{"id":51269,"date":"2025-11-13T14:29:15","date_gmt":"2025-11-13T14:29:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/51269\/"},"modified":"2025-11-13T14:29:15","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T14:29:15","slug":"fresno-leaders-consider-pulling-back-proposed-street-vendor-ban","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/51269\/","title":{"rendered":"Fresno leaders consider pulling back proposed street vendor ban"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\tWhat’s at stake?<\/p>\n

An amendment to the sidewalk vending ordinance proposed banning the practice on weekend nights at the Tower District, citing a need to address public safety and health concerns. <\/p>\n

But following a failed introductory vote, and pushback from the community, the city is at least reconsidering their approach.<\/p>\n

Deep into Friday and Saturday nights in the Tower District, most people are beginning to end their day full of drinking and dancing by slowly sauntering off into the streets of the city\u2019s hub for nightlife.<\/p>\n

For people like Laurie Montero, however, their night is about to begin.<\/p>\n

Montero, 47, is one of many street food vendors that adorn Olive Avenue with a mix of music, colorful lights and, above all else, some hot and ready food.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But depending on who you ask, vendors like Montero are either a welcome sight or a public nuisance.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Fresno City Councilmembers Miguel Arias and Annalisa Perea recently attempted to introduce a new policy that would outright ban street vendors in the Tower District on weekend nights, a move they said would help curb safety concerns and raucous crowds.<\/p>\n

The proposal came following pressure from local businesses, competing interests and neighboring homeowners, who, city leaders say, are reaching their breaking point with the issue. But, facing community backlash over the past two weeks, leaders at City Hall are rethinking their approach.<\/p>\n

Vendors who spoke with Fresnoland on a recent Saturday night didn\u2019t dispute the idea that something needs to change \u2014 fights and other unpleasant disturbances are bad for business.<\/p>\n

Montero, who sells bacon-wrapped hot dogs on the southwest corner of Olive and Wishon Avenues with her son, said she hopes the city keeps small business owners like her in mind as they grapple with potential legislative solutions.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not committing a crime, you know, we\u2019re doing our best to provide for our families,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s really hard out here these days. At least we\u2019re working for our money. We\u2019re not out there committing a crime or stealing or begging for money, we\u2019re actually out here working for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

But are street vendors the problem?<\/p>\n

Calls for service to the Fresno Police Department in 2025 have seen an uptick in the Tower District in places that \u201ccorrespond to areas frequented by food vendors,\u201d according to the city\u2019s data they used to justify the policy.<\/p>\n

Perea \u2014 whose district includes the northern part of the Tower District \u2014 said the problems tend to start after the last call for drinks at Tower District bars and restaurants. In California, bars can\u2019t serve alcohol past 2 a.m. She said that\u2019s when people slowly make their way onto Olive Avenue and, because of the presence of street vendors, can \u201cstay out until 3 or 4 in the morning.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s that time of the night when police start getting an influx of calls to address \u201crowdiness, public intoxication, litter everywhere, folks going into the neighborhoods \u2026 fights,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe issue is that we were having to pull public safety resources from other parts of our city to now address these Tower crowds that are happening on Friday and Saturday nights.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jaime Ramirez runs the Tacos Ah Cabron Mexican food truck with his son, Juan, 27. They\u2019ve operated their truck for over three years, and even have a permanent spot on Clinton and Weber, but they still come out to Olive Avenue on weekends.<\/p>\n

\"\"Juan Ramirez, 27, runs the Tacos Ah Cabron food truck with his father, Jaime. Pablo Orihuela | Fresnoland<\/p>\n

Jaime, 49, who spoke to Fresnoland in an interview in Spanish, said he\u2019s not surprised that the city is running out of patience.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He said he and his son would sometimes bring a leaf blower to round up trash before leaving for the night. The gesture is an act of good will, they say, to the brick-and-mortar businesses they park in front of.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cImagine you\u2019re a renter and you wake up one morning and see your storefront trashed, dirty and ugly \u2026 you\u2019ll want us to stop coming,\u201d Jaime said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Still, there are some issues he knows he can\u2019t solve. Jaime said he\u2019s used to seeing sidewalks and tree wells with oil in them, and he said some vendors leave clean up duty to the customers \u2014 which doesn\u2019t always pan out. He\u2019s said he\u2019s also seen some sell alcohol, which the city strictly forbids.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But code enforcement can sometimes be put in tricky situations when trying to uphold those rules, he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cImagine, you\u2019re from the city and late at night you want to tell a vendor that they\u2019re breaking a rule, like say they\u2019re selling alcohol,\u201d Jaime said. \u201cSome vendors are emboldened enough to tell code enforcement to piss off, and then you have drunk patrons that tell them to get lost, too! It can get scary.\u201d<\/p>\n

Arias said he\u2019s also tried to reach out to bad-acting vendors. He hasn\u2019t fared any better.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve told me that the city\u2019s fines \u2026 they make that up in one meal,\u201d Arias said. \u201cThey just chalk that up as a business expense.\u201d<\/p>\n

Current penalties<\/a> for sidewalk vendors max out at $100, and that\u2019s after multiple warnings and prior fines.<\/p>\n

\"\"Jaime Ramirez, 49, runs the Tacos Ah Cabron food truck with his son, Juan. Pablo Orihuela | Fresnoland<\/p>\n

Are the proposed laws too nuclear of an option?<\/p>\n

Fresno leaders have been trying to get a handle on how to regulate street vendors in the Tower District since 2023, when they introduced a pilot program to improve business registration and compliance with the laws.<\/p>\n

Veva Islas is the co-founder and executive director of Cultiva La Salud, a Fresno-based nonprofit that focuses on creating health equity in the San Joaquin Valley. Her organization has built a steadily growing relationship with some street vendors through programs like Vendors4Health<\/a> \u2014 a 2016 initiative that helped mobile vendors access healthy food options to sell to areas of the city that are considered food deserts.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Islas \u2013 also a Fresno Unified trustee \u2014 has advocated for sidewalk vendors on the issue. She said the language in the proposed vending ban is taking \u201cthis huge leap at attributing all of that negativity to sidewalk vendors.\u201d<\/p>\n

Islas said the issue was important to her because of her mother, who was a small business owner. \u201cI can identify with how hard it is to make a living,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

She also acknowledged that there are some bad apples among the Tower food vendors, but said she hopes the city would go to greater lengths to focus attention on that group instead of punishing everybody.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBut their response has been, \u2018well, the vendors keep them there,\u201d Islas said. \u201cThat they maintain a presence that isn\u2019t desirable.\u201d<\/p>\n

The proposed amendments introduced in October would have increased the maximum fine to $500, and banned sidewalk vending in the Tower District between 6 p.m. and 3 a.m. on the weekend.<\/p>\n

An initial vote was taken on Oct. 16 with Councilmembers Tyler Maxwell, Nelson Esparza and Nick Richardson voting \u201cno.\u201d New ordinances in Fresno require two separate affirmative votes before they can go into effect.<\/p>\n

Arias and Perea both told Fresnoland that their original proposed ordinance amendments were actually less restrictive than what some of the street vendors\u2019 staunchest critics have been asking them to do. They both told Fresnoland that calls from angry constituents have asked them to go as far as banning street vending outright in the Tower District, and sometimes even worse than that.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cFull disclosure, they wanted to be far more aggressive,\u201d Arias said. \u201cThey wanted us to arrest people, which I said no to, absolutely no to.\u201d<\/p>\n

Arias said that the city has been trying to look the other way for as long as it can, from introducing street cleanup crews in the morning, to extending police and code enforcement overtime in the area. But all of those solutions take up funding at an amount he said is unsustainable.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo now we\u2019re looking at, do we not have outdoor vending in this corridor during these days, during these hours, for health and public safety?\u201d Arias said.\u00a0 \u201cAnd it\u2019s over these vendors we\u2019ve been trying to regulate who continue to refuse to follow the rules.\u201d<\/p>\n

Food trucks like the one Jaime and Juan run were notably exempt from original proposed amendments. But even with the prospect of seeing less competition from the night crowds, Jaime said he\u2019d be against a proposal that outright bans sidewalk vending on weekends. He sees most people selling food as like him \u2014 law-abiding and just trying to make ends meet. He doesn\u2019t think it\u2019s right for everybody to get penalized over an unruly sect of vendors.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody has a right to do what they can to make ends meet, yeah? It\u2019s not right that the vendors that are cutting corners, not paying taxes and permits, selling alcohol on the side and leaving behind trash \u2026 that they can come in and ruin it for the honest people trying to make ends meet. That\u2019s just not fair.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

After community pushback, will the proposal be delayed again?<\/p>\n

The new policy was supposed to get a final vote at the Nov. 6 Fresno City Council meeting, but was quietly pushed to the council\u2019s Nov. 20 meeting, amid significant community opposition online and during the council\u2019s public comment period. Arias said it could still be kicked back even into December.<\/p>\n

Arias and Perea haven\u2019t released official language for what any amendments would look like just yet. But they\u2019re considering eliminating the outright ban of street vendors, instead focusing on increasing fines for vendors violating the rules already on the books and possibly extending enforcement from the city\u2019s police department or code enforcement unit.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As of late October, Perea told Fresnoland that she\u2019s considering removing the sidewalk ban portion of the policy after \u201clistening to the vendors,\u201d particularly those that came to speak at the proposal\u2019s first hearing at the Oct. 16 council meeting.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t need more rules,\u201d Perea said, \u201cwe need to enforce the ones we already have.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among those criticisms have been that the policy is \u201cTrumpesque\u201d in nature, meaning a law that is going out of its way to target a minority group while labeling them as conducive to crime.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The added politicization has made it difficult for the city, and even vendors and businesses, to speak publicly and on the record on the topic. Perea said that when the policy comes back, whenever that may be, she wants to stress that the spirit of the law is to target bad acting vendors \u2013 not everyone.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Arias said it hasn\u2019t been easy getting his message across either.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s my complication. I\u2019ve been trying to not go on the offensive in the public space, because it\u2019s very hard to not portray this as \u2018the vendors are the problem,\u2019 because they\u2019re not,\u201d Arias said. \u201cThe vast majority of vendors in Fresno are not a problem because they\u2019re not in front of the entertainment district.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perea said she wouldn\u2019t be surprised to see some constituents still be angry with a less restrictive ordinance, but that her role is ultimately to reach a compromise that benefits everyone.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMy job is to listen to community input from everyone,\u201d Perea said. \u201cIn doing so, I\u2019m going to be tasked with making a decision at some point with the understanding that no matter what decision I make, there\u2019s going to be a segment of people that are going to be upset. With that in mind, this is still moving the needle forward, perhaps not to the degree that a lot of people were wanting it to go, but we\u2019re still moving it forward, and I think it\u2019s a good compromise.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perea said the city would be looking at reduced calls for service, continued talks with business owners and even first-hand accounts as measures of success with the new amendments.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going to be talking to the businesses, because they\u2019re the ones out there in the early morning, so they are the very first ones that see the aftermath from the night before,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Islas also expressed some sympathy toward city leaders facing public pressure. She said she\u2019s aware of the competing interests at play. To her, it\u2019s not fair that sidewalk vendors, who she considers to be at the bottom of the \u201cstreet vending totem pole,\u201d to be targeted while other options, like food trucks, aren\u2019t targeted by the new law.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not against regulation. I just want regulation to be equitable, and I want it to be fair, and I don\u2019t want a regulation that completely limits someone\u2019s ability to have a small, thriving business.\u201d<\/p>\n

Islas said, ultimately, street vending at all levels is something the city should be encouraging and fostering. Drawing back to the hustle of her mother, she thinks the business model is an avenue for many to make ends meet.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThat skill, those assets should be allowed as a pathway out of despair and out of poverty, that\u2019s what small food businesses are about,\u201d Islas said. \u201cBuilding a clientele, a business base that lets you move from just being a peddler or bike or cart operator to perhaps a food truck, to perhaps a brick and mortar restaurant, right? And essentially, they\u2019re killing that. They\u2019re killing that as a dream for some of these folks that are out there. And that just seems so unjust to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Until a solution is reached, vendors like Montero will continue to sell food on Olive Avenue to the patrons that come their way.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In spite of all the chaos the last few council meetings have brought people like her, Montero said she still finds joy in cooking. She recalls life in her early 20s when she had a small catering business, serving outside of bars and business offices during lunch time. She\u2019s come back to vending as a second job, given that her primary part-time job \u201cdoesn\u2019t even cut the bills.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said she\u2019d consider doing this full-time if money wasn\u2019t an issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always loved to cook, still do,\u201d Montero said. \u201cI love to cook for my family\u2026it\u2019s like a passion thing for me\u2026the same way others look toward art, that\u2019s what this is for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

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