At least 30 fruit sellers, taqueros and ice cream truck vendors stood their ground for more than a year and a half and avoided being abruptly and illegally evicted from La Palma Ice Cream & Candy Commissary, now called the Cooperative Commissary-Union of Mobile Workers.
“It is an important moment to celebrate in life,” said Mr. Isauro Pedraza, a 71-year-old paletero from Puebla.
“We are going to continue to enjoy life,” added the father of three children.
In May 2022, the owner of La Palma Ice Cream & Candy Commissary was going to close the building located north of Figueroa Street, in Cypress Park.
In the midst of the pandemic, many sellers could not keep up with rental costs.
In his eviction letter, Mehran Sahabi, a former agent of the previous tenant, briefly explained that the owner had decided not to renew the police station’s lease and the vendors would have to find a new place to store their trucks and fruit carts.
However, the intervention and support of Councilwoman Eunisses Hernández, the Cooperative Police Station-Union of Mobile Workers and Pico Union Housing Corporation was vital to achieve the reopening of the place.
New form of economy
Prior to the venue’s ribbon cutting, Councilwoman Hernandez said the created “21st century economy” model is an innovative public-private partnership intended to preserve the legacy of longtime vendors while ushering in a new era of community-focused commerce in Cypress Park.
For 25 years, the space located at 3210 North Figueroa Street has been occupied by
street vendors in the area.
Upon taking office in December 2022, Hernández joined forces with vendors who continued to call for justice and who formed the Comisaría Cooperativa-Unión de Trabajadores Móviles cooperative, and initiated a plan to grow a sustainable economy model operated as an association of limited liability (LLC).
“In this work, I invested more than $400,000 of my office’s discretionary funds to cover costs and development of sellers, and in financial capacity to operate and manage the property as a collective,” Hernandez said.
He specified that his office’s decision to finance the launch of the Cypress economy
Park has given vendors the opportunities they deserve to build and sustain
their businesses.
“This is what true economic equity looks like,” the councilwoman remarked. “It means making bold investments to ensure communities are not left behind for too long.”
time and that suppliers are not left out of the decision-making process.”
He said the displacement that occurred in that geographic area of Los Angeles just two years ago is an example of the consequences of not taking their experiences into account when making political decisions.
Moral and financial support
Juan Rodríguez, organizer of the street vendors and coordinator of the project of the Cooperative Police Station-Union of Mobile Workers, recalled that the fight to not be evicted was intense and they even had to face a probably premeditated fire in the facilities, because supposedly the previous tenants They wanted to intimidate them.
“We hired a lawyer and we said that they were not going to kick us out until it was an order from the city,” he declared. “They sent us armed security guards to threaten all the people; “They burned our police station, but they couldn’t beat us because we were united…some got tired of fighting and left.”
Rodríguez and all the street vendors thanked Councilor Eunisses Hernández for the support she gave them morally and financially.
“She kept her word, and it is the first time we have realized that a Los Angeles council member supports a workers’ project like ours,” he said. “Thanks to her, it has been a great victory for us.”
There are an estimated 50,000 street vendors in the Los Angeles area, and an average of 10,000 of them sell food.
“Thank God we got out of this problem,” said José Ayala, owner of the Tacos del Tigre business, who sets up his lunch box every day in front of El Super, at 5610 York Boulevard, in
Highland Park.
And while over the decades, Los Angeles’ street vendor carts
They became an integral part of the city’s culinary scene, selling everything from
fruits, ice creams and hot-dogs wrapped in bacon have made their lives miserable with the
police searches.
Thus, in February 2024, the Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously to eliminate street vending restricted zones throughout Los Angeles such as the Hollywood Bowl, Dodger Stadium and the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Action against police mistreatment
“For us the arrival of [la concejal] Eunisses Hernández was a watershed because this
“The project really made no head or tail,” said Efraín Ayala, director of the police station. “In the face of every difficult situation, in the face of the problems that currently prevail, not only here, but in the entire world, the only way to move forward is to organize and work with pride and dignity.”
In the project, Pico Union Housing Corporation, a street vendor education and rights organization will act as fiscal sponsor to sustainably build the financial capacity of the vendors and eventually bear the full cost of leasing as a collective.
“Over the years, I have seen so much suffering and the police throwing food and things at our street vendors and that is why I decided to get involved and started making a plan to
action and achieve it in a comprehensive manner with all hands united,” said Gloria Farías, executive director of Pico Union Housing Corporation.
“It’s not just about street vendors siding with the police or the government, but teaching them how to be sustainable, how to learn to pay their taxes, how to get all their permits and how to work legally,” he added. “That is the most important thing we want to do in this entire district (1).”
Indeed, for the first time, in collaboration with Council District 1, Pico Union Housing Corporation and the Cooperative Police Station-Mobile Workers Union, they established the space for street vendors to work in a safe and healthy environment without fear of violating the law.
“Together, we are teaching them how to build their own nonprofit, own their own LLC, and learn to be self-sufficient,” Farías noted.
Self-sufficient street vendors like Elizabeth Reynoso and her son Marwin Carranza, who own “Monkey’s Munchies,” a truck where they sell nachos, snow, churros with snow, mango smoothies, mangoneadas and other delicacies that children love.
“I feel happy because, thank God, all the remaining vendors are united,” said Mrs. Reynoso.
For his part, Alfredo Velazco, an immigrant from Chiapas, who has been a fruit seller for 16 years and has grown his street vending business with the help of his wife and children, considered that, with the change achieved with the Cooperative-Union Police Station of Mobile Workers, “we hope everything is for the better.”
“We are excited because this is a project that we achieved together and with the support of the councilor [Eunisses] Hernández,” said Claudia Rebollar, president of the Cooperative Police Station-Union of Mobile Workers. “The reason we want to preserve this police station is because there are very few spaces like this and because it is an attempt to change the working conditions of street vendors and our families.”