The City of Long Beach will support state legislation (SB-972) to amend the California Retail Food Code (CRFC), after an 8-1 city council vote on Tuesday while reviewing how to improve existing City sidewalk vendor regulations.
The modification would ease state guidelines for sidewalk food vendors while also ensuring food safety, according to the proposal document.
The item, authored by Councilmember Mary Zendejas, also recommended a resolution for a moratorium on citations to sidewalk vendors for vending-related activities without a permit until the end of the pandemic.
Cameron Kude, a street vendor and founder of Cafablanca, a Tuk Tuk coffee cart that operates in Long Beach, has championed the moratorium and other city street vendor reforms online.
According to Kude, since pivoting to street vending during the pandemic, he has had impound threats by police and a visit by health and business licensing department field officers for illegal vending. Kude was told he’d get a misdemeanor citation if he kept operating for being in violation of the municipal code, as evidenced in an Instagram post.
Since the video upload, Kude has been in communication with the City to “confront the disparity between Long Beach’s municipal code” and the “need [for it] to be updated to reflect changing laws.”
Although SB-946 decriminalized sidewalk vending in the state in 2019 and outlined guidelines for local regulations, the item’s proposal document noted that there are outdated provisions in state law that impede the City from “integrating sidewalk vendors into the economy.”
According to Kude, the City told him he was not protected by SB-946 based on a “technicality”—he operates a mobile facility, like a food truck.
“Our coffee cart is basically built into the back of a scooter,” Kude said, noting no food is prepared inside. “The ignition doesn’t even turn on. We load this cart in and out of another vehicle like street vendors do.”
Still, not everyone is convinced Zendejas’ item is the way to move forward. Councilmember Daryl Supernaw was the only dissenting vote on Tuesday, citing food safety concerns.
“It’s important right now more than any other time that we create a pathway to permits for street vendors and sidewalk vendors,” Zendejas said. “Our street vendors are hardworking people trying to make a living.”
According to the item’s proposal document, the recommended changes that can be made to the California Retail Food Code include:
- Streamlining approvals for code-compliant carts including the ability for local health authorities to approve innovative design at their discretion
- Amending regulations around fruit and vegetable slicing and hot-holding of prepared foods
- Simplifying “inconvenient” requirements for sinks, power, water, fire, safety and other requirements
- Establishing a process for addressing non-compliance without criminal penalties
SB-972, authored by Lena Gonzalez, was referred to the State’s Committee on Health on Feb. 23.
Aside from supporting state legislation, Zendejas’ item also directs the Long Beach Health Department to collaborate with other departments and report back in 120 days with ways existing local regulations can be improved to simplify sidewalk food vendors’ access to health permits.
Among those changes is the creation of educational materials on application requirements, assessing the legality and cost for waving or reducing permit fees for low-income applicants and streamlining the permit application process, among others—something vendors like Kude would benefit from.
According to Kude, some City leaders ultimately recognized him as a street vendor and his protection by state law, but Kude ran into another roadblock.
During Tuesday’s public comment, Kude said the Health Department informed him and partner Juan Fernandez that they could not receive a permit for their coffee cart unless it had a built-in National Science Foundation-certified three-compartment sink.
“It’s been [a] very stressful almost two years now to have to look over our shoulders,” Kude said, noting that the impact on the average street vendor is “worse” especially if there’s a language barrier or if they’re undocumented.
“These policies ruin lives and they tear apart families,” Kude said.
A last-minute change in the moratorium recommendation by Zendejas leaves room for enforcement when it comes to “bad actors” but maintains that citations be used as a last resort.
The moratorium draft will come back to the council for approval at a later date.
“To treat [street vendors] as criminals has always been wrong,” Kude said to the council. “To do so during a pandemic, and in the name of public health is an injustice that we cannot accept.”
