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2 L.A. City Council Members Want To Legalize Your 1 A.M. Street Hot Dogs
(Photo by Robert Bell via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr)
L.A. is known for a lot of things: celebrities, wide-eyed ingenues trying to "make it" … the amazing smell of bacon-wrapped hot dogs being sold during the small hours to drunken passers-by.
Selling those hot dogs -- along with the host of other goods you'll find people hawking on sidewalks -- is prohibited by city code. Vendors face fines, confiscation of equipment and even jail time.
But two L.A. City Council members are trying to change that.
Eastside representative Jose Huizar and Councilman Curren Price, who serves much of South L.A., are expected to present a motion on Wednesday calling for a study that would look into legalizing street vending, according to a statement released by the council members' offices. The move would put Los Angeles alongside other major cities, like San Francisco, New York and Chicago, that allow people to sell their goods on sidewalks.
Storefront business owners complain that sidewalk vendors (and foodtrucks) are unfair competition because they don't pay rent or taxes, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Huizar spokesman Rick Coca told the Times the councilman is interested in reducing the number of street vendors in some neighborhoods.
"We need to hear from everybody," Coca said. "We want to make sure that whatever we create is not hurting brick-and-mortar businesses."
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