In Support of Street Vendors—A Letter From Logan Heights & City Heights CDCs
Street vendors are under attack.
The recent viral video of several college students harassing a hot dog vendor at San Diego State University is one of many examples of prejudice and hate directed at people simply trying to make a living through street vending.
After decades working to de stigmatize and decriminalize street food vending, our team is appalled by these attacks and we stand alongside those neighbors working to earn a living on sidewalks, from food carts or trucks, and from their home-based catering work. See more in the statement below from the directors of both City Heights CDC and Logan Heights CDC:
City Heights Community Development Corporation & Logan Heights Community Development Corporation stand in unity in denouncing the escalating racism and hate towards the sidewalk vending community across the County of San Diego. We especially want to call out the wave of xenophobic and racist attacks directed towards our Central American, Mexican-American, Indigenous, Spanish speaking sidewalk vendors.
For decades, our agencies have worked with hundreds of sidewalk vending micro-entrepreneurs in providing them small business education, hands-on training, access to capital, and safe-vending neighborhood spaces. We have witnessed their resiliency as small business owners first-hand and heard their stories, fears, and their vision for a better future when it comes to vending in San Diego. Unfortunately, the recent attack on Andres Arguelles is only one of many “reported” incidents of harassment and hate that our sidewalk vendors face on a day-to-day basis. How many more harassment and hate-crime atrocities must be committed to our sidewalk vendors until action is taken to protect these micro-entrepreneurs by our local leaders?
We call on our County and City of San Diego elected officials to impose greater protections for our sidewalk vendors and even greater punishments against those who engage in clear racially motivated attacks that threaten the health, safety, and well-being of our small business community of sidewalk vendors. No entrepreneur or individual should ever fear for their life as they work honestly to provide for their families and households.
Both, City Heights CDC & Logan Heights CDC offer our services, support, and refuge to our sidewalk vending community in San Diego and will continue to work with our sidewalk vending micro-entrepreneurs to ensure cases like Andres Arguelles, the recent assault to a sidewalk vendor in El Cajon, and many others that go unreported no longer take place in our border town of San Diego.
We want to uplift and commend the work of the Consulado General De Mexico, their Consul for Protection and Legal Affairs team, and other partner agencies that took immediate action to support the protections and rights of Andres Arguelles, as well as commit to holding the responsible individuals accountable.
