City to Wade Back Into Venice Vending Battle

Chaos rules on the Venice Boardwalk.

In the absence of regulation, unlicensed vendors swarm the beachfront side of Ocean Front Walk, where nobody is required to pay rent.

Across the way, on the east side of the boardwalk, licensed merchants who rent stalls or storefronts glare at the unlicensed competition that they say is strangling their livelihood.

It is a battle that has been out of control since last summer, when a federal court invalidated a Los Angeles city regulation that had limited unlicensed street vending on the boardwalk. The justices contended that the ordinance trampled 1st Amendment rights.

Today the City Council is expected to pass a law conforming with the ruling, once again banning most unlicensed vending on the beach side of the boardwalk.

People like Bob Benavides will feel the change.

Each weekend, he carefully places the braided belts and spike-studded dog collars he has made on a faded piece of cowhide on the ground along the boardwalk’s beach side near Windward Avenue.

Benavides spent 15 years selling leather goods on the east side of the boardwalk, paying rent for a small spot before he got fed up and moved to the unregulated west side.

He charges up to $25 for his items, but once the law passes he will be banned from selling anything. He will only be legally able to ask for a donation.

Under the proposed law, no vendor on the west side of the boardwalk will be allowed to sell anything except merchandise with religious or political significance that is constitutionally protected.

Boardwalk vending was thrown into limbo last year when a federal appeals court overturned the city’s 1991 ban on unlicensed vending.

The law--passed after merchants complained that unlicensed vendors were taking away their business--allowed street sales only by newspapers and nonprofit organizations. Opponents of the law argued that it infringed on the free speech rights of counterculture activists and others.

On Monday the U.S. Supreme Court refused to consider the city’s appeal of the appellate ruling.

With no ordinance to enforce, police have been able to do nothing but stand back and watch the spread of unlicensed boardwalk vending.

“So many people here are fighting for space,” complained Chang Ki Bak, who sells sunglasses from a licensed booth on the east side of the boardwalk.

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Added Barbara Duffy, who for 17 years has operated a store of dresses and hats on the boardwalk: “There are some hard-core vendors out there, and fights have broken out. Some come out at 3 a.m. for space.”

On the west side, vendor Victor Moreno rolls out his steel racks twice a week, eager to sell clothing to make a few extra dollars. Like Benavides, he used to pay rent on the east side--$300 a month--but decided he couldn’t afford it.

“Yes, [vending] does take away from the boardwalk, and there should be something done about it,” Moreno agreed, speaking in Spanish. But, he said, “they have to excuse me. When one doesn’t always have that much money, then we have to struggle to survive.”

Retorted Duffy: “It’s just ridiculous. How can we compete with someone who doesn’t pay rent?”

Sgt. Kelly Shea of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Pacific Division, who is in charge of the beach unit that patrols the boardwalk, is well aware of the merchants’ frustration.

On busy weekends, tens of thousands of people stroll the boardwalk, and booths are packed so closely on the west side that there is no room between them for police to go through in an emergency.

“We want guidelines that we can interpret and I can feel comfortable with,” Shea said.

Her discomfort extends to the east side of the boardwalk, where some vendors have set up shop--without a city business registration certificate--alongside rent-paying merchants. The city has asked police to verify that sellers have valid certificates, but Shea said she would not order her unit to ask vendors for permits until all have a chance to learn how to obtain one.

She acknowledged that the artists and craftspeople of the boardwalk “are the people we want to see down there. That’s the atmosphere people want to see.”

News that the city will ban most unlicensed vendors--unless they are willing to ask for donations rather than charging for their goods or services--has yet to trickle down to some vendors.

“I don’t know what’s the big deal,” said Mikiko Nagao, creator of the Stoner Generation label, who sells--without a license--T-shirts featuring youth-oriented logos. “This is original art.”

Others insisted that their goods promote tourism in the area. “We bring a lot of people to the beach,” said Jason Clarman, who has been selling gifts such as perfume on the beach side for two months.

Still, some Westside artists and activists agree with merchants that the west side should be reserved for art and political expression.

The city “has let the boardwalk become like a carnival,” said self-styled animal freedom fighter Robert “Jingles” Newman, whose “Meat Is Murder” booth promotes vegetarianism. Although Newman favors curbing commercialism among the unlicensed, he was at the forefront of the suit that overturned the city’s ordinance, because it limited unlicensed people not associated with nonprofit groups to asking for donations, whether they were offering politically oriented items or not.

Benavides, who vowed to defy the new law, said he would have to go out of business if he only solicited donations. “It costs me a lot for materials and time,” he said.

His solution: Leave the craftspeople alone and boot out the vendors who sell new and used merchandise that they have not created themselves.