In 2006, the Center published Rethinking New York's Street Fairs, a report which urged the city to make major changes to street fairs held in the five boroughs. The report concluded that city street fairs are bland and generic and dominated by a handful of the same vendors selling items like tube socks and gyros—a surprisingly high percentage of which were not even based in the city. One of our recommendations was that "vendors ought to be able to apply for street fair permits online, eliminating the need for entrepreneurs and business owners to waste hours dealing with the bureaucracy." Last week, the Bloomberg administration announced that applications for street fairs are now available online. While there is clearly still much work left to improve and enliven street fairs, we're hopeful that more local entrepreneurs and artists will now find it easier to participate in these events.