Anaheim : City Vows Crackdown on Messy Street Vendors

To answer complaints about street vendors who park their trucks in apartment or business areas, sell their wares and then “leave their mess there,” Anaheim officials are cracking down on the street sales by enforcing a local law.

But to the merchants, the beefed-up enforcement means they won’t be able to continue with their business. And some of the vendors say a city ordinance that prohibits the sale of goods from parked vehicles in a business district, including apartment complexes, hurts lower-income Latinos who don’t have transportation and rely on the vendors for their shopping.

Richard LaRochelle, Anaheim senior code enforcement officer, said the ordinance is in response to complaints received from residents throughout the city. Areas that have a greater number of street vendors include the Patrick Henry and Lynn Jeffrey neighborhoods, he said.

“They (residents) called up and said they are tired of seeing the produce trucks and ice cream trucks creating the litter and filling up their garbage dumps,” LaRochelle said.

Since May, when the city ordinance was revised and officials began enforcing the ordinance, the city has issued about six citations, LaRochelle said. Maximum penalty for the misdemeanor is $500 and six months in jail, he said.

Before citing the vendors, the officials give them warnings, LaRochelle said. “So it’s not like we go out there and, bang, we give a citation.”