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SERVING THE SIX-COUNTY DIOCESE OF LOS ANGELES

In an effort to establish some controls and regulations over street vending activities the Los Angeles City Council passed a Sidewalk Vending Ordinance in 1999 that created the opportunity for interested organizations to create special vending districts in commercially zoned areas for street vendors.

For three years no community organization took responsibility for implementing a vending district. As a result, street vendors were left with little hope that sidewalk vending would be legally permitted in the city.

Stepping into the leadership void, Bishop Jon Bruno in 1999 took matters into his own hands and the MacArthur Park Sidewalk Vending Program was created.

Bruno spent the first couple of years after the sidewalk-vending program was initiated willing to be a collaborative partner with other community agencies in the creation of a vending district. But when no other agency came forward, Bruno proposed to the city’s elected officials and staff that the diocese would create the first sidewalk-vending program with the support of the Institute for Urban Research and Development, a diocesan institution.

Bruno stated that “time was running out, and either the Diocese became the lead organization, or nobody would.” Together, Bruno and IURD Executive Director Dr. Joe Colletti launched the city’s first sidewalk vending district in November of 1999 at MacArthur Park.

The MacArthur Park Sidewalk Vending Program now provides street vendors with an opportunity to apply their vending skills. Currently, there are 20 beautifully constructed carts modeled after the carts that are found within Santa Monica’s Third Street Promenade. Vendors sell hot foods such as tamales and folk art and crafts from several Latin American countries.

Serrano, a Salvadoran-born immigrant, now sells her tamales from one of the program’s vending carts. Previously, however, she would sell her tamales on the streets and, as a result, became a frequent target of the city’s code enforcement agencies.

Several times she has cried out of feelings of sadness and joy; she still remembers all the times that her tamales were taken away from her, and left in her possession was a court citation. “Now,” she says, “I can sell all the tamales I can without expecting someone to suddenly confront me and take all my food and supplies from me. I even bring my children with me who help me set up my cart and foods.”

Bruno and Colletti have spent the past two years building a coalition of public and private community support for the vending program. Such support includes the Office of the Mayor and the Council Office of Ed Reyes as well as several City Departments including the Community Development Department and Los Angeles Police Department Rampart Division.

Bruno also participated in the recent ribbon cutting for Mama’s Hot Tamales Café at 2124 W. Seventh St. (one block west of Alvarado Street). The café is open

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