El Mercado’s Outdoor Vendors Move Operations

The stalls have come down outside El Mercado. Gone are the makeshift booths where vendors sold toys and silver jewelry, and the pushcarts were piled high with churros and fruit.

After years of acrimony and political bickering over the Mexican-style marketplace in Boyle Heights, 24 vendors who were illegally working out of the parking lot have packed up their wares and relocated, part of a compromise brokered by Councilman Nick Pacheco.

If all goes according to plan, the men and women can return in about six months to what will be newly built, permanent outdoor stalls. First, however, Pedro Rosado, the owner of El Mercado, must upgrade the main marketplace and resolve the traffic and trash problems that residents say stem from the booths.

Pacheco, who inherited the long-running debate over El Mercado when he took office in July, came up with a solution that, surprisingly, has garnered the support of Rosado and the neighbors.

“I thought it was a very good compromise, a very creative way of satisfying both sides,” said resident Diana Tarango, who has been a vocal critic of El Mercado.

Rosado added: “I think that the councilman is trying to do the best thing possible for everybody . . . and hopefully in a few months, we should be able to resolve the whole issue.”

Even the vendors, who have been forced to move their stalls inside, voice hope that the plan will finally ease the friction over the popular marketplace.

“We’ve left so he can keep his word and eventually let us go back permanently,” said Julia Vasquez, 29, whose family runs a fruit stand. “Pacheco promised us, and we’re counting on him.”

But Vasquez and others who have squeezed their stalls inside said their business plummeted in the first week. They worry whether they’ll be able to last six months. Many of their customers were passersby outside, they said, and since the stalls moved indoors, many people think the entire mercado is closed and have stayed away.

“I don’t want to go on welfare,” said Vasquez, standing in front of her fruit cart stacked with slices of golden mangoes and cups of ruby red pomegranate seeds.

“But I don’t know how we’re going to make it. Six months is a long time.”

The mercado has been around since the mid-1960s, when three local brothers went door to door inviting Eastside neighbors to form a cooperative marketplace. With help from a loan from the Small Business Administration, they opened El Mercado in 1968 on the site of a failed tortilla factory at 1st and Lorena streets in Boyle Heights.

Designed as a traditional Mexican market, the original building was filled with vendors who sold produce, meat, housewares and pinatas.

Rosado, a former janitor who used to run a bookstore on the second floor, became owner in 1986. Now, an estimated 20,000 to 30,000 people visit on weekends, browsing among stands where merchants hawk pagers and car speakers, cowboy boots and Mexican pottery. Mariachis play in the third-floor restaurant, filling the building with music.

In addition, for the last 30 years, dozens of outdoor vendors selling everything from leather belts to fried squash have rented booth space in the parking lot. But the outdoor sales violated zoning laws, and when Rosado tried to get permission from the city to build permanent outdoor booths, neighbors protested.

Local homeowners said Rosado shouldn’t get away with breaking the law for years. In addition, they complained that the stalls caused trash, noise and traffic, and they complained that El Mercado attracted crime and patrons who got drunk in the restaurant.

Rosado has repeatedly denied those contentions, adding that he hired cleaning crews and security guards to keep the area clean and safe.

“Right now, El Mercado and the streets around it are the cleanest part of East L.A.,” he said.

Neighbors renewed their protests about the market last year after county health officials seized hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of illegal pharmaceuticals, including antibiotics and steroids, being sold there.

During the debate over the market, Eastside political figures jumped into the fray. Now-retired Councilman Richard Alatorre first supported the residents, then changed his mind and backed Rosado during his last days in office. County Supervisor Gloria Molina denounced Alatorre’s flip-flop, and called on the city to enforce its zoning laws.

Over time, the conflict escalated, until at one point the county and residents sued Rosado for, among other things, allegedly operating a public nuisance, and the city for not taking action against him. Although the suit is pending, an attorney for the residents said it might be settled out of court if Rosado complies fully with the new plan.

Recently, residents signed petitions against Rosado, demanding that their new councilman resolve the issue.

Pacheco’s plan, which he announced Oct. 22, requires Rosado to add bathrooms, build a new parking lot and take other steps to acquire a certificate of occupancy, which the building has lacked since 1972. After he completes those requirements, Pacheco wants Rosado and the neighbors to work together to resolve the residents’ concerns and come up with a design for the permanent stalls.

Neighbors say that they are willing to work with Rosado, as long as he takes steps to comply with the city code.

“We weren’t against the vendors,” said resident Laura Pizana. “We were against the owner doing things illegally.”

If all goes well, Pacheco said, he will eventually support building 20 permanent stalls outside El Mercado for the vendors.

“I look forward to working with everyone to have this resolved,” Pacheco said. “It couldn’t continue the way it was. The pressure is on everyone to make this happen.”

Right now, the vendors say they are feeling the brunt of that pressure. More than 50 families relied on the income from the two dozen stalls that were outside.

Pacheco said his staff will work with Madres del Este de Los Angeles, a local community organization, to raise support for the families of the vendors while they’re waiting to go back outside.

In the meantime, many of them are tucked away in corners of El Mercado, far from the main foot traffic. Rosado let some of them set up their stalls in part of the third-floor restaurant. But the vendors say they worry about sales in the months to come.

“We really depend on our stands for business,” said Jose Ricardo Guillen, 30, who says he’s seen his sales of Spanish-language videos drop 50% during his first week inside. “We want to be able to take care of our children. All of us families depended on that space outside.”