Hours before that news conference, the second woman was arrested. The police said that woman had outstanding warrants for prior summonses for selling unlicensed food.

The context

To operate legally, food vendors in New York need two documents: a mobile food vending license for themselves, which costs $50, and a mobile food vending permit for each cart or truck, which costs $200.

According to my colleague Sharon Otterman, the city limits the number of mobile food vending permits to 2,900. That cap has remained unchanged since 1983.

The market for permits

Because of the permits’ scarcity, the market for them operates a bit like the taxi medallion market, said Mohamed Attia, executive director of the Street Vendor Project, which supports lifting the cap.

Owners sometimes lease their permits to other vendors for upward of 125 times the price, which can drive the vendors into debt, he said. Kabir Ahmed, a halal cart vendor profiled by The New York Times in 2017, for example, said he had paid $25,000 to lease his license.

In 2007, the city capped its wait list for citywide permits when there were 2,500 names on it, Mr. Attia said. So vendors who have gone into business since then are most likely leasing permits.

The Street Vendor Project estimates that about 20,000 vendors work on city streets, and that more than half of them sell food.