On September 10, 2025, a charged atmosphere swept through New York City’s City Hall as the City Council voted to override three of Mayor Eric Adams’ vetoes—an event that has quickly become a flashpoint in the city’s ongoing debate over the rights of street vendors and the future of gig economy workers. The overrides, which required a two-thirds majority, repealed recently enacted criminal penalties for unlicensed street vending and instituted significant pay raises and workplace protections for grocery delivery workers. The votes, while celebrated by many on the Council and among advocacy groups, have ignited fierce debate across the city, drawing in powerful interests from City Hall, delivery app giants, and the city’s vast immigrant workforce.
According to ABC7 New York, the Council’s move means that the stiffer criminal penalties for street vendors—only put in place by a June 2025 bill—are now repealed. Vendors will still face violations, civil summonses, and fines, but the specter of a criminal record has been lifted. For delivery workers, the override enacts laws that will boost their minimum wage to $21.44 per hour and requires companies like Instacart and Amazon to extend crucial workplace protections, including e-bike safety requirements and access to bathrooms and fire safety materials.
The votes themselves were close but decisive: 35-9 with three abstentions for the street vending bill, 39-8 for the minimum wage increase, and 40-7 for the new workplace protections, as reported by NY1 and Daily News. Council members cheered as the results were announced, with some describing the moment as a necessary stand for working-class and immigrant New Yorkers. “The labor of working people must be valued and protected from exploitation and the extreme anti-working-class agenda of the Trump administration,” City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams declared on the Council floor, as quoted by Daily News. She continued, “That’s why we’re here today, to indicate that we will override the mayor’s vetoes of three critical bills that would protect safety and opportunity for working New Yorkers.”
The backdrop to this legislative drama was anything but calm. Just outside City Hall, multiple city agencies—including the health, parks, and sanitation departments, alongside NYPD officers—were carrying out a coordinated enforcement blitz against street vendors. “We are getting thrown out from here,” said Bernando, a vendor, as quoted by NY1. “All the five agencies came today to give us tickets.” Many vendors, some of whom are military veterans or immigrants who have lost their permits, expressed frustration and fear. Leo, another vendor, remarked, “I think it’s politics. It’s just politics. They don’t want us in the park no more.” The Mayor’s Office insisted that the enforcement was previously scheduled in response to community complaints and not politically motivated.
At the heart of the debate is the city’s large immigrant population—96% of street vendors are immigrants, according to Daily News. Council members, including bill sponsor Shekar Krishnan, argued that criminalizing street vending disproportionately endangers immigrants, particularly in the context of heightened immigration enforcement associated with former President Trump. “There is no doubt that we need a comprehensive, well-regulated, enforceable system of street vending in New York City, but it cannot be by putting people in jail simply for selling food to support their family,” Krishnan stated during the Council hearing. He further argued, “We cannot be subjecting immigrant New Yorkers to jail time and the drastic immigration consequences.”
The new legislation replaces misdemeanor charges for unlicensed vending with civil penalties and fines. While this shift is seen as a lifeline by many vendors, some city officials remain skeptical. First Deputy Mayor Randy Mastro called the bill “bad legislation in the guise of decriminalizing illegal vending; it effectively legalizes it by providing no real penalty for doing it,” as reported by Daily News. He added, “That’s bad for our city. It’s not fair to all the legal small businesses and licensed vendors, most of whom are themselves immigrants.” Council Member Mercedes Narcisse, who voted against the override, echoed concerns that decriminalization could hurt small businesses already struggling to compete.
On the delivery worker front, the Council’s actions have triggered anxiety among major delivery app companies. Instacart has threatened to sue the city, warning that delivery bills could rise by $10 under the new laws. The company expressed qualified support for the minimum wage bill but only for the time workers spend actively delivering orders—not for the time spent waiting for assignments. Mayor Adams, for his part, argued that the new rules would drive up grocery prices at a time when many New Yorkers are already struggling with the cost of living. “Grocery prices are already too high, so now is not the right time to do anything to drive these prices even higher,” Adams said in August, as quoted by Daily News. “Unfortunately, [the bills] would do just that at a time when too many working-class New Yorkers are struggling.”
Behind the scenes, the mayor’s vetoes appear to have been influenced by intense lobbying from Instacart, Amazon, and senior City Hall advisers, including First Deputy Mayor Randy Mastro and senior adviser Diane Savino. Despite this, the Council pressed forward, with Council Member Sandy Nurse, sponsor of the wage increase bill, stating, “All we’re asking for is $21-an-hour, which is barely enough to survive in this city. But even that was too much for a $13 billion company, and the mayor sided with them. He has abandoned working people and immigrant workers.”
The override votes come at a time of visible tension between the mayor and the City Council, reflecting a broader rift between the city’s executive and legislative branches. The Council’s progressive wing has framed the overrides as a necessary check on the mayor’s perceived alignment with corporate and Trump-era policies, while the mayor and his allies warn of unintended economic consequences and enforcement challenges.
Outside the political theater, the practical impact of these new laws will soon be felt on the city’s streets and in the paychecks of thousands of workers. Street vendors, many of whom have operated in fear of arrest, will now face civil—not criminal—penalties. Grocery delivery workers, who have long pushed for parity with restaurant delivery workers, will see their pay rise and their workplace conditions improve, at least on paper.
As the dust settles, New Yorkers are left to grapple with the question: Can the city balance the needs of its most vulnerable workers with the realities of small business competition and the rising cost of living? For now, the Council’s message is clear—protecting the city’s working class and immigrant communities is a priority, even if it means a public showdown with the mayor and some of the most powerful companies in the gig economy.
