Editorial: Communication key in addressing permits for pop-up food vendors
San Rafael’s initiative aimed at so-called “pop up” food vendors is not a matter of picking on struggling immigrants, but one of community public health.
The city’s police department and the county Environmental Health Services division will be launching special patrols to distribute handouts to vendors on how to obtain necessary permits.
The county division is responsible for food-related licensing and inspections of restaurants and food-serving stores.
The target is to bring the growing number of unlicensed food vendors into compliance with state and county health and safety rules.
The entrepreneurial spirit of these micro-vendors is praiseworthy. For some, it’s a way to earn money needed to get by in our high-priced county. It can also be a first step toward opening a brick-and-mortar restaurant. But as street vendors, they need to abide by laws, particularly those aimed at protecting the health of their customers.
Besides making sure vendors comply with the rules, officials also need to make sure that the costs and process involved in their licensing are not such hurdles that it’s easier for them to dodge enforcers.
State law has made it a lot easier for street vendors, but it hasn’t excused them from meeting food-safety standards. It has required those standards to be adjusted to fit the realities that their street carts lack the running water, sewage systems, stove venting and refrigeration required of restaurants.
San Rafael is also working on siting standards to help make sure these pop-ups set up shop where they don’t block access requirements. City officials also need to make sure their rules are not onerous.
Mayor Kate Colin strongly supports the city taking action.
“Illegal food vending is an unsafe, unregulated and unfair daily situation that impacts our city,” she said.
The growth of street vendors has been called a sign of wide economic gaps in our community, where affordable housing and job opportunities are limited.
“We must resist the urge to criminalize poverty,” says Omar Carrera, chief executive officer of the Canal Alliance, the neighborhood nonprofit that serves its immigrant residents. He is proposing the city establish vending zones.
That makes sense; similar to communities that have made space for food trucks to congregate.
Carrera’s agency could also help bridge any possible language gaps in vendors understanding the common-sense reasons for strict safety standards.
The state laws allowing street vendors has been, in part, in response to federal crackdowns on undocumented immigrants. Arrests, citations and even licensing have put immigrants on federal authorities’ radar, supporters of those laws say.
State Sen. Lena A. Gonzalez of Long Beach, the author of the 2022 sidewalk vendor law, said it is meant to remove “outdated and exclusionary regulations.”
But laws aimed at protecting the health and safety of the vendors’ customers need to be followed.
In recent years, there has been an increased emphasis on restaurant inspections. County-issued inspection grades are posted in front of every restaurant.
It is unfair that the intent of standards be enforced for brick-and-mortar restaurants or food trucks, but ignored for food vendors. One should not be heavily regulated, while the other is ignored. The selling of food should not be a Wild West where customers potentially face real health risks while vendors are free from their responsibility.
Fairness and equity should not have socio-economic lines; whether you are running a formal restaurant or a food cart, there are food-safety standards that need to be followed.
The sidewalk vendors are a cultural change, a growth in a trend that likely started when standards were changed to allow the establishment of so-called “home kitchen” vendors.
The city’s information-first approach makes sense. So does the county’s attention toward helping the vendors comply rather than running them off the street or worse, underground.