Logo of Phnom Penh Post newspaper Phnom Penh Post - NY’s street vendors still waiting for Covid to end

NY’s street vendors still waiting for Covid to end

Content image - Phnom Penh Post
Abdul Rahman works at a coffee truck in Battery Park City in New York serving a fraction of former business since offices are still far from full. AFP

NY’s street vendors still waiting for Covid to end

After his small Manhattan food stand lost its customers during the coronavirus pandemic, Abdul Rahman – an Afghan vendor who arrived in New York in 1992 – has resumed service, albeit at a fraction of former business since offices are still far from full.

Rahman and the thousands of street vendors like him, emblematic of New York’s sidewalks, were hoping things would finally go back to normal in September.

But that’s far from the case: “The business is like, 20, 30 per cent [less] than before the pandemic,” Rahman, 44, said, standing in front of a display case of doughnuts and other pastries. On the counter is a jug of coffee, which he says he has trouble emptying.

With a wave of his arm, he points to where customers used to form long lines in front of his mobile stand.

Like yellow taxis, the metal food carts – stocked with coffee, muffins, bananas and hard boiled eggs – are part of New York’s cityscape.

An estimated 20,000 vendors are on the streets of the Big Apple, and many of them are immigrants who have no other way of earning money.

A city hall permit is clearly visible on Rahman’s cart, as is a photo of his three children, all born in the US.

‘Better than nothing’

It has been 20 years since Rahman arrived in New York to escape the war back home in Afghanistan.

He set up shop on the sidewalk of Whitehall Street, in the south of Manhattan. It is a good location, at the foot of office buildings, near a subway exit and not far from the docks where ferries full of tourists leave and return for the Statue of Liberty, as well as boats transporting workers from Staten Island.

Content image - Phnom Penh Post
After his small Manhattan food stand lost its customers during the coronavirus pandemic, Abdul Rahman – an Afghan vendor who arrived in New York in 1992 – has resumed service. AFP

Some customers are loyal, such as Mike Reyes, a maintenance worker, who says he comes every morning.

“We need affordable [things] like donuts, coffee, because I do know in the city it’s very expensive,” he explained. “To me, they are really essential.”

But tourists are still few and far between as a result of the Delta variant, so “people work mostly from home,” said Rahman.

According to a survey conducted by the Partnership for New York City organisation, only 23 per cent of the one million office workers in Manhattan had returned to their offices by August, and employers were anticipating a rate of 41 per cent by the end of September – well below the two-thirds expected in May.

With a baseball cap on his head and black mask over his nose and mouth, Rahman hopes things will go back to normal in October. . . or maybe January.

“I don’t know what’s going on in the future,” he said worriedly, noting that he relies on his wife’s salary as a teacher to support the family.

For the time being, after 15 months of inactivity due to the pandemic, during which he was able to receive public aid, he prefers to go to work.

In order to get into the city from his home in Nassau County in eastern Long Island he has to get up at 2:30am, Monday through Friday.

“It’s better than nothing,” he said, although the times of earning $800-$900 in a good week are a distant memory.

“If I stay home, [there’s] more pressure on me, and what should you do at home?” he said.

After 20 years on the job, Rahman is thinking of switching to another line of work. His wife tried to find him a job as a school bus driver, but it was only part-time.

Besides, “I know all the people here,” he said. “It’s almost 21 years, it looks like a life here.”

MOST VIEWED

  • Joy as Koh Ker Temple registered by UNESCO

    Cambodia's Koh Ker Temple archaeological site has been officially added to UNESCO’s World Heritage List, during the 45th session of the World Heritage Committee held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on September 17. The ancient temple, also known as Lingapura or Chok Gargyar, is located in

  • Famed US collector family return artefacts to Cambodia

    In the latest repatriation of ancient artefacts from the US, a total of 33 pieces of Khmer cultural heritage will soon return home, according to the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts. In a September 12 press statement, it said the US Attorney’s Office for the

  • Tina rebuffs ‘false claims’ over falling paddy price

    Agriculture minister Dith Tina has shed light on the trade of paddy rice in Battambang – Cambodia’s leading rice-producing province – in a bid to curb what he dubs a “social media fact distortion campaign” to destabilise the market. While acknowledging that the prices of paddy

  • Cambodia set to celebrate Koh Ker UNESCO listing

    To celebrate the inscription of the Koh Ker archaeological site on UNESCO’s World Heritage List, the Ministry of Cults and Religion has appealed to pagodas and places of worship to celebrate the achievement by ringing bells, shaking rattles and banging gongs on September 20. Venerable

  • Kampot curfew imposed to curb ‘gang’ violence

    Kampot provincial police have announced measures to contain a recent spike in antisocial behaviour by “unruly’ youth. Officials say the province has been plagued by recent violence among so-called “gang members”, who often fight with weapons such as knives and machetes. Several social observers have

  • PM outlines plans to discuss trade, policy during US visit

    Prime Minister Hun Manet is set to meet with senior US officials and business leaders during his upcoming visit to the US for the UN General Assembly (UNGA), scheduled for September 20. While addressing nearly 20,000 workers in Kampong Speu province, Manet said he aims to affirm