NYC Proposes More Fruit, Vegetable Carts

[December 19, 2007]  NEW YORK (AP) -- The wait could soon be over for hundreds of people seeking coveted city street vendor's licenses -- if they say no to hot dogs and pretzels and yes to apples and carrots.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn said Tuesday they would support legislation lifting a cap on the number of food pushcarts allowed on city streets -- but only for vendors who exclusively sell fresh fruits and vegetables. A bill to create the permits will be introduced to the City Council this week, where it is expected to receive support.

City officials hope to get as many as 1,500 new fruit and vegetable carts onto sidewalks in neighborhoods where vegetable consumption is low, including Harlem, southeast Queens and most of the Bronx and Brooklyn.

The current fleet of 4,100 carts is dominated by people selling soft drinks, hot dogs and platters of chicken and lamb. Fewer than 400 sell fruits or vegetables.

The city's health commissioner, Thomas Frieden, said the program intends to introduce fresh produce back into neighborhoods where diabetes and obesity rates have skyrocketed over the years as groceries have disappeared and been replaced with fast food and convenience stores selling potato chips and other junk.

"Our genes didn't change. Our gluttony didn't change. What changed was our environment," Frieden said.

Aine Duggan, a vice president at the Food Bank for New York City, said vegetable sellers are badly needed in some parts of the city, especially black neighborhoods in Brooklyn and the Bronx where supermarkets have historically been reluctant to invest.

"There is a food desert in many areas," she said. "In order to make an extra trip to a grocery store, not in the neighborhood, you're talking about getting on a subway and dragging bags of groceries home."

Vendors who participate in the program will surely face challenges. City street carts generally cater to tourists or the Manhattan office building lunchtime crowd. There is likely to be less of that type of business in the outer boroughs, where many workers commute.

Still, there are 2,500 people on the waiting list for street vendor's licenses, and Frieden said some of them are certain to take a chance on vegetables, rather than continue holding out for a hot dog stand.

Permits for the new carts would be phased in over two years.

[Associated Press; By DAVID B. CARUSO]

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