NYC mayoral candidate Andrew Yang recently tweeted his inclination to crack down on unlicensed street vendors. "You know what I hear over and over again – that NYC is not enforcing rules against unlicensed street vendors," he said. "I'm for increasing licenses but we should do more for the retailers who are paying rent and trying to survive."
The people started posting this 2019 video of a crying churro vendor seeing her livelihood disappear as a swarm of NYPD cops confiscate her cart:
Now Yang says he regrets his tweet.
From NYMag:
The Street Vendor Project, a group advocating to help street food operators "earn a living and contribute" to city life, called Yang's comment "grossly uninformed," adding that "vendors bring business to commercial corridors, increasing foot traffic and economic growth for all." New York City comptroller Scott Stringer held a press conference in Queens on Monday, taking the opportunity to criticize his fellow mayoral candidate. "[Yang] wants to create a crackdown on vendors, and send enforcement to the immigrant communities that powered us through the pandemic," Stringer said, before inviting vendors, advocates, and Assembly member Catalina Cruz and state senator Jessica Ramos to speak.
Later on Monday, Yang apologized for his comment, telling reporters at an event in Brooklyn that "I regret that I took on such a frankly complicated and nuanced issue" on Twitter, adding that such thinking was "a product of that medium."
