Aquilina Muñoz, a Queens food vendor, hates telling evening commuters she’s already closed when they pass by her quesadilla stand in Corona Plaza on their way home. If it were up to her, she’d open earlier and close later to catch rush hour foot traffic.
“We start packing up at 7:30 p.m. when people are coming for dinner. And we can’t serve them anything,” said Muñoz, a mother of four who supports her family with her earnings. “We tell them, ‘No más.’ They ask us, ‘Why? Why?’ They’re angry,” she said.
Two years ago, Muñoz and other food stall vendors could dish up authentic food from across Latin America at all hours. More than 80 unlicensed vendors worked at the informal market, praised by local media and online influencers as one of the best places to eat in the city, with its colorful jugs of cold aguas frescas and hand-pressed masa for fresh quesadillas and huaraches.
That changed in 2023, when some Corona residents, frustrated with the noise and trash generated by the market, pushed the city to formalize its operations. The New York City Police Department shut down the food stalls for several months while the Department of Transportation, which owns the land, worked out a short-term deal to have the Queens Economic Development Corporation take it over.
QEDC, an economic development group incubating and assisting entrepreneurs and small businesses, was initially expected to run the market for about six months, until a permanent management company could be found. But after a lengthy contracting period that will end on November 28, QEDC is negotiating with DOT to sign for another three years.
Under QEDC, Corona Plaza Market must abide by the hours set by DOT, which means vendors like Muñoz can only sell food between 9 a.m. and 8 p.m., Wednesday through Sunday. That’s cut her earnings from a weekly average of $500 during the peak of the unregulated days to less than $200 a week now, she said.
“It’s not enough to live. I can’t buy my kids clothes and shoes,” Muñoz said.
To make matters worse, formalizing the market unintentionally created a new problem for vendors and the brick-and-mortar businesses that surround it: unlicensed competition.
Dozens of permitted and unpermitted vendors have cropped up around the market, and unlike Muñoz and its other Corona Plaza vendors, they don’t have to follow operating hours, or any other DOT regulations.
The QEDC raised $250,000 from private funders to cover all of the cost of the market in its first year, money which goes towards paying the salaries of market managers, insurance, trash collection, stall maintenance, and office and kitchen space nearby, according to Seth Bornstein, the organization’s president.
“It’s not Brooklyn Heights. I cannot charge these vendors a fortune,” said Bornstein. QEDC currently doesn’t charge vendors anything, but their new proposal lays out a funding plan that combines vendor fees, public funds, and private investment, Bornstein said.
Corona Plaza Market needs three things to survive, according to Bornstein. He wants more stalls to attract food tourism from outside of Corona, longer operating hours to allow vendors to take in more money from locals, and a public subsidy to help cover operating expenses.
None of the three criteria were in the DOT’s most recent long-term contract proposal, he said. “I can’t sign a contract without a promise of city funds,” said Bornstein, who rejected the terms.
A DOT spokesperson declined to comment, saying the agency can’t discuss ongoing negotiations.
With only 14 stalls allowed in Corona Plaza, under the existing DOT contract, and only three of them serving hot food, the market is struggling to bring in significant tourist dollars.
Prior to the 2023 shutdown, when the market was unregulated, its clientele was about half locals and half tourists, according to Rosario Troncoso, president of the Asociación de Vendedores Ambulantes de Corona Plaza that represents street vendors like herself and Muñoz who operate within Corona Plaza Market.
Locals now make up about 70 percent of market patrons, according to her estimate.
AVA works closely with QEDC to represent the needs of vendors in contract negotiations, Troncoso said. “We are essential contributors to the local economy and we provide a lot of jobs,” she said.
The brick and mortar businesses that overlook Corona Plaza are also waiting to see what changes a new market contract might bring. Managers at several establishments said the market is cleaner and more orderly since QEDC started regulating it, but they have mixed feelings about how it should move forward.
Some, like Will Chen, co-owner of U-Crew Thai Creamery, would be happy if the vendors – licensed and unlicensed – went away entirely.
“It impacts us a lot. We can see that business has slowed down a lot in the past two years,” Chen said.