Here in southern California illegal food vendors are a major problem. I just got off the phone with the police reporting a guy on my street selling food out of a shopping cart to the neighbors. This happens on a daily basis. All over the neighborhood at any given time of the day you can hear the shopping cart and the horn honking at it's pushed down the street. I must call the police reporting someone on our street doing this every couple of days. I have a friend who owns an ice cream truck and she says she calls EVERY day while out on her route reporting the various vendors out on the street. She has to pay for liability insurance, vehicle insurance, health permits, business licenses, gas, rent if she sets up on someone's property for the day etc.... but some guy with a stolen shopping cart and a horn can be in business! They sell food that is not being refridgerated properly, who knows how it's been prepared, who knows what kind of food borne illnesses are being caused by it. For a while one our street there were a couple of women selling tamales out of a baby stroller!
Our traitor Mayor Villaraigosa, seen on the news when asked about the problem said "well they're just trying to eek out a living." !!!
If I felt like getting arrested I'd get myself a shopping cart and a horn and a few bags of oranges and set up shop in front of his house... see how fast the cops would show up there! "But Mayor..I'm just trying to eek out a living!"