A New Era of ‘Legal’ Street Vending Awaits L.A.’s Sidewalk Vendors, But Will They Finally Stop Getting Fined?

This story was produced in partnership with Capital and Main. 

It was standing room only in Mariachi Plaza on Sept. 30 as more than 200 street vendors wept and embraced each other while they celebrated the passage of SB 972 with music, dancers, and food cooked by vendors from across Los Angeles. 

Typically, it’s vendors' umbrellas that paint Los Angeles sidewalks like rainbows, but that night it was vendors’ shirts that filled the Boyle Heights square with color, each announcing the street or market its wearer hailed from. Vendors from the Piñata District, the Fashion District, the Guatemalan Night Market in MacArthur Park, Leimert Park, Hollywood Boulevard and more were enjoying each other’s food. Some had just come straight from Sacramento, where they successfully lobbied for the passage of the bill. 

“Lo hicimos!” vendors cried as the crowd cheered. “We did it!”