The Los Angeles City Council is slated to vote Tuesday to draft a law that would decriminalize sidewalk vending, in an effort to protect immigrants vulnerable to deportation.
Hawking food and goods on the sidewalk can currently lead to misdemeanor charges. If the council acts, city attorneys will be tasked with drawing up a new ordinance that would strip those criminal penalties and authorize the city to eventually issue vending permits.
City staffers say it could take months, however, for Los Angeles to work out all of the details and begin to hand out permits to vendors. In the meantime, vendors who ply their trade on city sidewalks could still be cited and fined for violating the municipal code, but would not face criminal convictions.
Immigrant advocates have long pushed the city to decriminalize sidewalk vending, arguing that mobile vendors should not face criminal charges that could put them at risk of deportation for selling ice cream, hot dogs slathered in bacon, or other goods. But the idea languished for years at City Hall as council members sparred over where and how vending should be allowed.
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