[dropcap size=big]O[/dropcap]vernight, the street sign arrived — a new “Special Enforcement Zone” against “bulky items” — right among the selfie-snapping tourists and costumed movie characters that congregate around Hollywood and Highland. The bureaucracy-ese translates to: ‘Stop setting up to sell bacon-wrapped hot dogs here.’
On Monday, vendors and their supporters in Hollywood rallied against the threat of a new enforcement campaign meant to clear them from the busy tourist magnet of the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The protest served as a renewed call for urgency at City Hall over the slow-moving efforts to legalize street vending on L.A. sidewalks.
Hollywood is one of the toughest places to implement legalization: local business leaders want the Walk of Fame area to be exempt from allowing street vendors at all. “Aqui estamos y no nos vamos!” the vendors chanted Monday, under a scorching midday sun. (“We’re here, and not going anywhere!”)
Demonstrators gathered near one of the new street signs on a light pole on Hollywood Boulevard. The signs are part of a “Hollywood Pilot Project” aimed at more aggressively enforcing ordinance 56.11, which prohibits bulky items on public thoroughfares. Originally, the law was aimed at people leaving large pieces of furniture outdoors, and against certain kinds of homeless encampments.