Predatory Opacity: Bureaucratic Exclusion and Street Vendor Crackdowns in New Orleans

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  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): 8: Stigma and Moral Panics

Abstract

Here, I introduce the concept of ‘predatory opacity,’ which refers to enforcement without a viable pathway to compliance. I use this to understand experiences of state punishment as part of broader, racialized governance structures. Particularly, I connect enforcement actions to the racially uneven outcomes of prior state administrative processes. My case investigates the punishment (i.e., fines) of commercial street vendors and other non-legally compliant small business owners in New Orleans. This group are frequently the targets of quality-of-life oriented ‘crackdowns,’ like those in the lead-up to Super Bowl LIX in February 2025. My analysis of data on 1,129 extra-legal vending enforcement cases reveal that these actions fall overwhelming onto Black New Orleanians. Seeking to connect the administrative and carceral hands of local government, I understand this pattern to be a result of structural and racialized disadvantage in bureaucratic permitting systems. Drawing on 92 interviews with small business owners, informal vendors, and other commercial development stakeholders in New Orleans, I show that burdensome hurdles within the commercial permitting process reinforce inequality in terms of which vendors can comply with legal mandates. People of color often get stuck in the permitting process, leaving them vulnerable to three potential situations of non-compliance. First, knowledge traps describe vendors who try to fully comply with ordinances, but due a lack of procedural know-how and inability to hire expensive consultants or lawyers, they end up with some non-compliant parts of their operation that can lead to fines. Second, compliance gaps describe situations in which administrative processing delays or other bureaucratic mishaps lead to temporary gaps in compliance that can be exploited by enforcement officials. Third and finally, scofflaws refer to vendors who knowingly sell their goods extra-legally, usually because they feel that they do not have the money, time, knowledge, or social contacts to get permits.

Author

• AJ Golio, Tulane University