Illegal Street Vending

Illegal Street Vending

Introduction

Illegal vending has become a major problem for the City of Los Angeles. The primary issues with illegal vending are decreased quality of life, loss of revenue to local businesses, no regulation, and loss of tax revenue. It negatively affects local businesses due to a loss of customers to the vendors. The increase in illegal vending can also be attributed to the increase in immigrants to the Los Angeles area. The formation of a policy to handle this issue should include an analysis of the causes of the problem, alternatives to the problem, an implementation plan, and a system for feedback and evaluation.

The issues concerning illegal immigration affect residents, businesses, and government in very negative ways. The four primary problems are as follows:

Quality of Life- The increase in this activity gives communities the look of a third world nation.

Loss of Business- Restaurants and merchants lose business revenue to vendors.

No Regulation- Lack of regulation equates to a lack of health standards and can lead to unsanitary health conditions.

Loss of Tax Revenue.

The causes of illegal vending stem from immigration, cultural differences, and a lack of education. Of these three, culture and education have viable alternatives for solving the problem.

Immigration- Immigrants from third world countries including both vendors and customers bring an informal economy that is prevalent in their home countries.

Culture- For vendors and customers illegal vending is accepted culturally in their countries.

Solutions to this problem include education and zoning changes for vendors.

Education- Provide education for vendors and customers regarding health issues, quality of life issues, and business issues.

Vending Zones and Increased Enforcement- Create vending zones for within designated areas for vendors to be regulated.

A collaborative effort between federal, state, county, and local government, as well as various non-profit organizations would be needed to implement these solutions and alternatives. An evaluation of this policy would be done based on the community complaints and the visible number of vendors not adhering to the new regulations.

Objectives

The purpose of this evaluation will be to monitor and measure the short and long term goals of reducing illegal vending. The objectives can be broken down as follows.

To reduce illegal vending in the City of Los Angeles by implementing a three pronged approach.

Increasing vending education.

Creation of legal street vending zones.

Increased enforcement efforts to halt illegal vending.

Illegal vending is a broad and ongoing problem within the City of Los Angeles. The primary purpose for this evaluation is obviously the effective reduction in illegal vending. To achieve this, the objectives must be clear and attainable. The first objective of increasing education is very attainable. Education would be very basic in order for it to be effective. Vendors would be educated in three things, new vending laws, increased enforcement, sanitation and the new permit process.

Creation of legal vending zones will only effective and attainable if the zones coincide in areas where illegal vending is already prevalent. This objective must be done to evaluate the entire illegal vending program.

The third objective must be ...