Chatting with Sean Basinski, founder of the Street Vendor Project

As the thermometer takes a turn south, you’ll notice that the streets get a little less crowded. Asma Mohamed’s halal cart is not the only one that disappears: There are fewer t-shirt vendors crowding the Fulton Street sidewalk, and you might have to run into a Starbucks instead of getting your coffee on Broadway and Cedar.

Where do the street vendors, so omnipresent during warmer times, go during the “off-season,” the bitter New York cold?

To find out more, my journalism class chatted with Sean Basinski, the founder and director of the Street Vendor Project, an organization that advocates for street vendors across the city. Basinski, 36, described the Project as a union of sorts: independent individuals using collective action to take on their adversary, namely the New York City government.

He said that though the cold might force vendors to close for a few months, the city presents a litany of other problems.

Vendors face issues with permits, with the police, or with policies that limit where they can set up shop. Basinski said that the Project helps vendors realize their rights, because often vendors do not understand that the city is taking advantage of them.

“We envision some of what we do as opening vendors’ eyes to problems that they can’t see because they’re so in the middle of things,” he said.

The biggest thing that the Project focuses on is giving vendors a voice. Its goal is to get vendor customers involved as well. Anything as small as a letter or a signature on a petition could help countless people, and let’s not lie: You need that 50-cent cup of coffee. Check out the website at streetvendor.org, and visit the Project’s offices if you get a chance. They’re located right in the neighborhood, at 123 William St.