Thread: Street vendors and swine flu

I couldn't remember cocoloba uvifera to save my life. Thanks Richard! They are wonderful but maddening to pick as they don't ripen like a bunch of grapes, all at once. And sometimes when I would go out to pick enough to make a couple jars, the neighborhood critters had gotten there first. Even my dog tried to pick his own from low-hanging clusters but he preferred picking the Barbados cherries (Malpighia glabra) off the tree.
Your dad would be proud of me!

Here's a picture of the illegal vendor situation in Sacramento. There have been successes only recently in getting some enforcement. We used the health department. Here, any food facility must be permitted. What I did after I got zero response from the department at first, was to take these photographs and videos, then send them to the health inspectors each time. Next, I started contacting all the food facility operators who had been recently inspected and showed them the photos of the illegal vendors making cash money and having very little overhead. Slowly, a few restaurant owners joined in and started emailing the health inspectors questioning them as to why they should be paying 400.00 + fines and upgrades to their facility when all they should do is get a homemade cart, fill it with goods they made at home and head of to where the crowds are. We just started getting enforcement these past few weeks. They are conducting some sweeps, and targeting some of the more permanent illegal vendors we have supplied info on. Just today, I photographed an empty parking lot that previously hosted the same two illegal vendors for over 10 months!
See this thread on my local forum.

http://www.fightbackinsac.com/forums/sh ... .php?t=183

You sir are my hero Ayatollah. I have watched your videos on youtube many of times, and I cant express how happy it has made me seeing you bring justice to sacramento, which was once a very peaceful and nice city to live in, since changed for the worst. Keep up the good work, I'm rooting for you.

Originally Posted by AyatollahGondola

Here's a picture of the illegal vendor situation in Sacramento. There have been successes only recently in getting some enforcement. We used the health department. Here, any food facility must be permitted. What I did after I got zero response from the department at first, was to take these photographs and videos, then send them to the health inspectors each time. Next, I started contacting all the food facility operators who had been recently inspected and showed them the photos of the illegal vendors making cash money and having very little overhead. Slowly, a few restaurant owners joined in and started emailing the health inspectors questioning them as to why they should be paying 400.00 + fines and upgrades to their facility when all they should do is get a homemade cart, fill it with goods they made at home and head of to where the crowds are. We just started getting enforcement these past few weeks. They are conducting some sweeps, and targeting some of the more permanent illegal vendors we have supplied info on. Just today, I photographed an empty parking lot that previously hosted the same two illegal vendors for over 10 months!
See this thread on my local forum.

http://www.fightbackinsac.com/forums/sh ... .php?t=183

AyatollahGondola, I have been having the same trouble with the local law enforcement here in Glendale, California. These street vendors were not here two years ago and now suddenly they are on street corners selling fruit. And this is happening on nice residential streets!! I can't believe that other people are not bothered by this. The last time I called the police to have them tell the vendor to move on, I told the woman on the phone that it's obvious that the illegals do not fear the police one iota!!! What a joke!!

They do not have to have fear of the police. Just fear of the system. You need to sit in on your city council or county supervisors meetings and introduce a measure to address them. Most of the these bureaucrats understand money, and underground business is a big hole whereby goes dollars that they don't get their paws on. The health portion of it is second believe it or not, but it is still important to them if you make it so. Any authority whether it be cops, code enforcement, health inspector, or tax collector usually has authority to sieze the fruits of untaxed, unregulated, or uninspected products, or the products themselves. Those ice cream vendors for example are coming from one or two suppliers around here. I located them and am now gathering information to present to the authorities. Hit the supply lines as the military does, and you'll get more bang for your buck. The supplier in this case seems to own and supply all of those carts and the products to those....uh...independent contractors. This is fine as long as:
Each contractor is getting 1099's
Each contractor has a sellers permit and health permit
each contractor has a city or county business license or business tax certificate.
here's where you show the loss to the authorities, and possibly push the whole business above board or out of business altogether. You figure there are about 100 carts in the city and county, and each should be paying 400.00 for thier health permit, 125.00 plus 32.00 fingerprinting fee for city business license, and a state sellers permit for which taxes are collected and returned to the cities and counties. The sellers permit alone requires a passport, or drivers license, no matriculas allowed here...yet anyway. But the tax loss you can estimate based upon extrapolating an hours worth of a vendors sales by videotaping one for an hour and multiplying by the number of carts in the city/county.
The muni's are strapped for cash these days, and if you can show losses that should and can be collected with minimal effort on enforcement, they have a hard time saying no. Also, get some local above board vendors on your side by soliciting them directly with your pictures and videos of their sleazy competitors. They are usually hard working people who resent the ease at which others take the cheating route.

I know when I lived in Florida, they would steal the oranges and lemons and stuff and sell them. Usually they'd send the kids out to do it, coz who wants to tell a kid no. Yet I couldn't sell my kumquats, it was illegal, I could give them away, but not sell them. When I was in Nebraska, a new Amish group moved in and had put their jams and jellys in restaurants and such on consignment, they were told no, not unless they installed the professional kitchen, went through inspections and stuff. They could give them away, but not sell them.

Yet we had a salmonella outbreak here where and unknown, unfound "business" was selling their homemade cheese through the Mexican markets and at flea markets. Now they are wanting to have a small farmer who sells their vegetables at farmers markets and such to have to go through regulations and inspections, but nothing about the lady selling corn out of a wagon.

I have always said, it ticked me off to no end to have them say Americans are lazy because we weren't creative and smart enough to come up with these ideas ourselves......we weren't stupid or lazy.....it's ILLEGAL!

Love the pics AyatollahGondola! Have you ever been approached by any of the people that you take pics of?

Originally Posted by littleirishgirl

You sir are my hero Ayatollah. I have watched your videos on youtube many of times, and I cant express how happy it has made me seeing you bring justice to sacramento, which was once a very peaceful and nice city to live in, since changed for the worst. Keep up the good work, I'm rooting for you.

Thanks for pointing out his YouTube channel littleirishgirl. I checked it out and subscribed. Great videos!

Originally Posted by jshhmr

Love the pics AyatollahGondola! Have you ever been approached by any of the people that you take pics of?

Yes, but it was customers of theirs, and not the vendors themselves. There were a few brushes with them that involved some threats and minor assaults. In contrast though, i have asked some of those vendors in person if they are aware they are of the codes and that they seem to be in violation. I am trying to design a flier to hand out, as I think a little prevention would be better than an "enforcement or nothing" approach. The local health department pointed me to a 5 page document they have, but even I had trouble making sense of it, so there should be one that is short and simple to post in areas where the vendors gather most, or hand out to them. I know it sounds like a lot of trouble to go to, but I remain convinced that the underground economy, unfair business practices, and unfair competition are a very big issue that illegal immigrants and those that profit from them are using against us, and it supports them. I guess we'll see.

Originally Posted by AyatollahGondola

Originally Posted by jshhmr

Love the pics AyatollahGondola! Have you ever been approached by any of the people that you take pics of?

Yes, but it was customers of theirs, and not the vendors themselves. There were a few brushes with them that involved some threats and minor assaults. In contrast though, i have asked some of those vendors in person if they are aware they are of the codes and that they seem to be in violation. I am trying to design a flier to hand out, as I think a little prevention would be better than an "enforcement or nothing" approach. The local health department pointed me to a 5 page document they have, but even I had trouble making sense of it, so there should be one that is short and simple to post in areas where the vendors gather most, or hand out to them. I know it sounds like a lot of trouble to go to, but I remain convinced that the underground economy, unfair business practices, and unfair competition are a very big issue that illegal immigrants and those that profit from them are using against us, and it supports them. I guess we'll see.

I really admire your courage. I would be afraid of getting ganged up on. I would like to take an approach like yours, so more people can see what is happening. I would to take pics of once great neighborhoods. I wish I could find a "before" picture of my grandparents house before the illegal gangs took over the neighborhood. I drove by it a few months ago. The illegals cut down the beautiful magnolia tree that I climbed in as a kid so they could make a driveway out of the front yard.