We are small business owners who sell various merchandise from carts and tables on the street. For most of us our this is our our main source of income. On any given day in the village of Harlem over 200 street merchants can be found operating their vending stands from St. Nicholas Avenue to Lexington Avenue on 125th Street. Due to gentrification, and aggressive redevelopment and increasingly high rents many African American owned stores have been forced to close. Since 1972 we have added to the economic and cultural vitality of Harlem’s main streets, especially 125th Street. For over thirty years a succession of mayors have attempted to push vendors off 125th Street. Even worse they have involved vendors in project schemes designed to fail like Mart 125 and the 116th relocation. Street merchants are once again being subjected to another round of attacks: police harassment, divide and conquer schemes, confiscation of goods and arrest. WE like other long time Harlemites are experiencing being forced out: tenants who can’t afford to live in the “new” Harlem; local Black businesses pushed out; and the wholesale destruction of historic Black Harlem. Our human rights are being violated because we are being denied the right to feed our families as well as the right of self determination to have a voice in what takes place in our community! Please sign our petition to keep vendors on 125th Street.

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