ORANGE COUNTY PERSPECTIVE : A Practical Pushcart Proposal

It took some doing, but the Santa Ana City Council has at last come up with a thoughtful plan to regulate street vendors. That should help address concerns of residents while it allows vendors to make a living.

The proposal, which must still be scheduled for a formal vote, requires vendors to meet longstanding municipal health and safety requirements while instituting several new requirements, such as trash receptacles and certain types of low-noise bells. In addition, city licenses will be limited to 200--about two-thirds of the current licensees--and only two pushcarts will be allowed in each city block. Hours will be regulated as well. And, to help the city distinguish authorized vendors from those who aren’t, licensees will be required to wear identifying shirts.

The city has been under pressure from homeowners’ groups and business owners who complained that there were too many vendors and too few controls on what, where and how they could sell their wares. City inspectors had also found unsanitary conditions in some places where food was being prepared to sell from the carts.

But vendors accused the city of racism when it proposed limiting licenses to 22 and banning pushcarts from residential areas. That’s because most of the vendors are Spanish-speaking immigrants who are trying to get a foothold in Orange County’s economy. In their arguments before the council, the vendors made a good point when they asked why the city would ban all pushcarts because of the transgressions of some of their operators when the city wouldn’t also shut down all restaurants because a few were substandard. The vendors appear to be willing to abide by the rules if given a chance, and they should be.

The compromise now before the council is the result of talks between Councilmen Miguel A. Pulido Jr. and Councilman John Acosta, and the newly formed Santa Ana Street Vending Assn. In addition to laying out new rules, it would use increased license fees to create a post of city street vending coordinator, which would help relieve police of the burdens of enforcement. The coordinator would also have responsibility for educating vendors on health and other regulations.

The proposal offers a good way to control pushcart entrepreneurs while instituting appropriate controls. It should be approved by the City Council when it comes up for a vote.