In abstract
Permitted avenue merchandising is an integral a part of California tradition, however it have to be managed correctly to make sure well being and security of distributors, enterprise homeowners and guests.
By Randall Scott, Special to CalMatters
Randall Scott is the manager director of the Fisherman’s Wharf Community Benefit District in San Francisco.
Tourism is slowly returning to pre-pandemic ranges at common vacationer locations reminiscent of Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco, the Santa Monica Pier, San Diego’s Balboa Park and the numerous different gems the Golden State has to supply. While we’re thrilled to see extra guests coming to expertise our well-known sights, we should handle the more and more regarding habits of avenue distributors whose practices endanger Californians, guests and different distributors.
We are actively working towards an answer on the state stage and consider we are able to strike a steadiness that may work for everybody. We don’t agree, nonetheless, that Senate Bill 972, the proposed legislative repair, will accomplish this except revised.
This will not be a matter of metropolis authorities vs. distributors. Nor is regarding street-vendor habits an issue of anybody metropolis; it’s a widespread drawback. For instance:
- Vendors have offered unrefrigerated meat merchandise with out the suitable well being permits or following sanitation pointers in Santa Monica.
- Numerous instances of alcohol and hashish being offered illegally to minors are reported in San Diego.
- Individuals are working unpermitted carts in restricted areas, the place they promote meals with out public well being division oversight, creating an expertise some have described because the “Wild West.” This habits is an unintended consequence of legislation signed into regulation in 2018 to decriminalize avenue merchandising. Unfortunately, it has led to extra distributors working with out regard for well being and security legal guidelines.
In this legislative session, SB 972, launched by state Sen. Lena Gonzalez, a Long Beach Democrat, goals to handle some of those challenges by amending the California Retail Food Code to make it simpler to safe permits. The bill, nonetheless, unwisely strips municipalities of instruments wanted to implement public security guidelines. We are totally on board with efforts to make the allowing course of extra environment friendly and less complicated. But any new laws should retain the present stage of native management, not scale back it.
We suggest an answer that maintains the merchandising tradition all through the state, and protects the general public from unsafe meals, harmful and unsanitary cooking practices, and different dangerous methods of operating a enterprise. Sen. Gonzalez’s bill can be up for dialogue this week by the Legislature. The time is now: I implore you to name your state legislator to coach them on the state of the merchandising setting in our communities and ask that they work with Sen. Gonzalez to amend her bill to discover a resolution that works for everybody.
