Spoiled! How Relentless Enforcement and $1,000 Tickets Are Ruining Chinatown's Largest Fruit and Vegetable Market

Abstract

On Forsyth Street in Chinatown, in what is certainly the busiest fruit and vegetable market in any low-income New York neighborhood, the city's police and health departments are undermining access to healthy food through strict enforcement of vending regulations and near-daily sweeps, resulting in ticketing, arrests, and the confiscation and destruction of fresh produce and vending equipment. Data recently released by the Environmental Control Board (ECB) reveal that 949 ECB summonses were issued to fruit and vegetable vendors at the street market on Forsyth Street between Canal and Division Streets in 2009 and 2010, an average of 1.3 tickets per day. When criminal court, parking and sanitation summonses are added in, we estimate Forsyth Street Market vendors have received more than 2,000 total tickets over the past two years. Our three-month investigation reveals that this aggressive enforcement has driven vendors out of business, diminished the market, and curbed access to healthy food for Chinatown residents