City Pushes Pushcarts Off Streets
Officials this week banned pushcart vendors from public property in response to complaints about unlicensed sellers, litter, noise and sales of unsanitary food.
The City Council voted 4 to 1 Monday to revoke a 1991 ordinance allowing the street sales. Councilwoman Libby Cowan dissented, saying a city report failed to adequately address health issues. She suggested that the city work on noise and licensing problems while following up on health infractions with strict code enforcement.
A council staff report called the practices of some vendors “a significant threat to public health,” such as cooking food in uninspected home kitchens.
Vendors on private property, such as coffee and flower carts at shopping malls, will still be allowed.
In other business, the council made a rare exception to its regulations by agreeing to allow Newport Harbor High School’s soccer booster club to sell “safe and sane” fireworks in the city for the Fourth of July.
The city normally allows only city-based groups to sell fireworks, but council members voted 4 to 1 to make this exception because 60% of the school’s students live in Costa Mesa. Newport Beach, where the school is located, bans fireworks.
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