options are endless. anthony: the seven train winds over and through queens like a main cable. every stop can seem like another country, another region. get off at roosevelt avenue and you re going to eat well for sure. example, this cart sells
so it s for them it might be even more that they re eating on the streets. anthony: shawn bazinski is the director of the street vendor project. prior to going to law school, he built a pushcart and sold burritos on the corner of 52nd and park. he founded svp with a small grant from yale university law school. he lives in a tenement walk up apartment in manhattan with a bathtub in the kitchen. you know, like most lawyers. anthony: so within like a mile from here matt: yeah. anthony: what would my options be nationality wise? matt: it s incredible. i mean, you have tibetan street food, then there s colombian arepas. you go up into flushing and there s the chinese bbq parts. i don t know of any place in new york, maybe even the world or the country where you can have such diversity on the street. anthony: matt shapiro is another lawyer who represents street vendors when they need legal help, which in our nanny state current reality is all too often. anthony: now, generall
when i arrived to queens it was very hard because i left my son and my husband back in mexico. well i started to sell tamales because, i didn t have a job. i lost my job after the twin tower attack. it has been really hard. so i used to sell in a shopping cart. the police used to harass us a lot. they took us to jail. about 15 or 16 times. yes, it was really bad. that is when i decided that we had to rent a cart, because i didn t want to be arrested by the police.
well, now it s going great. it has only been growing. on weekends it s great because we sell around 2000 tamales. anthony: it s tempting to think when reflecting on jackson heights of indian, but queens is always changing, always in flux, a landing spot for people from all over the world. new arrivals from tibet being an example. sandwiched in between two cell phone stores and a couple of jewelry shops is lhasa fast food. ali: this particular neighborhood that we are in now, jackson heights, has historically been the first stop for the newest immigrants. it s a big latino neighborhood but the south asian s community s presence is pretty
it has been really hard. so i used to sell in a shopping cart. the police used to harass us a lot. they took us to jail. about 15 or 16 times. yes, it was really bad. that is when i decided that we had to rent a cart, because i didn t want to be arrested by the police. well, now it s going great. it has only been growing. on weekends it s great because we sell around 2000 tamales.