training workshops to support vendors in digital literacy, marketing, business compliance, and financing as well as host free one-on-one consultations for street vendors.
For street vendors who do not have licenses, the Street Vendor Project will host a series of five virtual workshops that will focus on alternative business opportunities, including catering and concessionaire relationships with city agencies and private markets.
市议会推法案 简化小商家开业审批流程
In a statement shared with Documented, Mohamed Attia, co-director of the Street Vendor Project, said the organization was “uniquely positioned to bridge the gap” between government and the city’s smallest businesses.
The launch of the Venture Forward program is the latest effort by Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration in addressing street vendor issues. Three months after taking office, Mamdani announced the creation of The Office of Street Vendor Services at SBS and appointed Carina Kaufman-Gutierrez, a former co-director of the Street Vendor Project, as the office’s first executive director.
The partnership with Live XYZ and the Street Vendor Project will help “vendors spend less time deciphering rules and more time running the businesses New Yorkers rely on,” Kaufman-Gutierrez said in a statement.
