San Diego Considers Crackdown On Street Vendors

Speaker 1: 00:00 You may have noticed more street vendors around San Diego this year. That's because there are currently no local restrictions on them. But KPBS reporter, Priya [inaudible] reports that San Diego is now considering cracking down. Speaker 2: 00:13 You do to Louis Sierra and his friends have been selling jewelry and artwork on the pathway in front of ocean beach for years. People come here to vacay to phones who scape and um, there's a lot of tourism here. People just really love when, when things are handmade. But most of the time he's been selling his natural stone jewelry. He's technically been committing a misdemeanor. It's a way of life. So whether it's illegal or not, if I can do it with in a means where I'm going to still be able to feed myself and those around me at night, it has to be done now with state law that went into effect January 1st has decriminalized street funding. The idea is to foster entrepreneurship. For now, cities across California are scrambling to create some regulations that will conform to the new state law. Robert vac, he is the deputy chief operating officer with the city of San Diego. He says, cities have to manage issues from vendors who may dump trash or block access to bathrooms or bus stops. Speaker 3: 01:20 So in high traffic areas you're going to be limited as to what you can do for vending. In the lower traffic areas, there's uh, you know, lesser restrictions. Speaker 2: 01:29 He says vendors will be more restricted on crowded sidewalks like in the Gaslamp district or the boardwalks in mission beach and LA Hoya vendors who break rules. Now we'll receive tickets ranging from 100 to $500 instead of criminal charges. Speaker 3: 01:46 It's all about a balance. Um, you have to balance the health and safety, uh, of the whole versus the opportunities for the individuals. Uh, and I think that's what we're trying to do. Speaker 2: 01:55 For instance, vac, he says instead of requiring aspiring business owners to pay for high insurance starting out, the city is decreasing their liability by limiting where they can operate. Sarah Burns heads up the business improvement district for Pacific beach. She says her organization along with most of the merchant associations across San Diego are supporting the proposed regulations. Speaker 3: 02:19 I mean, you think, of course you want to be cautious. If you own a coffee shop and now someone's allowed to open a coffee shop right outside your door. Um, of course there's going to be concern and questions with that, Speaker 2: 02:27 but the new law says any city regulations can't be to stifle competition. They can only focus on public health and safety. Speaker 3: 02:36 We didn't start on the sidewalk, but we started at, you know, like I said, farmer's market street fairs. Speaker 2: 02:40 Bernard level is the owner of California sock company. Speaker 3: 02:43 We fit 500 styles in 10 feet by 10 feet. Speaker 2: 02:46 He started out as a street vendor in San Diego at farmer's markets and has now moved on to own two stores in Pacific beach and at the fashion Valley mall. While he is personally seeing the business benefits of starting small, he also thinks that vendors should have the same rules as brick and mortar store owners. Speaker 4: 03:03 I would like everybody to have and have to pay the same taxation as everybody else. Same permits, same permitting process, same taxation, a brick and mortar versus street vendor. Speaker 2: 03:13 The new regulations will require street vendors to get a $30 permit once a year. They will also have to remain within a certain distance of various intersections and loading zones, comply with hours of operations in parks and pushcarts can't be larger than six by four feet. Food vendors would also have to get a County health permit. But many street vendors like Ryan Gilmore say they haven't really been part of the discussion about new regulations and they're not even sure where to find the information on the rules. They would have to follow. Speaker 3: 03:44 There's really no current, um, public information for street vendors. You know, the only way you're gonna know is if they come up to you and start to tell you to take your step down. Speaker 2: 03:56 The proposed regulations are set to be heard by city council in October. Many vendors think they shouldn't be heavily restricted. Being out here is what brings people to OB. It's not just the beach, it's an atmosphere. It's a people. It's a way of life. Lucky for Luis, he can keep that way of life because OB is not on the list of places for vendor crackdowns. Speaker 5: 04:20 Joining me is KPBS reporter, Priya [inaudible] and Oh, welcome. Thanks. Now, where are the other neighborhoods around the city that are not part of the proposed street vendor crackdown? So I think it's actually easier to talk about it in the context of where they are cracking down because most of the city actually will not be subject to these rules because really what they're trying to do is create safety. So they're, they're focusing on heavily trafficked sidewalks. So as I mentioned in the story, mission beach and LA Jolla shores boardwalks um, they won't be allowed there. They're going to be prohibited within 500 feet of the convention center during conventions. I'm also at sunset cliffs, natural park and places like that. So essentially wherever you would think in San Diego where there's lots of tourists or people walking around, they're not going to be allowed there. But the rest of San Diego is fair game. Speaker 5: 05:10 But you might want to ask yourself, if you're a street vendor, why you would go hang around in a neighborhood where there's not a lot of people walking around. So, you know, I was actually surprised to hear that the state decriminalized street vending. What led to that? Right. So this was kind of interesting and I guess it stemmed from, um, a lot of incidents in Los Angeles where, um, street vendors were getting criminal misdemeanors for, uh, vending and, and a lot of immigrant advocacy groups were saying that these were unfairly targeting immigrant aspiring business owners and aspiring entrepreneurs and minorities. Because for a lot of people, this was a more manageable way of starting a small business. So essentially a, the state of California decided, you know what, maybe there's something to that and we shouldn't be issuing a charges to these people who are just trying to make a living and perhaps live the American dream. So instead they've switched over to now administrative citations. So it's kind of like getting a parking ticket or something like that. Speaker 1: 06:08 So right now, street vendors in San Diego cannot be charged wherever they are, is that right? But they can't get ticketed. Speaker 5: 06:14 So actually right now they can't even get ticketed because this new state law went into effect on January 1st. So right now they can't be ticketed. But that's exactly what this proposal is aiming to do is to create those regulations. And there it's going to be heard before city council in October. And then if it does pass then yes you could get tickets anywhere from a hundred to $500. But it's also one of those things where a lot of people might ask how the heck is this going to be in forest because does the city even have resources to be going after street vendors? And essentially what they said was that they're going to be getting complaints from people or perhaps business owners in the area if they feel as though there a lot of street vendors who are impeding in their neighborhood. And then if they feel as though they're getting multiple complaints about a certain area, then they will send, um, I believe it's code enforcement officers out there to kind of investigate. Speaker 1: 07:06 Did you find out how much money street vendors are able to take in daily or weekly or what do they make Speaker 5: 07:12 according to some advocacy group websites that I was able to find, it can range anywhere from 14 to $16,000 and obviously some are probably making greatly below that number depending on what they're selling. The ones that you saw in my story, they were selling jewelry on ocean beach. So I can't imagine that they would be making astronomical amounts of money, but they did say that they were making enough to scrape by and make a living and that they were hoping to one day have it be more of a, you know, business where they could, could support themselves fully. Speaker 1: 07:44 Now the news, a new state law for bids, local restrictions on vendors that would stifle competition. So this scenario that you mentioned in your report, a coffee cart opening outside of a coffee shop could be allowed [inaudible] Speaker 5: 07:58 it could be allowed. Yes. And it's, so one of the interesting things that I learned about when I interviewed the director of discover Pacific beach, which is the business improvement district, uh, for Pacific beach, was she was saying that as it currently stands, business owners in brick and mortar stores are actually liable for the sidewalk. So they're liable for a certain distance between their store and the road. So that was one of the things that a lot of these merchant associations were worried about was that if these street vendors start hanging around on the sidewalks in front of these businesses and someone happens to trip over them or something happens, who's responsible is it gonna be that business owner? So that's one of the things that needs to sort of be straightened out once this proposal makes it its way through city council Speaker 1: 08:46 would, San Diego's proposed new regulations on street vendors, re criminalize certain things that they might do. Speaker 5: 08:52 So it wouldn't be criminal charges, it would be charges. So this isn't something that would go on somebody's record and you would then have to perhaps report to an employer in the future. And really what they want to do, what the city and the state of California is saying is they want to promote entrepreneurship. And that's why even the permit that the street vendors would have to get eventually through the treasurer, the city treasurer's office is, um, according to them, very reasonable. It's only $50 a year. And so, um, they're saying they're trying to eliminate hurdles to people who really want to just make a living. Why haven't street vendors been part of the discussion about these new regulations? Yeah, it's really fascinating and I think perhaps in other cities where there is more of a street vendor culture, um, because they've existed for longer periods of time like New York or you know, even Washington D C um, they actually have banded together and created associations so that they do have some sort of lobbying power. Speaker 5: 09:50 But here in San Diego, because they were illegal for so long and you could get a criminal charge if you were street vending, there hasn't really been an organized movement. And so as you heard from the people in my story, a lot of times they don't understand what the rules are unless law enforcement comes up to them and says, Hey, you're doing something wrong. So, uh, they haven't created an association yet. Perhaps that's something that's in the works given the fact that this is being discussed right now. So we'll have to see. I've been speaking with KPBS reporter Prius ether. Thank you so much. Thank you.