Mexican Oliveria González earns her living on the streets of El Barrio following a routine she began seven years ago: in winter, she sells tamales and rice with milk from her little cart; when the weather warms, it's fruits and chicharrones (crisp pork rinds).

On May 10, González and scores of other street vendors gathered at City Hall to denounce other actions that have also become routine: police citations and fines for selling without the required permission. The vendor, who earns $600 a month and supports her 11- and 12-year-old children in Mexico, faults the city for the 14 fines, totaling hundreds of dollars, which she has accumulated over three months. "The [issuing of] licenses is frozen," she said.

The number of licenses for street vendors was set over two decades ago. Since 1979 there have been 853 licenses for selling general merchandise, and today there are thousands of vendors on the waiting list hoping for a license. There is no limit on licenses for selling food, but there is on those for food carts, which the city set at 3,000 in 1983.

These regulations leave scant opportunities for vendors like González to legalize their situation. The Mexican woman has a license as a food seller, but has not been able to obtain one for her cart. At present, 9,000 people have licenses to sell food, according to the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, which grants food and cart licenses. Of those, 6,000 do not have the cart licenses they need to sell their food on the streets.

Brooklyn City Councilmember Charles Barron introduced a bill that would lift the present limits on licenses to sell general merchandise and on those for food carts. Barron said a dozen council members support the bill.

Associations that represent city businesses oppose raising the number of licenses.

"For small businesses they are unfair competition, especially for those that sell food, because they pay high rents and property taxes that street vendors don't pay," said Eduardo Giraldo, president of the Queens Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

Dina Improta, a spokesperson for the Department of Consumer Affairs, which grants general merchandise licenses, affirmed that the laws that govern street vendors should "establish a balance between the desires of the vendors to sell their wares, secure and clear conditions for pedestrians in congested areas, protection and security for the consumer, and a fair coexistence with other businesses that pay taxes."