{"id":235470,"date":"2012-03-02T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-03-02T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/city-ordinance-could-send-local-business-under\/"},"modified":"2012-03-02T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2012-03-02T08:00:00","slug":"city-ordinance-could-send-local-business-under","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/city-ordinance-could-send-local-business-under\/","title":{"rendered":"La ordenanza de la ciudad podr\u00eda enviar negocios locales bajo"},"content":{"rendered":"

Social Cycle owner set to explain how her company does not need Pedi-cab license<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"City<\/a>
(Courtesy Laura Rovick)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Por Ashley Mackin | Noticias del centro<\/strong><\/p>\n

Social Cycle, a 16-person cycle available for parties or group outings, is facing the risk of being shut down due to a city ordinance. Until recently, owner Laura Rovick primarily ran her business in the Gaslamp Quarter.<\/p>\n

The company\u2019s cycles are powered by the passengers and steered by a Social Cycle-employee, called a captain. Rovick compared her company to a rental car agency in how her company operates.<\/p>\n

The City of San Diego however, is inadvertently attempting to shut the business down because Social Cycle is not registered as having a Pedi-cab\u2019s license and the City is labeling the cycles as Pedi-cabs. The City is basing their label on City Ordinance 83.0102, which outlines the definition of a Pedi-cab.<\/p>\n

The Ordinance defines a Pedi-cab as a vehicle with three or more wheels, available for hire and operated by a person.<\/p>\n

\u201c[The City is] trying to say it\u2019s a Pedi-cab because it has three or more wheels and it transports people and we take money for it. I think it\u2019s different from a Pedi-cab [for] a multitude of different reasons,\u201d Rovick said.<\/p>\n

One reason Social Cycle is not a Pedi-cab, Rovick said, was that customers are not picked up randomly on city streets. \u201cWe\u2019re not for hire on the street. We have signs on the bike that say, \u2018not for hire,\u201d\u2019 she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to make your reservation at least two days in advance, book it for a two-hour minimum and you drop it off and pick it up at the same location. So, we\u2019re not picking up passengers as we\u2019re going along and dropping them off at the different destinations,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf that were the case,\u201d Rovick added, \u201cthe employee would have no way of getting the vehicle back to the warehouse because they don\u2019t have pedals. They can\u2019t operate it by themselves, whereas a Pedi-cab drives around to solicit fares and pick people up off the street. They pick them off and drop them off somewhere else and then that\u2019s it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\"City<\/a>
(Courtesy Laura Rovick)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Rovick\u2019s attorney, Constantine Buzunis, outlined the definitions within the Ordinance and explained their argument as to how Social Cycle vehicles are different from a Pedi-cab.<\/p>\n

Regarding the cycle being for hire, Buzunis said, \u201cA vehicle for hire is a taxi, Pedi-cab or other vehicle that is out on the street looking for fares or makes stops and drops-off at different places. This vehicle is only available at the warehouse by appointment. They pick it up there and drop it off there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Buzunis also described the vehicle\u2019s operation, saying the Ordinance \u201ctalks about the vehicle being operated by a person. [The Social Cycle] vehicle takes a minimum of seven people to operate: at least six people pedaling to be able to move it efficiently, and then the operator, so it\u2019s a minimum of seven,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The physical structure of the Social Cycle vehicles, Buzunis said, also makes it problematic in labeling them as Pedi-cabs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis vehicle is very unique,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s got motorcycle parts, car parts, bike parts and many other parts that carry it out of the realm of the description of a Pedi-cab under the ordinance. Pedi-cabs are defined [as having] a drawbar and a carriage…. We don\u2019t even have those parts, so how can we even comply?\u201d<\/p>\n

Currently, there are 250 Pedi-cab licenses allotted for the City, Rovick said, and those are all distributed. \u201cThe City has been sold out since 2008, so unless a [current] Pedi-cab company goes out of business, which is highly unlikely, there wont be one available,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Further, Rovick was told by the City\u2019s Transportation Department that even if she wanted to apply for a Pedi-cab license, she would not be able to, due to language on the application.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are two definitions of a Pedi-cab on their application,\u201d Rovick said. \u201cOne is a three-wheeled Pedi-cab and the other is a bike with a carriage. [They said] check one or the other. I\u2019m neither one; I couldn\u2019t even fill out the applications properly.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a result, Rovick has a hearing scheduled for March 9 to explain, in-depth, why the Ordinance does not apply to her business. Rovick said she received a ticket and was forced to have a cycle towed during a recent reservation because she does not have a license.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re calling her a Pedi-cab and at the same time they\u2019re telling her that the configuration of her vehicle doesn\u2019t comply with the Pedi-cab Ordinance because she\u2019s lacking some things in design and configuration. It\u2019s nonsensical,\u201d Buzunis said. \u201cThe result is that she\u2019s been unfairly put out of business.\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Social Cycle owner set to explain how her company does not need Pedi-cab license By Ashley Mackin | Downtown News Social Cycle, a 16-person cycle available for parties or group outings, is facing the risk of being shut down due to a city ordinance. Until recently, owner Laura Rovick primarily ran her business in the […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":235471,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"City ordinance could send local business under","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11551,11552,11600],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-235470","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-opinion","category-sdnews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235470","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=235470"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235470\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/235471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}