Helping street vendors avoid unfair and costly fines

Community Partners

CUP and Street Vendor Project distributed over 1,000 copies of Vendor Power to vendors across the city in a single day.

When this project was created, street vendors could get a $1,000 ticket for parking more than 18 inches from the curb. When you’re earning an average of $14,000 a year, as New York City’s street vendors were, that can really get in the way of making a living.
In 2009, The Street Vendor Project collaborated with CUP and designer Candy Chang to create Vendor Power, a pamphlet and fold-out poster that decodes the rules and regulations for New York’s 10,000+ street vendors. The poster uses simple graphics and minimal text — in the five languages most commonly spoken among NYC’s vendors — to explain some of the most-often violated laws, with the goal of helping vendors understand their rights and avoid unnecessary fines.

CUP and Street Vendor Project staff and volunteers launched Vendor Power with a street canvassing sweep through the five boroughs, distributing over a thousand copies of the poster in a single day. The document’s portable format makes it easy for vendors to keep them on-hand. Street Vendor Project members tell us they even show them to police when there’s a question about a specific law!
Street Vendor Project has distributed thousands of copies of Vendor Power to its members and other organizations that deal with street vendor issues.

Update: After years of vendors fighting for reduced fines, the City Council passed a law to reduce the maximum vendor fine for minor offenses. CUP has worked with Street Vendor Project to reissue Vendor Power with new information twice, and it's still in use today!

The cover and a spread from Vendor Power

Check Out the Project

MPP Vendor Power

CUP
<a href="https://welcometocup.org/people/john-mangin">John Mangin</a><a href="https://welcometocup.org/people/rosten-woo"> Rosten Woo</a>

Community Partner
<a href="https://welcometocup.org/people/the-street-vendor-project">The Street Vendor Project </a> Sean Basinski

Designer<a href="https://welcometocup.org/people/sean-suchara"></a><a href="https://welcometocup.org/people/candy-chang"> </a><a href="https://welcometocup.org/people/candy-chang">Candy Chang</a>

Project Collaborators

<h4> Special Thanks </h4>
Lei Bai, Rupa Bhattacharya, Ryan Devlin, Mark Foggin, Cesar Fuentes, Ali Issa, Serge Martinez, Elizabeth Stanton, Abu Taher, Paula Winograd, Tina Wu. 
<h4>Product Details</h4>
8″ × 11″ color pamphlet; unfolds to 32″ × 22″ poster 
<h4>Funding Support</h4>
This project was made possible by public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency; and the New York Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.<h4> </h4>

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Hyperakt is a purpose-driven design and innovation studio that elevates human dignity and ignites curiosity. Since 2001, co-founders Julia Zeltser and Deroy Peraza, along with the Hyperakt team, have been partnering with change-makers moving society forward. We believe in design’s power to build a future filled with courage, optimism, and honesty.

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The Center for Urban Pedagogy (CUP) is a nonprofit organization that uses the power of design and art to increase meaningful civic engagement in partnership with historically marginalized communities.

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