Vendors Deserve Approval

It has taken years of complaints, legislation, lawsuits and legal wrangling. Now, reasonable compromise finally could win out Monday if the Santa Ana City Council approves an agreement ending the dispute between the city, street vendors and downtown merchants. The council should act as expected and put its official stamp of approval on the mutual concessions.

The pushcart problem began developing decades ago. As Santa Ana’s Latino population started to swell so did the number of pushcart vendors who are a familiar sight and longtime tradition in Mexico. They also became a familiar sight, too familiar to suit some downtown merchants, along 4th Street, the city’s main shopping thoroughfare for Latino shoppers.

About eight years ago, Santa Ana began licensing pushcarts and put a limit of 200 on the total number of street vendor permits citywide. That, however, failed to satisfy some downtown merchants. They complained about the litter that the carts generated and said that the carts hurt the street’s appearance.

The issue came to a head in the summer of 1998 after the Downtown Santa Ana Business Assn. asked the city to force the vendors to move and the City Council passed an ordinance that would have banned the carts along 4th Street, but allowed them in the Civic Center district only a few blocks away.

Vendors sued. A judge issued a preliminary injunction. The prospect of a costly trial prompted the start of serious negotiations, and what seems to be a compromise that gives something to all parties. There are new rules governing carts and their displays and to mitigate the main complaints of litter and aesthetics. The umbrellas over the carts will be matching. Vendors decided also to have matching uniforms. The carts will have self-contained refrigeration or coolers to meet health standards, and vendors will be responsible for keeping a 10-square-foot area around their carts litter free. Regulations and permit provisions also will be monitored and strictly enforced.

But in a conciliatory stroke of good sense, the compromise also calls for vendors to become members of the Downtown Santa Ana Business Assn., giving them business status on the street.

So going in, it seems everyone stands to benefit from the compromise. Merchants get the cleanup and enforcement they want. The city resolves a knotty problem. And vendors not only get to remain on 4th Street, but become part of its business establishment. That’s a model approach the Santa Ana City Council should approve--and other communities well could copy.