City Government

Food Truckers Take to the Streets Against City Discrimination, Police Harassment

Published

9 years ago

March 19, 2016

Over 20 Latino-owned food trucks led a mobile march down International Boulevard in Oakland Monday – from 46th Avenue and International to City Hall –disrupting traffic to pressure the city to pass an ordinance to allow them to expand their vending operations past East Oakland.

Currently, mobile merchants are not allowed to operate outside designated zones, mostly in flatland Districts 5, 6 and 7. Mobile vendors say they are feeling increasingly congested by the growing number of trucks and relatively few places to park their trucks for business in these areas.

This, as a result, has hurt their businesses, many of which are family-owned and employ up to 10 workers who are supporting their own families.

They also say that the city’s unwillingness to expand their vending parameters and the use of police to shut down those working outside the currently allowed zone equate to discrimination.

“It’s very saturated here,” said Ezequías Ortiz of Tacos Acapulco. “The city won’t give us permission to work outside and now they’re ticketing businesses that have been here for years.”

The mobile merchant ordinance, which was introduced to the City Council in 2009, has taken six years to get through the City Attorney’s office, city staff, the planning commission and countless public hearings.

The law would expand the merchants’ working zones to certain locations within the entire city of Oakland.

Mobile vendors believe this is the year that City Council will pass the ordinance.

On Monday, several commissaries—established commercial kitchens where food truckers and other food service providers can go to prepare and store food in clean and inspected locations—came together for the action, also calling for an end to what they consider harassment by the city.

According to several merchants, the city has recently been serving more cease and desist letters to mobile restaurants that are as close as a block away from the allowed parameter and often the police show up to shut their restaurants down.

Since the mobile merchant ordinance would nullify these charges, vendors are upset by the city’s stringency and aggression that has recently become more frequent.

Pati Liles, owner of Taquería La Bonita, a family-run mobile restaurant, said police have recently shut down her business three times after receiving complaints from neighbors. Each time, the police showed up within minutes of being called.

“It’s unjust that police are being used to stop people who are doing nothing wrong and are just trying to work,” said Liles. “The police never showed up when my son was hit by a car. We called them and they never showed up.”

Furthermore, Nancy Marcus, administrative assistant for the city of Oakland, has been denying requests to renew special business permits for some of the vendors that have existed in Oakland for over 10 years, say mobile business owners.

The food truckers who took to the street on Monday afternoon view the city’s aggressive behavior as a drive to squelch the businesses of mobile vendors in favor of stores that are renting space.

The mobile vendors face opposition mainly from store vendors who feel they cannot compete with the trucks and carts stationed outside their stores and by neighbors who are afraid of the crowds that would follow food trucks into their neighborhoods.

According to Councilmember Noel Gallo, who has been working with mobile merchants in the Latino community to get the ordinance passed through City Council, the city frequently has failed to ensure that vendors who operate mobile stores are doing so legally and with a permit.

“There’s a lot of illegal trucks competing with restaurants that are paying fees and getting their inspections,” said Gallo in an interview with El Mundo. “It causes everybody to lose business because they can’t compete with unpermitted vendors selling on the corner.”

The new ordinance would only apply to mobile merchants who have a permit to operate in certain zones and in safe and legal ways.

Food truck owner Antonio “Tony” Belayo says the ordinance is simply a matter of keeping business afloat in a city that’s becoming more and more popular to live and work in.

“We don’t want to interfere with restaurants or other vendors. We just want everyone to be happy,” said Belayo. “Mobile merchants are a source of employment in Oakland and it helps many of us support our families.”

“Mobile merchants have always been a vibrant part of this city and form a vital part of Oakland’s economy,” said Araceli “Shelly” Garza, an advocate for the mobile merchants who helped organize the caravan on Monday.

“Since 2009, the city has been telling us that the ordinance is going to finally be scheduled,” said Garza. “People are sick and tired of being put on the back burner.”

At City Hall, Councilmember Gallo promised the crowd that the mobile merchants ordinance would be approved by City Council by the end of the summer.

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Oakland Post: Week of December 25 – 31, 2024

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of December 25 – 31, 2024

Published

11 hours ago

December 26, 2024

Oakland Post

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Bay Area

Glydways Breaking Ground on 14-Acre Demonstration Facility at Hilltop Mall

Glydways has been testing its technology at CCTA’s GoMentum Station in Concord for several years. The company plans to install an ambitious 28-mile Autonomous Transit Network in East Contra Costa County. The new Richmond facility will be strategically positioned near that project, according to Glydways.

Published

3 days ago

December 24, 2024

Oakland Post

Image of planned Richmond facility courtesy of Glydways.

The Richmond Standard

Glydways, developer of microtransit systems using autonomous, small-scale vehicles, is breaking ground on a 14-acre Development and Demonstration Facility at the former Hilltop Mall property in Richmond, the Contra Costa Transportation Authority (CCTA) reported on social media.

Glydways, which released a statement announcing the project Monday, is using the site while the mall property undergoes a larger redevelopment.

“In the interim, Glydways will use a portion of the property to showcase its technology and conduct safety and reliability testing,” the company said.

The new Richmond development hub will include “over a mile of dedicated test track, enabling Glydways to refine its solutions in a controlled environment while simulating real-world conditions,” the company said.

Visitors to the facility will be able to experience on-demand travel, explore the control center and visit a showroom featuring virtual reality demonstrations of Glydways projects worldwide.

The hub will also house a 13,000-square-foot maintenance and storage facility to service the growing fleet of Glydcars.

“With this new facility [at the former Hilltop Mall property], we’re giving the public a glimpse of the future, where people can experience ultra-quiet, on-demand transit—just like hailing a rideshare, but with the reliability and affordability of public transit,” said Tim Haile, executive director of CCTA.

Janet Galvez, vice president and investment officer at Prologis, owner of the Hilltop Mall property, said her company is “thrilled” to provide space for Glydways and is continuing to work with the city on future redevelopment plans for the broader mall property.

Richmond City Manager Shasa Curl added that Glydways’ presence “will not only help test new transit solutions but also activate the former Mall site while preparation and finalization of the Hilltop Horizon Specific Plan is underway.

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Alameda County

Last City Council Meeting of the Year Ends on Sour Note with Big Budget Cuts

In a five to one vote, with Councilmembers Carroll Fife and Janani Ramachandran excused, the council passed a plan aimed at balancing the $130 million deficit the city is facing. Noel Gallo voted against the plan, previously citing concerns over public safety cuts, while Nikki Fortunato-Bas, Treva Reid, Rebecca Kaplan, Kevin Jenkins, and Dan Kalb voted in agreement with the plan.

Published

3 days ago

December 24, 2024

Oakland Post

Oakland City Council voted on a plan to balance the $130 million deficit at their last regular meeting of 2024. The plan reduces police spending by $25 million, temporarily closes two fire stations, and guts the cultural arts programs. iStock photo.

By Magaly Muñoz

In the last lengthy Tuesday meeting of the Oakland City Council for 2024, residents expressed strong opposition to the much needed budget cuts before a change in leadership was finalized with the certification of election results.

Oakland police and fire departments, the ambassador program, and city arts and culture will all see significant cuts over the course of two phases.

Phase 1 will eliminate two police academies, brown out two fire stations, eliminate the ambassador program, and reduce police overtime by nearly $25 million. These, with several other cuts across departments, aim to save the city $60 million. In addition, the council simultaneously approved to transfer restricted funds into its general purpose fund, amounting to over $40 million.

Phase 2 includes additional fire station brownouts and the elimination of 91 jobs, aiming to recover almost $16 million in order to balance the rest of the budget.

Several organizations and residents spoke out at the meeting in hopes of swaying the council to not make cuts to their programs.

East Oakland Senior Center volunteers and members, and homeless advocates, filled the plaza just outside of City Hall with rallies to show their disapproval of the new budget plan. Senior residents told the council to “remember that you’ll get old too” and that disturbing their resources will only bring problems for an already struggling community.

While city staff announced that there would not be complete cuts to senior center facilities, there would be significant reductions to staff and possibly inter-program services down the line.

Exiting council member and interim mayor Bas told the public that she is still hopeful that the one-time $125 million Coliseum sale deal will proceed in the near future so that the city would not have to continue with drastic cuts. The deal was intended to save the city for fiscal year 2024-25, but a hold up at the county level has paused any progress and therefore millions of dollars in funds Oakland desperately needs.

The Coliseum sale has been a contentious one. Residents and city leaders were originally against using the deal as a way to balance the budget, citing doubts about the sellers, the African American Sports and Entertainment Group’s (AASEG), ability to complete the deal. Council members Reid, Ramachandran, and Gallo have called several emergency meetings to understand where the first installments of the sale are, with little to no answers.

Bas added that as the new Alameda County Supervisor for D5, a position she starts in a few weeks, she will do everything in her power to push the Coliseum sale along.

The city is also considering a sales tax measure to put on the special election ballot on April 15, 2025, which will also serve as an election to fill the now vacant D2 and mayor positions. The tax increase would raise approximately $29 million annually for Oakland, allowing the city to gain much-needed revenue for the next two-year budget.

The council will discuss the possible sales tax measure on January 9.