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State Licenses and Permits
Street Festival Task Force Report
Community Board 5: Street Festivals Task Force recommendations
Recommendations to Community Board 5:
- Community:
- Street festival organizers must provide to the Board evidence that the sponsoring entity is native to Community District 5.
§ The acceptable criterion is an operational business address within the district, where a majority of the entity's business is conducted.
§ The New York Police Department is exempt from this requirement as they provide services in districts which do not contain their precinct.
- Location:
- Street festivals should be consolidated:
§ In the instance of two events occurring on the same avenue/ neighborhood on adjacent weekends, the two events should instead share two distinct areas within the same avenue/ neighborhood on the same day so as to reduce the overall frequency of festivals within the district.
§ Festivals should only be located on the avenues, rather than side streets, and should avoid predominantly residential neighborhoods altogether.
- Notification:
- Sponsoring entities should be required to provide a contact number for local residents to call in the event that they have concerns regarding the festival.
§ Contact numbers should be given to the Community Board 5 office.
§ The sponsoring entity should be required to post signage, on tents or other structures under their ownership, prompting individuals to call 311 with any concerns regarding the event. (note: signage should not be posted on public property of any kind).
§ The Community Board 5 web-site should have a listing of street closures and street festivals for each calendar year.
- Vendors:
- Vendor booths should be located in the center of the street, back-to-back so that they face the permanent businesses and thereby include the open-for-business establishments, provided that such orientation is not prohibited under existing regulations and provided such orientation provides an appropriate emergency vehicle lane.
Recommendations to Cristin D. Burtis, Executive Director, The Mayor's Office of Citywide Event Management and Coordination (CECM):
- Location:
o Street festival organizers should incur a "Request for Proposals" process with CECM whereby organizers submit proposals for specific locations that have been pre- selected by CECM for closure over the event season.
§ The frequency and geographic distribution of these locations should be strictly limited or banned in residential neighborhoods.
§ Street festival organizers would not be allowed to propose locations that deviate from those set by CECM.
- Notification:
o Postings of street festival schedules and street closures must occur one week before the event and then again 48 hours before the event in the neighborhood to ensure proper community notification.
§ CECM should encourage street festival organizers to post notification through web-sites and other appropriate local media.
o When applicable, the non-profit beneficiary of funds generated from the street fairs should be clearly and prominently identified in all promotional signage and should also be well-represented at the fair.
- Vendors:
- CECM should require street festival organizers to locate booths back-to-back in the center of a street so as to face the brick-and-mortar businesses, and thereby including them in the flow of pedestrians.
o CECM should strongly encourage street festival organizers to offer each interested local businesses one vending booth free of charge.
o Point of Sale:
§ Current vendor systems are not regulated by CECM; therefore, accurate profits made at street festivals are difficult to determine.
§ CECM should provide city-managed Point of Sale (POS) machines to street festival organizers, who then distribute these systems to city-approved vendors at their events.
- Reference the current Parks Department system with approved vendors.
§ These POS machines should be linked to an internal system, whereby CECM can track and analyze the data gathered, and can determine actual profits made at each event by each vendor.
§ Per the above, CECM should now oversee the distribution of funds to non-for-profit sponsoring entities based on a set percentage of profits gained by the festival organizers. (Where applicable).
- This is an effort to ensure that the non-for-profit entity receives the appropriate amount of donated funds.
Recommendations to the NYC Department of Consumer Affairs:
- The NYC Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA) Temporary Street Fair Vendor Permit fee should be raised from $10.00 per applicant per month to $15.00 per applicant per month.
- A portion of the DCA Temporary Street Fair Vendor Permit should be allocated to local Business Improvement Districts through the NYC Department of Small Business Services to be used for neighborhood and community improvements.
Recommendations to the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene:
- Food vendors :
- NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene Food Protection Course Certificates should be mandatory for all food vendors who do not have a current Restaurant Permit irrespective of the number of events they are participating in for the calendar year.
- All food vendors should fall under the DOH requirements for brick-and-mortar restaurants.
§ These include: calorie postings when vending at more than 15 locations throughout a calendar year, hand-washing facilities, restrooms, etc.