In These Times: Vendors battle bureaucracy for their place in the Second City

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Taking It to the Streets
Vendors battle bureaucracy for their place in the Second City.

By Robin Peterson


When Americans go shopping or out to eat, they generally head for a store or a restaurant. But in many parts of the world, including some U.S. neighborhoods, the first place people go for food and other necessities is to the street. From kebab stands to open-air flea markets, street vendors offer consumers a cheap, convenient alternative to storefront businesses. For vendors, the work is a flexible, efficient and, at times, off-the-record way to earn cash.

But in the highly regulated modern city, hawking food or socks on the sidewalk is seen as subversive. Strict health codes and licensing requirements leave many vendors trapped in legal limbo. In Chicago, for instance, the only available city-wide vending license prohibits the sale of food that is cooked or sliced. This forces the city’s legions of tamale, paleta (popsicle) and elote(roasted corn) vendors to operate outside the law and risk fines of up to $1,000.

Jose Tafoya has received three fines of $250 for selling tamales, etole (hot chocolate) and elotes from his cart on 26th Street, a bustling commercial district in Chicago’s Mexican-American neighborhood of Little Village. As the owner of a small construction company with a family of four, Tafoya says street vending is a way “to make money to live”—an extra job on the weekends and during the winter, when construction work is scarce.

Last year, Tafoya saw a sign on the wall of a grocery store advertising the Asociaci—n de Vendedores Ambulantes (AVA—Street Vendors Association). Formed in response to a 1993 police crackdown on Little Village vendors, the AVA has fought—thus far unsuccessfully—to pass an ordinance that would enable Chicago vendors to sell cooked food legally. .........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/4911/taking_it_to_the_streets