In the article, “The Good Old Days of Poverty: Merchants and the Battle Over Pushcart Peddling on the Lower East Side,” Suzanne Wasserman discusses the history of pushcarts in New York City. There was a campaign by “self-proclaimed reformers” to replace these pushcarts or open-air markers with indoor markets which Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia vehemently supported by creating laws to facilitate this reform. My question is, why was it so difficult for merchants and peddlers to live and work simultaneously? Why was there so much contention between them throughout the 20th century? Were merchants so eager to rid the Lower East Side of because they disliked people of Jewish and Italian ethnicities or did they believe the peddlers were bad for business? To what extent did these factors (as well as policies by Mayor LaGuardia) combine and lead to expelling pushcarts from the Lower East Side?