HOST: Last year, the city of Fontana hired a private contractor to help enforce its strict new street vending law. Officials say it’s working. But as KVCR’s Anthony Victoria reports, some vendors say the crackdown is affecting their livelihoods.
(SOUND OF FOOD SIZZLING ON A GRILL)
ANTHONY VICTORIA, BY-LINE: Street vendor Angelina Castillo prepares and sells food to help sustain her family.
ANGELINA CASTILLO, IN SPANISH: Pupusas, hot dogs, platano frito.
VICTORIA: Street vending is her only source of income.
(CASTILLO SPEAKING SPANISH)
VICTORIA: Castillo says it’s exhausting work. But she has no choice because she can’t find another job. She used to sell along Fontana’s busy corridors. Until she was confronted by code enforcement, driving unmarked cars one weeknight last fall.
(SOUND OF INSTAGRAM VIDEO CAPTURED BY CASTILLO)
VICTORIA This audio is from an Instagram video Castillo took. She’s outraged to have her tables and chairs confiscated and food thrown out by code enforcement officers from a private contractor called 4Leaf.
(AUDIO OF VIDEO FADING OUT)
VICTORIA: Fontana has a $600,000 contract with 4Leaf. The company’s workers can ask vendors for their required permits. If they don’t have them, they get a warning. The next time vendors don’t have the right paperwork, 4Leaf or city staff can impound their equipment and throw away their food. Any person interfering in this process could be charged with a misdemeanor and issued a $1,000 fine.
(AUDIO OF FONTANA CITY COUNCIL MEETING)
VICTORIA: At a meeting last October, Mayor Acquanetta Warren and the City Council said the new rules were necessary. She said too many vendors weren’t getting the required permits, even though the city had set up a program to help cover up to $2,000 of the vendors’ costs.
ACQUANETTA WARREN: People are really upset about this. There’s not a day that doesn't go by that people aren't contacting one of us saying, "When are we going to stop this?"
VICTORIA: Castillo told KVCR she never knew about the program, which the city eventually shuttered in favor of a new approach.
WARREN: We have tried everything we can within our power to help people get legal...So now it's time to grab a couple of hammers. Done.
VICTORIA: Mayor Warren declined to talk to KVCR for this story.
(AUDIO FROM CITY/COUNTY CONFERENCE)
VICTORIA: At a city-county conference, Fontana officials said 4Leaf has issued 500 warnings to vendors, thrown away food at least 90 times and impounded equipment 43 times since December.
PHILIP BURUM: The fact is, it is not possible to safely prepare food in the open air without refrigeration, without sanitation. And without proper screening.
VICTORIA: That’s Fontana’s deputy city manager Philip Burum, in a video from the street vending panel he moderated during the May 16th conference. Burum told his audience that before Fontana updated its vendor law, city staffers were getting burned out trying to get more vendors to follow the rules. So the city contracted with 4Leaf. Now, he says, compliance is increasing and complaints have stopped.
BURUM: I haven't gotten a call about street vending in five months. My life is dramatically better...It's just not an issue in Fontana anymore.
VICTORIA: But street vendor advocates say Fontana’s law is too punitive and anti-immigrant. 4Leaf memos obtained by KVCR through a public records request show that two vendors were arrested in December.
VICTORIA: Ritu Mahajan is a lawyer with Public Counsel, a group that helps street vendors across Southern California. When cities cite health and safety risks, she says that’s often just an excuse to punish vulnerable vendors.
MAHAJAN: I think it's just this feeling of like, "Oh, vendors have created their own economic system and we don't like that. We want them to play within our rules."
(VICTORIA WALKING UP TO CASTILLO RESIDENCE)
VICTORIA: Angelina Castillo can’t sell in Fontana anymore. At her home, Castillo says she had another encounter with 4Leaf in April. They told her, again, to stop selling in Fontana, so now she sells outside of the city. But maybe not for long. The San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors recently earmarked nearly half-a-million dollars for a countywide program to address unpermitted street vending.
