Informal Urbanism in the USA: New Challenges for Theory and PracticePlanning Theory and Practice

Devlin describes the case of immigrant food vendors in an area of Brooklyn and how as they became more popular with better off New Yorkers the authorities felt compelled to act enforcing city health and planning regulations, how this fundamentally changed the character of vending and the viability of vendor livelihoods. 

Porter describes this as ‘how local regulatory powers come into operation when encounters with the informal appear to cross a boundary into mainstream urban life. The effects are difficult and replete with contradictions, and she concludes that planning is not well equipped to handle the dilemmas involved’.