By rssfeeds-admin Some councilmembers hope to crack down on Tower District street vendors even further than they already have.
“You’ve painted such a broad umbrella around who is at fault for this,” one attendee got up and said.
“This police unfairly links all crime in Tower solely to vendors in an attempt to justify these bans during brick and mortar operating hours,” another attendee said.
Fresno police got 5,528 calls from the Tower District between January and September of this year.
Fresno City Attorney Andrew Janz says the sidewalks are often covered in grease stains and trash from the late-night food vendors.
City leaders say to fix that, they must reduce late-night street vending.
“I would never in a million years have dreamed that something like street vending would be such a big issue,” Tower District Business Association President Anthony Armour said.
The city introduced a street vendor ordinance at the beginning of the year, increasing vending regulations and fines for violations.
Janz says it was not enough, though.
“I’ve had conversations with the police chief. We are diverting officers from other areas of town to make sure that Tower is a safe place,” Janz said.
On Thursday, Councilmembers Miguel Arias and Annalisa Perea introduced an amendment to the original ordinance.
It would ban street vending in the Tower District altogether between 6 p.m. and 3 a.m. Fridays and Saturdays.
“The ordinance amendment mentions the fact that we’ve seen an uptick in crime. We are not in any way saying that the street vendors are directly responsible for that, but the crime that we’re seeing in the Tower District is associated with the areas in which the vendors frequent,” Janz said.
One anonymous Tower District business owner says she thinks 6 p.m. is too early to force everyone out.
She does think they should be gone by 11 p.m., though.
Armour backed the amendment on the district’s behalf Thursday, but he says he felt torn doing so.
“At the end of the day, man, businesses are tired of more broken windows, having to clean up extra things in front of their space, especially when they don’t have anything to do with that mess,” Armour said.
Armour hopes the city and the vendors can eventually discover a compromise that leads to a safe, vibrant Tower District for everyone.
Thursday was the amendment’s first reading. It will have a second reading and discussion on Oct. 30.
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