Pushcart Vendors Worried About Faneuil Hall Renovation Plan
BOSTON (CBS) - It's shaping up as a pushing match about pushcarts, and the stakes are the future of Faneuil Hall Market. The famed marketplace and tourist magnet is set to undergo major renovations and some of the vendors, especially the pushcart vendors, are worried.
"Everybody's uneasy and they're afraid," says Susan Luongo who operates the Happy Hangups cart selling Christmas ornaments. "A lot of us, it's our only source of income here. We are 70% women and many of us have been here 30 years or more," she says.
Some retail and food vendors are also nervous that the market's operator wants to bring in national and international companies, and push out the locally owned businesses. "We don't need another upscale mall," says Luongo.
Carol Troxell heads the Faneuil Hall Marketplace Merchant Association. "We want to be part of the planning and we'd like to be at the table while these plans are made," she says.
So Monday, the Boston City Council asked for answers about the pushcarts. The Boston representative for Faneuil Hall's operator, Ashkenazy Acquisition Corp. in New York, answered their questions saying the pushcarts will be part of the future. "The program will remain in place at Faneuil Hall Marketplace, with some minor changes," says Kristen Keefe. Keefe says only three carts will be eliminated going from 59 to 56.
Yet, some vendors are skeptical blaming poor communications. "They haven't really discussed all that much with us," says Troxell of the Merchant Assoc.
But Keefe says they're doing the best they can. "We have released information as we can, because quite frankly, it changes, constantly," she says.
And that's also part of the concern. That what's said today, might not be reality tomorrow. The renovation project is set to start early next year.
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