City Council Debates Pushcart Restrictions

A compromise in the battle between pushcart vendors and their critics was debated Monday night by the City Council after a crowd of about 300 listened to sometimes emotional speeches by vendors.

Mayor Pro Tem Miguel A. Pulido Jr. and Councilman John Acosta introduced a measure that is less restrictive than one proposed earlier. The new plan allows pushcart vendors to sell their products throughout the city but establishes hours of operation for them.

“Pushcarts exist in the MainPlace, Fashion Island and all the other fancy places in the county,” Acosta said. “There’s no reason why pushcarts aren’t acceptable in Santa Ana. If they’re good enough for those places, pushcarts are good enough for the city.”

Jose Ortiz, a pushcart vendor who immigrated to the United States in 1980, addressed the council Monday: “Have you ever asked yourself how I survived? Well, I’ve worked here day and night. . . . I have a wife, two children. How am I supposed to pay for my rent? How am I supposed to support my family? Have you ever asked yourself that?”

But Ken Finefield, arguing that pushcarts should be banned, asked the council, “Do you want Santa Ana to be a first-class city or do you want Santa Ana to look like a city from a Third World country?”

The proposal sets out downtown and citywide regulations for pushcart vendors. Citywide, vendors will be required to wear uniforms, carry trash receptacles and use certain types of bells for their carts.

Downtown, pushcarts will be limited to two per block, and vendors already stationed downtown will have priority.

From October through May, vendors may operate from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. From June through September, their hours are 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Violation of any of these restrictions carries a fine of $125.

Community activists had roundly criticized the original proposal because it limited the number of pushcart vendors to 22 and confined them to certain downtown streets. They called the measure “racist” because most pushcart vendors are Latino.

While vendors say the new measure is less restrictive, they still fault city officials for not consulting them when the pushcart law was first proposed.

“If our employees were all-American high school kids, you bet the City Council would never have touched them,” said Juan Mayoreo, who employs more than 75 vendors for his frozen-fruit-bar business. “But because the vendors are Mexicans, they are being picked on.”

Currently, about 314 pushcarts are licensed to operate in the city. The ordinance would limit that number to 200.

Operators must have a permit from the Police Department, a city business license and approval from the Orange County Health Department.