Street Vendors Lose Ground in Anaheim : Sellers to Be Banned From Apartment Areas; Tougher Restrictions Supported

Anaheim’s Latino street vendors Tuesday lost their fight to sell fresh vegetables, fruits and ice cream in the city’s apartment areas.

The City Council, after months of postponing a decision, voted to uphold a 60-year-old ordinance that prevents the vendors from operating in apartment neighborhoods.

Council members also gave conceptual approval to a plan that would strengthen the law by adding further restrictions affecting the business people, who are chiefly Latino.

More than 100 people attended Tuesday’s public hearing to support the vendors; Robert Nava called the council’s decision “a lesson to us about what the city thinks about the Latins.” Nava, an Orange County Human Relations Commission staff member, had served as a translator for the vendors.

50 Support Action

However, about 50 people who voiced support for the city’s action said it will offer a welcome respite from the excessive noise, litter and traffic they said has been generated by the vendors.

And for some of those who spoke at the nearly 2 1/2-hour meeting, the issue was not one of street vendors but of illegal immigrants.

“I don’t want a pushcart society to develop in the United States,” said Artha Wilber, a resident of Orange.

“I would invite you to see what pushcarts and trucks have done to the City of Santa Ana,” added Anaheim resident Ruth Kozusyn. “Very often these vendors are not even clean, and that’s a fact. We should not be accommodating people who want to change our society and have us conform (to their customs).”

For years, the street vendors have been selling their goods in the city’s predominantly Latino neighborhoods. The service is a convenience to many customers, since they do not own cars. The vendors are also a part of their culture, since street sales are a common sight in many parts of Latin America.

“There are many (times) when my neighbors, and myself included, don’t have the money to buy food. What market will give us credit? The vendors do,” said Brenda Garcia.

Under the plan given conceptual approval Tuesday night, vendors will have to restrict their sales to between 9 a.m. and 8 p.m. and can wait for customers in one place no more than five minutes; they also would not be allowed to play music. Also, non-motorized vehicles such as pushcarts (also called paleteros ) that carry ice cream bars would be banned.

Meanwhile, apartment areas will continue to be off-limits to vendors, based on a 1926 city ordinance forbidding street sales in business districts. According to the California Vehicle Code, apartment zones fall under the business district category.

Crackdown Begun

Late last year the city began cracking down on the vendors, citing the ordinance and regulating their business activities.

The vendors said the crackdown forced them to leave the most lucrative spots in the city. Angered that their income had decreased substantially, 27 of the vendors formed a coalition and gave the city a list of items on which they would be willing to compromise, including stopping the use of music and bells to draw customers and a promise to police themselves.

But those residents who opposed allowing the vendors in neighborhoods pointed out that the number of actual street trucks in Anaheim exceeded the 27 vendors in the coalition.

There were 888 food vehicles and non-motorized carts registered with the county for fiscal year 1984-85, according to James E. Huston, Orange County environmental health assistant director. However, many of the vendors are not licensed, officials said.

In comparison, there were 746 food vehicles and non-motorized carts in the county in fiscal year 1982-83.

While the numbers don’t show a sharp increase, Huston said, city officials and residents said there has been an increasing number of vendors on the streets, with trucks often parkedclose to each other and blocking intersections.

In Anaheim, city officials estimate there are more than 100 vendors selling ice cream, vegetables and fruits across the city.