Street Vendors Push for Citywide Legalization

ECHO PARK—“L.A. loves street food culture,” Clare Fox told a crowd of about 60 Los Angeles street vendors and their supporters, who gathered recently on Cesar Chavez day in Echo Park to protest what they called the “ongoing criminalization of street vendors” and to push for citywide legalization.

“But does the city respect street food vendors?” she asked.

“No!” the crowd shouted back.

Fox is the executive director of the Los Angeles Food Policy Council, a body created in 2011 by then Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to expand access to healthy food in lower income communities, the same communities in which the bulk of Los Angeles’s street vendors live.

According to Fox, street vending is already an integral part of Los Angeles culture, and “the law needs to catch up.”

In November 2013, Los Angeles City Councilmembers Jose Huizar and Curren D. Price, Jr. authored a motion that would begin the legalization process for street vending, but three years later, little progress has been made.

According to public records, the motion has gone back and forth, between two city council committees and the city’s Chief Legislative Analyst, seven times since its introduction.

Attempts to contact Huizar and Price to check on the status of the motion were unsuccessful.

Nancy Meza with the East LA Community Corporation (ELCC), a nonprofit Latino outreach organization, said she believes the council has been moving the issue from one committee to another to avoid taking action.

Late last year, a group of street vendors filed a lawsuit against the city of Los Angeles over what they say was the illegal confiscation of their carts and equipment by the Los Angeles Police Dept. (LAPD), according to an October Los Angeles Times article.

With proper permits, street vendors are sometimes legally allowed to operate during parades, festivals and other special events.

But, a jewelry vendor at the Chavez Day protest—who asked to be identified only as Deborah—said she and other vendors faced LAPD harassment when they participated in Leimert Park’s annual Martin Luther King Day parade earlier this year.

“We had 15 police cars try to move us out of the park,” she said.

According to Deborah, the police eventually conceded that she and the other vendors were legal participants in the event, and allowed them to stay.

“Street vending is already a part of our culture that needs to be formalized,” said ELCC’s Meza. “City Hall can’t continue to wait and stall while vendors are being harassed and criminalized every day.”

Complicating the issue, said Meza, are Health Dept. permits, which are routinely issued to street food vendors. According to Meza, because of these permits, many vendors mistakenly think they are operating legally.

Further, said Meza, LAPD enforcement of street vending laws is inconsistent, resulting in hefty fines and merchandise confiscation for some vendors, while others are let off with a warning, or in some cases, not approached by police at all.

“We want [enforcement] to be based on actual policy,” said Meza. “Not just whether [an officer] feels nice that day.”

The LAPD did not respond to requests for comment on their enforcement protocol for street vending.

According to previous reports, some opponents of citywide legalization have suggested designated vending areas as a possible solution instead, but such attempts have been unsuccessful in the past.

In 1994, an ordinance was passed to allow for the creation of “Special Sidewalk Vending Districts,” which would make vending legal in specific neighborhoods.

However, according to a 2014 report by Los Angeles’ Chief Legislative Analyst, only one such district was ever created, and none currently exist.

According to the report, the city paid a contractor over $235,000 to manage one such district in MacArthur Park. But despite the high operational costs, the now defunct vending district generated just over $5,000 in city revenue.

Aside from being costly for the city, the report states many vendors found the process of forming vending districts to be “cumbersome.”

ELCC’s Meza said she agrees with this assessment, and does not consider designated vending areas to be a viable solution.

“We want to stay away from vending districts and really push for citywide policy,” said Meza.