FEATURE-Growing calls to legalize U.S. street vendors post pandemic
* Street sales are illegal or highly regulated in many US cities
* Proponents say providers are vital to post-COVID economic recovery
* Various US cities, states trying to decriminalize sales
WASHINGTON, May 5 (Thomson Reuters Foundation). Since Nekia Hattley lost her job in 2018, she's been selling vegan desserts at farmers markets and on the streets of Los Angeles. Today, as COVID-19 is pushing people outside, she sees a potential new spike in sales - but there's a catch.
Street vendors selling groceries have strict guidelines including what type of cart they can use and where they can prepare the groceries. These regulations are complicated and expensive to comply with, Hattley said.
"People usually start selling on the street because they are trying to create a resource for themselves starting with zero," Hattley told the Thomson Reuters Foundation, adding that the rules are "impossible - it's crazy".
Some cities are trying to change this as several key legal advances across the country are making street vendors easier and cheaper to operate.
At a time when financial experts suggest that small outdoor businesses could play an important role in the country's post-pandemic economic recovery, vendors and charities say the changes are not happening fast enough.
Los Angeles introduced a new system last year where roughly 10% of the city's 15,000+ street vendors now have permits, said Paul Gomez, a spokesman for the city's public works department.
"Street selling is an integral part of the city of Los Angeles and we want to make sure it is done safely and legally," he said.
The Los Angeles County Department of Health, which allows all retail grocery sales in the county, said vendors' equipment must meet state health and hygiene requirements.
“Some providers cannot make this financial investment. Public Health wants to help those who need help complying with state laws, ”said the statement emailed.
Rudy Espinoza, executive director of Inclusive Action for the City, a nonprofit, said many cities lack the benefits of helping street vendors.
Sellers tend to source their products locally, use public transportation, and pay for commercial kitchens while making public spaces safer and attracting new customers to neglected commercial corridors, Espinoza said.
"There's this economy around every vendor that we need to think about - it's not just that one person, it's an ecosystem," he said.
Street sales are vital to the economic health of an area, Espinoza added, and the pandemic has disrupted many people massively - but it also offers an opportunity.
"Now it's all about open air, transit and pick-up - and who does that all the time?" he asked.
However, vendors, proponents, and academics say that street sales in many places are hampered by strict regulations, outdated local governance, and biased and misinformed perceptions.
“There is no respect for street vendors who are seen as vagabonds rather than business owners. They are considered Riffraff, ”said Hattley.
The US Department of Labor did not respond to a request for comment.
LOCAL BENEFITS
Hattley's perception is widespread in cities across the country, said Catherine Brinkley, who teaches community development at the University of California at Davis.
Selling street food is illegal in many cities, and in places where sales are not immediately banned, regulations make it absurdly difficult to make a living selling food in public places.
"Public health is often the motivating concern, although there is nothing to back it up - other than the tendency to view low-income people and practices as dirty and be removed," said Brinkley, who investigated the problem.
On the other hand, she added, the data highlights the positive effects of street selling, including the availability of cheap food or the only source of fresh food in some areas.
And while vending machines aren't lucrative, research, according to Brinkley, shows that people often turn to practice during the economic recession and after losing jobs in other sectors - such as the pandemic.
"If cities can address the economic and health benefits of street food, I believe they have a winning combination for the rest of the pandemic and beyond," Brinkley said.
"TIMING IS PERFECT NOW"
Some policymakers are moving in this direction.
California currently has one of the most liberal street sales laws in the country, having decriminalized the practice across the state in 2018.
Cities that want to keep giving out quotes to vendors must provide them with a way to get approval, Espinoza told Inclusive Action for the City.
California law has had a galvanizing effect nationally, prompting activists elsewhere to call for decriminalization.
In New York City, street vendors' policies had been bogged down since the 1980s when officials limited permits to around 3,000 despite demand from at least 12,000 vendors, said Mohamed Attia, director of the Street Vendor Project at the nonprofit Urban Justice Center.
Attia started working as a street vendor shortly after arriving in the US from Egypt in 2008. She first worked on a breakfast cart and eventually sold a range of groceries.
By that point, the city had stopped keeping a permit waiting list, resulting in a thriving underground market. Attia said he leases someone else's permit for $ 20,000 every two years.
"It was a really crazy situation," he recalled.
Beginning in 2014, Attia and other vendors urged city officials to raise the cap, which happened that year.
Inspired by the California example, they now want vending machines to be decriminalized across the state of New York.
"The timing is now perfect for lawmakers to look at because we saw during the pandemic ... a lot of people are getting into the sale, people who have lost their businesses," Attia said.
“Street vending is the platform on which people can survive when they switch from one (job) to another. This is one of the easiest businesses to start with - if there is a fair system in place. "
In Washington, DC, proposed amendments to the law would decriminalize unlicensed street sales, simplify the licensing process, and wipe away past fines to give sellers a fresh start, said chief sponsor of the bills, Councilor Brianne K. Nadeau.
Sellers are a "very special part of the neighborhoods they serve," Nadeau said in an interview.
"And they've increased during the pandemic," she said, noting that many vendors added masks and hand sanitizers to their merchandise.
"They do all of this because it's their community and they take care of it," said Nadeau.
"It was a truly poignant example of people who make up the fabric of our communities and yet are not treated as equal partners with other companies." (Reporting by Carey L. Biron @clbtea, Editing by Jumana Farouky and Zoe Tabary. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the non-profit arm of Thomson Reuters, which covers the lives of people around the world who are struggling to Live free or fair. Visit news.trust.org)
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