Newsstands--Broadway Now a Jungle of Green Booths

Before war hit El Salvador, Jose Soriano had a tiny hardware shop at the central plaza in San Salvador, and Cecilia Cruz had a small clothing stand nearby. Years later, the two were hardly surprised when they met again in downtown Los Angeles, where each operates a small newsstand on Broadway.

“It wasn’t strange to either of us,” Soriano, 73, said. “This is our life. If you can’t find a job in Los Angeles, you do in Los Angeles what you did in El Salvador: You sell.”

Over the last two or three years, dozens of immigrants like the two Salvadorans have received business permits to erect small newsstands--106 of the dyed-green plywood booths at last count--along a six-block stretch of Broadway.

While there is no law limiting the number of such newsstands, there is a law prohibiting the stands from selling anything but periodicals and papers. Because income from newsstands is so meager, recent immigrants have also begun illegally selling trinkets, tapes, toys and other items.

Has Grown Unsightly

The result, say Broadway businessmen and city officials, is that the hodgepodge of booths has grown unsightly and unsafe and must go.

“It looks like a Tijuana type of place despite the fact that we are trying to change downtown, upgrade it,” said Herman Cohen, a partner in the Los Angeles Diamond Co. at 6th Street and Broadway. “The ones in front of our store sell brassieres, toys, tapes--everything but newspapers.”

On Friday, the Board of Public Works voted unanimously to recommend to the City Council an ordinance that would regulate the stands for the first time and, both sides agree, put many of the vendors out of business. The ordinance will go to the Public Works Committee of the City Council within two weeks and then to the City Council itself.

The proposed ordinance would limit the number of newsstands to two per corner and prohibit any newsstands between corners. It would continue the prohibition on the sale of anything but newspapers, magazines and periodicals and would also require each vendor to purchase $300,000 worth of insurance to protect the city from liability.

“The time has come to regulate them,” said Gilbert Avila, a Board of Public Works member who has chaired bilingual hearings on the small but highly controversial issue over the last few weeks. “We are trying to be fair to everybody. And we think this is the best answer.”

He said the stands create a visual blight, impede pedestrian traffic and block the signs of merchants paying high rents for prime Broadway storefronts.

System to Issue Licenses

As soon as the ordinance passes, Avila said, a system will be developed to issue licenses for the permitted number of stands, perhaps under a lottery system. The remaining stands will be removed.

Avila said he expects that many current vendors will not apply for licenses because of the ban on sale of items other than news materials and the estimated cost of $180 to $200 a year in premiums for the mandated insurance.

“It’s a blow to poor people who are just trying to earn their bread, basically,” said Cesar Noriega, an attorney at the Los Angeles Center for Law and Justice who is representing many of the vendors.

‘They’re Poor’

“The people I’m assisting are not organized, and they’re poor,” she said. They still do not really understand what’s going on except that most of them are going to be driven away. . . . I’d estimate that more than half of them will be thrown out of business.”

Noriega has submitted a written proposal to city officials that suggests, as an alternative to the proposed ordinance, stiffer enforcement of the current law that prohibits the sale of goods other than news materials, with a re-evaluation after six months. City officials only began enforcing the current law last year. Since then, a few dozen vendors have been issued stiff fines, but none has been closed down. Under the new ordinance such sales will be punished by license revocation.

The vendors are almost always women, often old women or working mothers without husbands, but some are old and infirm men. Some mothers keep their small children with them during the day because they cannot afford child care.

In interviews, about 15 of the vendors said they make a profit of as little as $3 or $4 a day and as much as $200 on a good weekend. Most stay open seven days a week, 365 days a year. Noriega estimated the average income at $50 to $75 a week.

5 Children, No Husband

“I have five children in Guatemala and no husband,” said Amparo Martinez, 35, a Guatemalan who two years ago abandoned the market stand in Guatemala City where she had sold grains. “Now I sell newspapers and novels for $10 or $15 a day.”

Often, she said, her profit dips to $4 a day. She supplements her income by ironing three hours a night. After paying rent on the apartment she shares with three other women, she sends $100 a month home for her children. “You must be satisfied with whatever you earn,” she said.

“We’re mostly women, like my aunt and me,” Maria de Jesus Gaspar said. “We started in this 15 years ago when a man offered his stand to her if she would work it well.

“We couldn’t find a job. But now we can’t leave. We never close, except at night. We are there from 8:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. 365 days a year.”

“I have 10 children and am separated from my husband,” said Raquel Sanchez of Puerto Rico. “I had to find work to support the four I had left at home. . . . I sell toys (in violation of the law), and I will tell you that. That’s the only way you can make any money.”

Must Save Up to $600

The women said they must save $500 or $600 to buy a booth and set up shop. Because conditions have become so crowded, one woman said, fights have occasionally broken out when a newcomer sets up a booth too near an established competitor.

Asked what they considered a solution to the admitted overcrowding, several of the women suggested closing down those booths that are open only on busy weekends and holidays and limiting each vendor to one stand. A few vendors have up to five stands, they said.

Vincent Garcia, 44, the reputed dean of newsstand vendors with 25 years at 7th and Hill streets, started his stand when most of downtown Los Angeles was English-speaking and few Spanish-language journals were sold.

“When I first started, there was always one newsstand per corner,” he said. “Everybody has a right to make a living, but they should limit the number of stands. No one can make much money now.”

The immediate concern of the newsstand vendors, Noriega said, is who will get the new licenses if the proposed ordinance is approved.

“What other job can I find with a year-old baby?” asked Cruz, whose child often remains at her side because she can’t afford day care. “Why can’t the government just leave us alone?”