Today’s mobile food vending business is one of day laborers and shift workers who, despite hustling all week long, may not earn minimum wage.

Even for bosses like Sharif, financial autonomy is not guaranteed. Though Sharif owns the actual food cart—“I built it 3 years ago” —a portion of his earnings is sent to “a guy in New Jersey.” That guy is in all likelihood “Mr. Q.” While Sharif owns the food cart and his own vendor’s license, it’s Mr. Q who controls the mobile food vending permit—a tiny piece of adhesive plastic that makes this cart more than just a griddle on wheels. Without it, Sharif has no business. Sharif and Steve are just 2 of the 1000s of unwitting lawbreakers in a black market for cart permits that operates in plain sight of the city’s enforcement agencies. That black market is worth an estimated $15M to $20M a year, costing the city millions of $ in potential fees while making it harder for immigrant entrepreneurs to build equity and take the first step up the economic ladder.

how the food cart system in nyc works. still unexplained: why are the carts in midtown so terrible, giving tourists a completely wrong impression about what new yorkers eat?

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