Corona Plaza vendor market in Queens set to reopen Wednesday — with far fewer vendors

A scaled-down Corona Plaza street vendor market will reopen Wednesday after a summer crackdown by the city sidelined most of the merchants, New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ administration said Tuesday.

The reopened market will be managed by an outside operator and faces stricter rules aimed at alleviating community concerns about public safety, sanitation and other “quality-of-life” issues, according to City Hall.

The market will host 14 vendors at a time, up to 10 of whom can sell food. That’s far fewer than the more than 80 who once congregated at the bustling thoroughfare.

And the hours will now be limited to Wednesday through Sunday from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.

“This new community vending area provides a unique opportunity for street vendors to make a living outside of the shadows and has the potential of serving as a model for other neighborhoods,” said Deputy Mayor for Operations Meera Joshi, who helmed the new program’s creation within City Hall.

Vendors and their longtime advocates say they wish more hours and stalls were allowed, but were pleased with the compromise. And they pointed to the potential for expansion in coming weeks and months.

The Corona Plaza deal could also have ramifications for street vending across New York City. City Hall said the plan—billed as the first of its kind in the city—could be replicated in other neighborhoods with community conflicts over street vending.

The arrangement comes after a months-long controversy that left scores of vendors — many of them immigrants — idle and roiled Corona, Queens, one of the city’s most diverse neighborhoods and one of the hardest hit by COVID-19.

Merchants in brick-and-mortar shops complained of plaza vendors being too close to their stores. Others complained of overcrowding and trash pileups.

Vendors, meanwhile, said they were just trying to make a living—and they pointed to their efforts to resolve ongoing concerns.

They formed the nonprofit Corona Plaza Street Vendors Association in the spring and agreed to follow a list of rules, including registering to pay taxes, passing a food safety exam, and not obstructing the sidewalk.

And the market was ranked No. 48 on the New York Times’ list of the 100 Best Restaurants in New York City.

But the market came to a halt in late July when local sanitation police shut it down, citing ongoing complaints about blocked sidewalks, “dirty conditions,” and “illegal vending” that took place too close to storefronts.

Vendors without one of the city’s limited and highly coveted permits and licenses were told to leave. Just a handful of stalls and long-time vendors remain, joined by a handful of newcomers who arrived in the wake of the clear out.

The city’s 311 system has received 78 complaints related to illegal vending in the area as of the end of October–a nearly five-fold increase from 17 complaints in the same period last year–according to the City Hall announcement.

The crackdown’s consequences have reverberated throughout the largely working-class immigrant neighborhood. Some vendors have struggled to afford basic needs, other nearby businesses have lost foot traffic and revenue, and regular customers have missed the quick, affordable meals and community hangout spot that the plaza became.

For weeks after the crackdown, vendors from the association took shifts around-the-clock to staff a booth at Corona Plaza. They gathered over 13,000 signatures on a petition in support of formalizing the market—a plea they’ve had for years, according to Rosario Troncoso, the association’s president.

“We believe the market will be a foundational opportunity for the essential microbusinesses that provide our community with a cultural hub and nutritious, affordable food,” Troncoso said in a statement. She added that she was thankful for elected officials’ support, and that vendors are looking forward to “make the market an example for the entire city, and to continue contributing to the economy of our neighborhood, Corona, Queens.”

The deal was also a testament of the vendors’ organizing, said Carina Kaufman-Gutierrez, deputy director of the Street Vendor Project, who has assisted vendors at the plaza.

The agreement shows “when an organized group of local street vendors comes together to advocate for the creation of a market, it’s possible,” said Kaufman-Gutierrez.

Corona Plaza’s new outside operator, contracted by the city Department of Transportation, will be responsible for managing vendors and addressing “safety, sanitation, and quality-of-life issues caused by previous unregulated vending,” according to City Hall.

The operator will also ensure vendors comply with city fire Department rules and apply for Department of Health food vending permits specific to Corona Plaza.

The Queens Economic Development Corporation will serve as the market’s interim operator for four months, the Adams administration said, and the DOT will issue a request for proposals for a long-term operator early next year.

Vendors will be required to be a member of the Corona Plaza Street Vendors Association and in good standing with the QEDC, according to Kaufman-Gutierrez.

Members will rotate shifts, and each association member will be able to work at the plaza at least one day per week—a decision that association members agreed upon in a vote–she added.

“Though it’s not the perfect situation, it’s still equitable for all that are involved,” Kaufman-Gutierrez said.

City agencies will “monitor and take enforcement action as necessary to keep Corona Plaza safe and clean,” per City Hall.

The announcement follows an ultimatum last month from Queens Borough President Donovan Richards, who said he wouldn’t sign off on new street maps for the city’s first soccer stadium until the Adams administration reinstated the market.

Richards called the deal a “big first step.” But he also said it was “perfectly imperfect,” adding, “I’m not taking any victory laps here.”

He said he does not “take it lightly” that only a fraction of the original group of vendors can return at one time. And the process took longer than he expected.

But Richards said he recognized the gravity of what he called the “historic” deal. There had been “no real interagency coordination” about street vendors prior to discussions of Corona Plaza, he added.

“This is not simply about Corona Plaza,” Richards said. “Could this be replicated across the rest of the city where you have this battle between constituencies?”

Richards said he still believes in lifting the caps on certain vending permits and vendor licenses, which have been limited for decades despite the over 20,000 and rising estimated street vendors in New York City.

Assemblymember Jessica González-Rojas, a Democrat who represents the area, said the deal was especially important given the city’s delays in expanding the supply of highly-coveted food-vending permits, mandated under a 2021 city council bill.

González-Rojas called the deal, and similar ones to come throughout the city, “a good interim step until we can get an elimination of the caps” on permits and licenses.

This article has been updated with additional information.