They start a petition to remove local street vendors from a swap meet in East Hollywood.
A row broke out last year between the business owner and shopkeepers after huge boulders were placed on the sidewalk in an attempt to ban their sale.
First was the erection of signs that were allegedly illegal prohibiting street sales. Then a steel fence, and recently the placement of huge boulders on the sidewalk which were removed this year, but now vendors face a new challenge.
In a video she filmed on her cellphone, Sandra Escalante took to Vermont and Monroe streets in East Hollywood over the weekend.
The video shows a man assaulting her and then pushing her peddler’s table.
“He started insulting me, he tried to hit me, he even threw away all my merchandise,” said Sandra Escalante, a street vendor in East Hollywood.
The attack captured on video, according to street vendors in East Hollywood, is part of the harassment they continue to face for selling their wares outside of this Los Angeles school swap meet on the streets Vermont and Monroe.
The city of El Monte has approved a new ordinance that will allow street vendors who operate without a license to be fined and even confiscated. The measure, state officials, is in response to complaints of fires and obstruction of public roads.
“More than anything, this is another dating-swap administrator attack on the street vendors here,” said East Hollywood street vendor Marco Morales.
The harassment began two years ago, say sellers who accuse the exchange owner of first putting up illegal signs, a metal fence and even huge rocks, in a bid to ban the sale of their products on the sidewalk.
“We want to sell here, we don’t want to pay it, we prefer to pay the city for the permit,” Morales added.
But street vendors in East Hollywood face a new challenge today, a petition to remove them from the Los Angeles college-swap area.
“First, they don’t sell out, and second, they work with the city to make sure those who sell out get into the swap meet,” said proposal author Alexander Brizuela. .
The proponent is one of 200 vendors who pay a fee to sell at the swap meet, and he wants District 13 Councilman Hugo Soto Martínez to financially help vendors sell at the swap meet. exchange, with the petition, by paying them the costs. $75.
“And we sent this to Hugo Martínez, but we didn’t receive any response, it was February 15,” Brizuela said.
Swap meet owner Phillip Dane says his intention is not to harm sellers, but that the alleged harassment he and his family are experiencing, as well as some sellers, could force him to shut down the meet. exchange, unless they regulate street sales, he added.
“If they close the swap meeting, more than 200 families will be left without a place to earn a living,” Brizuela said.
In a statement, the office of Los Angeles District 13 Councilman Hugo Soto Martínez told Telemundo 52: “We have already filed a petition with the City Council to allow the process of issuing sales permits to be expedited. under state law”.
Councilor Soto Martínez also noted that his office is working with street vendors so they can operate safely following local ordinances.