“I haven't sold for a month now," MacArthur Park street vendor Francisco Zuniga, told L.A. TACO in Spanish. "I don't even have enough to pay the rent. Yo ya llevo un mes sin vender, no tengo ni para pagar la renta.”
The 64-year-old is among dozens of street vendors who were displaced along Alvarado Street and around the Westlake/MacArthur Park Metro station in late January, after a chainlink fence was installed following a shooting in the area.
The incident, which left five bystanders injured, pushed the City of Los Angeles to install the barriers on the sidewalk.
Almost two months after being installed, with no resolution in sight, street vendors fear that many of them are on the verge of living on the streets, especially if the situation isn’t resolved soon.
“All of us vendors feel like we are being cornered and blocked off," said street vendor Maria Garcia, who sells everyday household products from her stand, in Spanish. "We need to work. We are honest and hardworking people."
To draw the mayor's attention to their situation, vendors draped a white tarp on the corner of 7th Street with a message to the mayor that read: “LAPD said to have our permits. We do have them.” “Our families are hungry.” And “We are not criminals,” among other reasons used to urge the removal of the chain-link fence.
The metal fence in question is an eyesore. It stretches across blocks and has become a major problem for street vendors like Zuniga and Garcia, who, until this year, operated their stands in the area for 10 years.
“Para nosotros es algo muy triste,” said Zuniga, who sells electronics and cellphone accessories. “For us, it's a very sad thing to know that we have our permits, and the police tell us we can't sell. It's unfair, we pay taxes.”
While no one can deny that the Mayor’s public safety concerns at MacArthur Park have validity due to ongoing problems with drugs and crime, that’s not all that the area should be defined by. The area's once-thriving scene of vendors helped provide a contrast with perceptions to the contrary.
Brightly colored umbrellas previously lined these sidewalks, providing shade and safety for many residents who commute on foot. Now they are mostly gone, replaced with dull fencing that blocks off half of the walking space.
Businesses have disclosed to L.A. TACO that they've noticed a drop in sales and foot traffic.
On Tuesday morning, a group of frustrated vendors, unable to sell for over a month, reunited on Alvarado Street to discuss their action plan. Juan Rodriguez, a vendor advocate from Union de Vendedores Ambulantes, led the meeting.
“You need to know that the police have no right to harass you,” Rodriguez told the group of vendors.
Since law enforcement has increased, many noted that the LAPD has already given several warnings and citations to vendors.
Last week, in a press conference, Mayor Bass said that LAPD surged additional resources into the park to improve public safety and crime. This explained the significant presence of police driving through the area, which, according to Bass, decreased crime in the last month.
L.A. TACO spoke with vendors and those working along the block, and most of them, who preferred to stay anonymous, said they hadn’t seen a significant change in crime. One woman selling clothes said the fencing was putting them in potential danger.
“We feel trapped. If a fight or shooting breaks out on this side, where do we go,” she said in Spanish, preferring to stay anonymous for safety reasons. “We would have to jump the fence to run away because it’s blocked.”
Rodriguez said that while the city may have had good intentions, the repercussions are severe.
“Instead of solving the problem they (the city) wanted to solve, they ended up affecting the most vulnerable, the street vendors and local businesses,” he said.
The vendor advocate said they have contacted the LAPD captain and will contact the office of council member Hernandez to let them know that the vendors will be setting back up.
“They have their permits, so they will be setting up only where they are allowed to because they want to follow the rules,” he said. “These people are the ones who once worked in restaurants and factories, and many of them are already retired, so they have no way of making a living. But they are the ones who give life to the economy in this city.”
Of the vendors who attended Tuesday’s meeting, 90% were 50 or older and said that police check on them frequently. If they set up seven days a week, then that’s a fine accrued every day, which for them only amounts to unwanted debt.
Last year, the vendor community in Los Angeles won a lawsuit that lifted restricted vending zones and promised to reimburse fines paid by vendors who had been receiving them for years.
The vendors from MacArthur Park are considering following suit if the city plans to keep the fencing up for the rest of the year. Some are safeguarding their fines and taking videos and pictures of their encounters with law enforcement.
Vendors say that they feel like they are suffering the consequences of something they didn’t do, referring to the crime and shooting that led to the fencing going up.
“Es injusto, it is an injustice, what they are doing; they are persecuting us, and the police are not letting us work,” said 56-year-old Maria, who had previously sold her items in front of Yoshinoya. “We are not to blame for what happens here on Sixth street. We just finish selling and go home. What happens later in the evening hours is not our problem.”
L.A. TACO did reach out to both Bass and Hernandez for comment and provide an update on the situation, but we have yet to receive a response.
For now, some vendors, like Zuniga, will attempt to return to their original locations, while others are looking to find temporary new locations to generate much-needed income.
“Help us," Zuniga said. "At this point, many of us don't have money for anything. Put everything in order so we can go back to selling. That's what we want the most.”
