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Essentially, they're visionaries.
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They are culinary artist.
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We should legalize street vending in Los Angeles and we should
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Sidewalk vendors to me are part of our everyday culture.
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Street vending has been part of the history of Los Angeles
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since the beginning.
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You know, the mercados, you would see people selling their
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It's beloved in our city, Angelinos, love street vendors
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You can uncover photos of uh pushing their cards with horses
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for me getting to know the women in particular who are part
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of this movement is inspiring.
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We got started up because our family told us to start up.
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We've been vegetarian vegan for like the past eight years
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So we can't eat out anywhere, you know.
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So we just had to start cooking our own food.
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The effort to legalize street vending in Los Angeles um was
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primarily driven by the experience of street vendors that
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approached um or organizations that are now leading the campaign
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um with uh a call for help.
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We were doing our pop ups in Silver Lake.
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We just had finished setting up our, our stand, we put our grills
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we had food, we had everything and then we just see this big
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truck come and it's like the health department, they mentioned
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it was our first infraction, but they did throw away all of
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our food, but they didn't take any of our equipment.
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It's not necessarily the cops that have been issued.
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It was really the surrounding businesses.
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Somebody from your local businesses called and complained
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that you're taking business away from them and they don't
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So they're gonna have to call the health department vendors
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were experiencing equipment, confiscation, citations
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and arrest and they said we need to change this.
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That kind of prompted us, you know, our family sat down, we
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like we don't want to get shut down if you wanna take all of our
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stuff away from us right now.
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Like we're done ensuring that they're not criminalized,
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ensuring that they have a place in our society is very important
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Currently, you have a patchwork of laws that either try to
02:58
protect or criminalize sidewalk vendors.
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And now more than ever, we have to, you know, have the state
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come in and, and provide a policy that's gonna be statewide
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that's gonna allow street vendors to exist and protect them
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Unfortunately, from what's happening at the federal level
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My God, no, no, no, no.
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I mean, the majority of our sidewalk vendors are women are
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seniors who are trying to make ends meet Salvador, Honduras
03:38
Essentially, they're visionaries, they're culinary artists
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you know, let's give them the education, let's empower them
03:44
It's not just about the food, but it's about being able to make
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a connection with people.
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I get to serve you food like that.
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It's an honor like thank you for the opportunity to let me serve
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We got everything that we need to be legit, right?
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And no matter how legit we are at this point, we still can't
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be on the street corner legally.
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Our target has been, we should create, we should legalize
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street vending in Los Angeles and we should decriminalize
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it and that's been our agenda.
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So next time you see a sidewalk vendor, you know, take a moment
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to realize that, you know, this person is, you know, fighting
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against all odds to be there already.
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And so why not be kind, why not allow them to do their job and
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get to savor the great food that they serve?
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