In Los Angeles as well as major cities around the nation, street vending without the proper business permits is illegal. It should remain illegal and the city authorities should make efforts to curtail, monitor and or eliminate this activity. It is unfair to local tax paying businesses to allow non taxpaying vendors to set up and proliferate outside or near legal enterprises. Food vendors are unsafe since they don't go through L.A. County Health Department licensing. In my opinion, cultural and ethnic communities that support illegal vendors contribute to the decline of the American economy. The foregone tax revenue that cities and counties need to provide services to its citizens is often leached from the very communities that are most needy. Essential to proper growth in every neighborhood is economic planning. Vendors now see their activities as a way to make quick undetectable cash. Many of the vendors in my local community are illegal residence that are organized by various master enterprises. These vendors work tirelessly and are often exploited. Many of them employ children that would normally be in school. This violates child labor laws that are in place to protect children.
Having owned business in the past, it should be the intent of every vendor or business to grow and establish them for greater success. This is a learned task which is part of the American ethos and work ethic. If these values are not continually uplifted and communicated, constant economic decline will continue in every neighborhood that allows vendors to proliferate. Many citizens see only the convenience of having someone service them local or on their street.They have not realized the connection to crime, food born illnesses, terrorism and public safety. Los Angeles Wave Community Newspaper article by Kevin Herrera got it right. We must rethink street vending as a society and take into view how we want the future growth of our city to look.
Originally Written 5/2005 by Marty Smith
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