It\u2019s too early to tell if enforcement of the new Sidewalk Vending Ordinance in the beach areas has been working as the City expected. Local leaders have seen mixed results and are curious about how the City will handle the summer.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’d say the results are still to be determined,\u201d said Larry Webb, Mission Beach Town Council president, about early returns on the Sidewalk Vending Ordinance. \u201c[Poor] weather has played a factor in not as many vendors attempting\u00a0to be out. So when better weather comes it may lead to more vendors. We will have to see how enforcement goes at that point.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMany community leaders and I are very frustrated with the resurgence of the vending appearing along our coastline parks and beaches,\u201d said Bob Evans, president of La Jolla Parks & Beaches, Inc.<\/p>\n
\u201cInitially, park rangers and other enforcement were very effective with the ordinance at removing all the vending that had taken over the coastal areas. However, now the City\u2019s policy is to let any vendor who claims, insincerely, they\u2019re exempt from the ordinance because of their freedom of speech rights, to continue to operate in just about any place they desire,\u201d\u00a0Evans said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSince the implementation of the sidewalk vending ordinance, many people in Pacific Beach have noticed a drastic increase in public access to the beach,\u201d said Charlie Nieto, president of Pacific Beach Town Council. \u201cIt is almost like comparing night and day when you contrast the difference of what the boardwalk is like now to how it was last summer.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cPark rangers did an excellent job educating vendors on the ordinance,\u201d said Susan Crowers of PBTC noting, \u201cWithin a week, there was a noticeable improvement in the situation and residents enjoyed unimpeded views and access to public beaches and shoreline park pathways. Since then, some vendors have returned and are claiming protection under the First Amendment.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI pay taxes and rent as well as buying permits and business licenses,\u201d noted Chris Cott, a La Jolla artist who worked over 20 years on the Mission Beach boardwalk. \u201cScripps Park wasn\u2019t donated so vendors could turn it into Kobey\u2019s Swap Meet.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is better without the vendors for most everyone except the vendors,\u201d said Gary Wonacott of Mission Beach questioning, \u201cIs this issue done? Probably not. It all comes down to what happens in July and August.<\/p>\n
Will some of the vendors come back? Probably. Will code enforcement or rangers step in? Depends on how much money the City is getting versus time\/money required to manage the vendors,\u201d Wonacott added.<\/p>\n
The City Council voted to approve the new Sidewalk Vending Ordinance in\u00a0May 2022, bringing San Diego into compliance with SB 946, a California law that decriminalized sidewalk vending statewide and set parameters on how cities could impose regulations.<\/p>\n
San Diego law enforcement personnel began fully enforcing the Sidewalk Vending Ordinance in beach areas on Feb. 1 of this year. The ordinance then went into effect in the City\u2019s Coastal Overlay Zone, which includes Point Loma, Ocean, Mission and Pacific beaches, La Jolla, and Sorrento Valley.<\/p>\n
Webb of MBTC believes Sidewalk Vending Ordinance enforcement thus far has \u201chad a positive effect\u201d while noting \u201csome vendors are still around.\u201d He added that \u201cInitially, City officials stated vendors claiming First Amendment rights would not be allowed unless their goods were political or religious. Over the last several weeks, we learned that park rangers are not allowed to enforce the ordinance if a vendor claims First Amendment rights regardless of the goods offered. The city attorney is once again acting in fear of litigation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Crowers of PBTC questions whether vendors are obeying all Sidewalk Vending Ordinance rules.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have spoken with vendors who display their goods and offer services for a donation, and I’ve also spoken to vendors who claim it’s okay for them to sell their goods as long as they’re homemade,\u201d she said. \u201cThat doesn’t align with what the ordinance says. It seems the park rangers are still waiting on a clear directive from the city attorney. But with summer just around the corner \u2013 we need action now.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe families who are using Scripps Park can\u2019t find a place to park because it\u2019s all being taken up by vendors,\u201d complained Cott of La Jolla. \u201cThe so-called vendor artisans who are selling knick-knacks, sunglasses, T-shirts, and doing wetsuit rentals at taxpayer\u2019s expense should all be run off.\u201d<\/p>\n
Evans of LJPB believes the new Sidewalk Vending Ordinance isn\u2019t being properly enforced.<\/p>\n
\u201cUntil the City changes their policy on the ordinance and decides to enforce it as intended, the rangers are essentially powerless to get results,\u201d he said. \u201cNo other California coastal communities seem to have this vending problem, and all state and national parks don\u2019t allow vending. You don\u2019t see merchandise vendors set up at Cabrillo National Monument, nor Torrey Pines State Park, Yellowstone, or the DC Mall. San Diego needs to return its great coastline parks and beaches to recreational use and scenic beauty, and not be a commercial zone.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are certainly still some concerns about some remaining vendors along coastal pathways,\u201d pointed out Nieto. \u201cThe work that remains has to do mainly with some fine-tuning and determining the distinction between actors who are earnestly exercising their First Amendment rights versus those who are abusing loopholes in the system.\u201d<\/p>\n
But, having confidence in park rangers and law enforcement, Nieto concluded: \u201cUltimately, with the current ordinance in place, I do believe that this summer, many will see that the coastline has returned to a place for families and recreation.\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It\u2019s too early to tell if enforcement of the new Sidewalk Vending Ordinance in the beach areas has been working as the City expected. Local leaders have seen mixed results and are curious about how the City will handle the summer. \u201cI’d say the results are still to be determined,\u201d said Larry Webb, Mission Beach […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":840,"featured_media":322038,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"15433","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"It\u2019s too early to tell if enforcement of the new Sidewalk Vending Ordinance in the beach areas has been working as the City expected. Local leaders have seen mixed results and are curious about how the City will handle the summer.","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"source_name":"","source_url":"","via_name":"","via_url":"","override_template":"0","override":[{"template":"3","single_blog_custom":"","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_share_counter":"1","show_view_counter":"1","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"1","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","show_zoom_button":"1","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"1","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"override_image_size":"0","image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post":"0","trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post":"0","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","sponsored_post_name":"","sponsored_post_url":"","sponsored_post_logo_enable":"0","sponsored_post_logo":"","sponsored_post_desc":"","disable_ad":"0"},"jnews_primary_category":{"id":"","hide":""},"jnews_social_meta":{"fb_title":"","fb_description":"","fb_image":"","twitter_title":"","twitter_description":"","twitter_image":""},"jnews_override_counter":{"override_view_counter":"0","view_counter_number":"0","override_share_counter":"0","share_counter_number":"0","override_like_counter":"0","like_counter_number":"0","override_dislike_counter":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[15409,15433,15490],"tags":[12537,12544,12543,12375,13442,13229],"class_list":["post-322037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-beach-bay-press-top-stories","category-la-jolla-village-news-top-stories","category-sdnews-top-stories","tag-la-jolla","tag-mission-beach","tag-pacific-beach","tag-san-diego","tag-sidewalk-vending-ordinance","tag-sidewalk-vendors"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322037","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\/840"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=322037"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322037\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":322039,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322037\/revisions\/322039"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/322038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=322037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=322037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=322037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}