LOS ANGELES — A special election to replace former Los Angeles City Council member Nury Martinez, who used to represent District 6, is days away. Martinez resigned from her seat as council president last October, when a leaked audio recording exposed the racist remarks she made about another council member’s African American son.
One of the issues that voters in the district are concerned about is street vending. The San Fernando Valley is home to thousands of street vendors, including Martha Avila-Mendez, who with her husband runs Tacos el Campeon, a taco and hot dog stand in Panorama City.
Avila-Mendez is from Mexico’s Michoacán state and has been selling tacos for 10 years. She said in Spanish, “I rely on this job for my rent and to be able to send money to my kids in Mexico.”
But for Avila-Mendez, it hasn’t always been easy vending in LA.
“The challenges we’ve faced is that they’ve wanted to arrest us ... they give us tickets ... they throw out our food. They take all our stuff. The inspectors, they take everything,” she said.
LA County’s health inspectors work with city officials to keep street vendors up to code. Even though she has a permit to sell tacos, she said health inspectors still harass her about the safety of her food cart.
And Avila-Mendez is not alone. For a long time in LA, vendors have expressed frustration over the city’s permitting and cart regulation process, saying it’s confusing, intimidating and only presents vendors with problems, not solutions.
But in previous statements to the press, the Department of Public Health has said:
“If an inspector determines that a mobile food vendor’s vehicle or cart does not have the necessary equipment, such as appropriate refrigeration, a hand washing and dual compartment sink … inspectors are authorized by the California Retail Food Code to confiscate the vendor’s food, as it is presumed to be unsanitary and not safe for public consumption.”
Of the candidates we spoke to in the District 6 race, Isaac Kim, Antoinette Scully and Imelda Padilla said they were in favor of relaxing restrictions for vendors, making the permitting process easier, and letting vendors work on sidewalks. However, Padilla also has said vendors shouldn’t be able to “take over sidewalks,” during the earlier days of her campaign.
Marco Santana agreed with the other candidates but said it’s important to make sure a taco stand isn’t setting up in front of a Mexican restaurant, saying that kind of thing “doesn’t make sense.” And Douglas Sierra said getting vendors a letter health grade needs to be the council’s top priority.
The two remaining candidates did not respond to Spectrum News.
Standing on the other side of the issue is Jaime Gallo, a longtime resident of Arleta, who said vendors in his neighborhood aren’t following the laws.
“As you can see, they’re taking over the sidewalks, you can’t even walk,” he said, while passing through a block that’s lined with dozens of vendors near Laurel Canyon Boulevard and Osborne Street, bumping shoulders with some customers and squeezing passed some stands.
Gallo said a beloved restaurant in his neighborhood was forced to close when a taco truck started selling nearby. He said the owner came to the Arleta Neighborhood Council with concerns, but nothing was ever done and when the pandemic hit, the restaurant wasn’t able to recover.
“Nobody is against people making a buck, a dollar,” he said. “Everybody has to make a living. It’s just that we ask for everybody to respect and follow the laws.”
Meantime, vendors like Avila-Mendez say they want to follow the rules — in fact they pay their business taxes and consider themselves micro entrepreneurs — but when voters cast their ballots for a new council member on April 4, she wants the candidate who wins to support their livelihoods.