By John Ramos<\/p>\n
A group of street vendors in Oakland say that in the past few months, enforcement actions against them have become increasingly aggressive. On Tuesday, they addressed the City Council about what they say are threats to a form of commerce with a long-standing tradition in the city.<\/p>\n
On Foothill Avenue in Oakland\u2019s Fruitvale District, most street vendors were busy preparing food and drinks for their customers, but one small group took their Tuesday off to appear before members of the City Council.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want you to know that street vending is not just about food or commerce. It\u2019s about dignity. It\u2019s about who gets to exist in public space,\u201d said Needa Bee, a local activist and street vendor.<\/p>\n
Bee said street vending is part of an Oakland tradition that goes back generations. Despite that history, she said that beginning on April 1st, the city began cracking down on unlicensed sellers. Videos show city workers tearing down canopies and throwing coolers and grills into garbage trucks to be crushed as the owners looked on.<\/p>\n
\u201cAgencies have been working together to come onto street vendors without notice, without warning, without citation, and throw away their entire setup,\u201d Bee told CBS News Bay Area. \u201cNot just food, but canopies, tables, grills, refrigeration, everything! It\u2019s devastating. People have completely lost their ability to sustain themselves. They\u2019ve destroyed people\u2019s entire livelihoods.\u201d<\/p>\n
Oakland Councilmember Ken Houston said he believes people should be given fair warning, but said he makes no apologies for the new enforcement efforts.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019ve got a permit and you\u2019re legal, it\u2019s okay,\u201d Houston said. \u201cBut if you\u2019re blocking the sidewalk, you don\u2019t have trash service, you don\u2019t have a health certificate from Alameda County, you need not be there, period. You have to follow the rules. The city is now enforcing rules, right? This is what we\u2019re doing now. You have a new administration, you have a new mayor, you have change in the city of Oakland.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The councilmember added, \u201cIf you\u2019re used to doing business the old way, it\u2019s not going to happen any longer.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sometimes, these crackdowns can turn tense. In a video from last week, a young woman named Joyous Miralle was mistakenly swept up and handcuffed by police investigating a vendor illegally selling alcohol. She was released after a few minutes, but Miralle said it didn\u2019t take much for things to take on a violent edge.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s very strong and aggressive, you know? Oakland has always had vendors, for years. This is not something new that just happened to pop up overnight,\u201d said Miralle.\u00a0<\/p>\n
When asked if she thought the enforcement was a concerted effort, she said, \u201cI feel like they definitely don\u2019t want us there, for sure. Hopefully, with us showing up today and talking about it, they realize that we see what\u2019s going on and are trying to organize within ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that we\u2019re at the point where something has to change because it\u2019s becoming so popular,\u201d said Jermaine Brewer, a full-time vendor<\/p>\n
Brewer said he could see both sides of the issue and explained that he understands why owners of brick-and-mortar businesses would object to someone simply setting up a canopy on the sidewalk, but added that most vendors are simply using one of the few ways they have to make an honest living.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we were out selling drugs, then it would be a totally different thing,\u201d said Brewer. \u201cSo, I think people are just trying to find a ground in entrepreneurship and move forward and put us in a better place,\u201d he finished.<\/p>\n
The vendors said they would like to open a dialogue with the city, something they say didn\u2019t happen before the enforcement actions began. Brewer said he hopes a compromise can be reached that will allow people like him to get their start.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By John Ramos A group of street vendors in Oakland say that in the past few months, enforcement…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":399705,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[143,145,144],"class_list":["post-399704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=399704"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399704\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/399705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=399704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=399704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=399704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}