I’m a big fan of my fellow Chinese lady who sells $2 noodles at the corner of Elizabeth and Hester Streets, and I have a new appreciation for all the drama she has to endure as a street vendor in NYC. As the designer for one of the Making Policy Public projects, I’m working closely with The Center for Urban Pedagogy and The Street Vendor Project to create a fold-out brochure distilling NYC’s complex vending laws into something accessible. At least 4000 copies will be distributed to street vendors as a useful resource and made available to others as an advocacy tool for policy reforms. Because many of NYC’s street vendors are immigrants, we’re making the rules as pictorial as possible and translating the rest into Arabic, Bengali, Chinese, and Spanish. It’s been fun talking with vendors, collaborating on content and illustrating everything, and here are some more shots of the work-in-progress:
I went to the Street Vendor Project’s monthly meeting yesterday to get feedback on the brochure and check out the scene…
One guy has already been fined $1000 this month for minor infractions like parking his cart too far away from the curb. As a comparison, a parking ticket is $65. Also, city officials are proposing that vendors can never leave their cart (who needs bathroom breaks?) and that all vendors must display an unobstructed 36″ x 18″ sign that shows they’ve got the appropriate licenses. This would take up serious space on their size-restricted tables. Vendor and board member Larry McDonald said, “Forget about your goods. You’re going to be selling the sign!”
November 13th, 2008 at 12:19 pm
Have you or James seen “Man Push Cart” ??
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0464105/
November 14th, 2008 at 10:35 am
Ya I did awhile ago, I should check it out again… thanks!
March 25th, 2009 at 5:08 pm
Hey Candy-
Don’t know if you remember me but we graduated together from Columbia’s Urban Planning program. I just stumbled upon your blog doing some research on street vendor issues. I am doing Parks Advocacy work at the New York Immigration Coalition and street vendor issues around parks has risen to the top of our priority list of issues we are addressing this year. Great to see the work you’re doing with UJC. I remember how you used your creativity back in school regarding wayfaring in Brooklyn, but had no idea of the awesome things you have been creating since! I’d love to stay in touch with you about these tools that you are creating since we are planning to do some advocacy work for vending and have a large immigrant base! Let’s keep in touch!
Silvett
Best,
Silvett
April 4th, 2009 at 6:16 pm
[...] No Comments The Street Vendor Project along with The Center for Urban Pedagogy (CUP) and designer Candy Chang, SVP has put together a great looking, informative and visionary guide about vendor regulations, [...]
April 5th, 2009 at 9:57 am
Hi Candy,
Wonderful work you have done for the vendors in NYC. I am the Executive Director for the Street Food Vendors Association SFVA in Toronto Canada. We are facing serious problems at the moment. It is encouraging to see the action taken in your city. Thanks for the “hope”. If you would like to contact me please do so.
416 846-2152
April 22nd, 2009 at 12:38 am
[...] Vendor Project, совместно с The Center for Urban Pedagogy (CUP) и дизайнером Кэнди Чангом, представили информативную и наглядную версию [...]
April 22nd, 2009 at 10:26 pm
[...] to champion and empower New York’s 10,000+ vendors, SVP members teamed up with designer Candy Chang and The Center for Urban Pedagogy to create a series of infographic-heavy brochures that demystify [...]
April 23rd, 2009 at 3:40 am
[...] know about them? The Street Vendor Project, in collaboration with the Center for Urban Pedagogy and Candy Chang, provide a visual guide [pdf] in an effort to show the world of street vendors. Wow, that sentence [...]
April 23rd, 2009 at 4:42 am
[...] know about them? The Street Vendor Project, in collaboration with the Center for Urban Pedagogy and Candy Chang, provide a visual guide [pdf] in an effort to show the world of street vendors. Wow, that sentence [...]
April 24th, 2009 at 8:47 am
[...] Vendor Power! I thought everything for this project was pretty cool—but it also doesn’t hurt that the info design is actually informative. My only beef is that they should have reformated the poster when people are looking online as a pdf. [...]