OCEANSIDE, Calif. (FOX 5/KUSI) — The City of Oceanside has taken its first step in cracking down on unlicensed street vendors who sell ice cream hot dogs and other novelties all over the city.
In a unanimous decision, the city council voted to approach the vendors with education first, then after two warnings in English and Spanish, their cart would be confiscated.
“This is an example of a person on the pier, on the wood of the pier with a flame with their hot dog cart, these are vendors on the beach,” said Ben Magana from Mariposa Ice Cream.
Residents pushed back before the vote, arguing people are simply trying to help their families.
But small business owners say that if it was one vendor on their own, there would be no problem.
“They come in packs of four or five people, they go throughout the strand and throughout the harbor,” Magana said.
Kim Heim with the Mainstreet Oceanside association say these vendors operate as if they are being forced to work by corporate employers not seen, with the vendors seemingly scared at times.
“They are being threatened, they’ve told us that and they’ve behaved that way and it took us about two years to really begin to identify the pattern,” Heim said.
Now vendors will have two strikes and then their carts will be confiscated, with the city charging $61 to retrieve their work equipment or risk their vending carts being discarded altogether.
“They have been pushed out of other locations, and they look for the next vulnerable uncontrolled location to do business until that location reacts,” Heim said.
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