After working in kitchens in Mexico City’s upscale Polanco neighborhood for decades, Laura Ortiz Ibarra set up her own pop-up food stand in Pico Union earlier this month, specializing in pambazos, quesadillas and tinga de pollo.
She speaks with an extensive, precise vocabulary despite only finishing elementary school and has no problem articulating ideas while she cooks, which she attributes to a love of reading and being around trained chefs.
She’s hopeful the Pico Union stand will bring in enough money to give her children a better future.
Ortiz’s start as a street vendor comes as the profession is a major talking point among local politicians. During this current election season, gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton held a press conference on a Westlake sidewalk, accusing vendors of “killing small businesses in California.”
Meanwhile, vendors have been a flashpoint in the Los Angeles mayor’s race since Mayor Karen Bass said they should not be allowed to set up in front of restaurants during a debate in August.
Both Bass and Nithya Raman have since laid out how they’d support vendors: Raman said she’d ensure vendors benefit from major events like the 2028 Olympics, create special vending zones and bring state and county permitting closer in line with how vendors operate, while Bass has pointed to the city funding that’s gone toward providing vendors with free compliant carts and assistance with permit costs.
Street vending has been legal in Los Angeles since 2018, but the permitting has not kept pace with the tens of thousands of vendors across the county, according to the latest estimates.
Bass added in a recent interview with The LA Local’s youth journalists that more needs to be done to help vendors who she described as “held hostage by criminal elements.”
“I think we have to protect them and understand the difference too, and make sure that we remove the criminal element, so that they’re not forced to be a cover for drugs and other things.”
With their livelihoods up for debate, The LA Local spoke to vendors across different neighborhoods and invited them to share their thoughts, experiences and ideas. They told us about the decrease in sales they’ve experienced as foot traffic plummeted after immigration raids, their desire for a simpler permitting process, worries about affording healthcare and their wish for respect.
For Ortiz, if the city worked hand-in-hand with street vendors, it could be mutually beneficial. She said street vendors often help the community by offering food to people living on the street, among other contributions to the community.
“It’s a collaborative effort, but we simply aren’t given the chance,” she said. “Instead, we’re just labeled as a nuisance, people claim things are dirty or perhaps they assume our food isn’t any good just because we’re set up on the street, they automatically categorize our food as unsanitary and would rather go to a restaurant. But that’s not always the case.”
‘The winning and the losing’
Luis Hernandez sets up his fruit stand every morning in Boyle Heights, just as he’s done for the past 21 years. Lately, as the cost of groceries has gone up, sales at his fruit stand have significantly decreased, he said. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids have also affected his business, as fewer people leave their homes out of fear.
On a recent October afternoon, a customer inquired about the cost of mangoes at the stand and almost walked away until Hernandez offered a discount: two mangoes for $5 instead of two for $10.
“That’s what we have to do sometimes,” Hernandez said.
As for what he wants elected officials to know, he said, “We are here, doing our best.”
His faith keeps him grounded and motivated to show up to work every day, despite the obstacles, Hernandez said.
“When there’s [a sale], well, thank God—and when there isn’t, well, thank God too … A businessperson has to know how to handle the winning and the losing.”
‘Being a street vendor is not easy’
Other vendors are more optimistic.
Pancho Rodriguez sells various flavors of gelatin and other desserts in Boyle Heights — recipes he inherited from his grandmother in Michoacan.
Over the past three decades, Rodriguez has noticed how LA’s rules around street vending have evolved and said it’s actually gotten easier for him.
The Department of Public Health used to issue him tickets and confiscate his cart, he said. In 2011, however, a Los Angeles Police Department officer helped him acquire a food-compliant cart that allows him to sell without issues. Street vendors have struggled to meet permit requirements and navigate strict health codes. And food-compliant carts can be expensive and difficult to acquire. Programs like LA County’s Sidewalk Vending Cart Program have awarded vendors Health Code–compliant food carts at no cost to help them operate legally and safely in LA County.
Now, he wants elected officials to know that “being a street vendor is not easy,” and he would like more attention placed on respecting longtime vendors’ spaces.
‘Dignified job’
For over two decades, Noelia Reyes has sold Guatemalan, Salvadoran and Mexican tamales in Pico Union with a welcoming smile.
Like most street vendors, Reyes wants people to understand that it’s an honest job that requires hard work.
“As a street vendor, I truly feel blessed and proud because it’s an honorable, dignified job since I earn my money with the sweat of my brow, and as a street vendor, I try to cook in a way that leaves people feeling satisfied,” she said.
As for advice to up-and-coming street vendors, Reyes said that as you start developing your patience, your cooking style, cleanliness and kindness, the clients will start to come.
‘We ask that they help us’
Fruit vendor Aura, who asked to go only by her first name, has been struggling to make ends meet lately due to the reduced foot traffic in Pico Union.
The 67-year-old recently lost her Medi-Cal and no longer has access to her medications or doctors. When asked about the cost of medication, she says she hasn’t even looked into it since she knows she won’t be able to afford it. She’s hoping elected officials tackle healthcare — more sweeping changes are coming to Medi-Cal in 2027.
“We ask that they help us with Medi-Cal because there are people who don’t have the means to afford the medicine,” she said.
‘In the future’
One of Sabino Bautista’s earliest memories is street vending with his parents. On most days, he gets up around 6 a.m. to buy his product and prepare for the day. At 8 p.m., he finishes his shift selling elotes and raspados.
For him, support from the city looks like offering business courses to street vendors so they won’t have to continue doing such laborious work as they age.
“Sometime in the future I’ll be older and to [still] push a cart like this, it would be better to have some [other] kind of business,” Bautista said.
‘Support one another’
Kristy Garcia, 26, started vending on the street with her parents two years ago but still makes time to go to school.
She wishes the city would do more to address homelessness near where she works in Westlake and increase safety for street vendors.
“If they could make new laws that could create spaces specifically for street vendors so we won’t be on street corners, maybe like a parking lot with one stand so we can all support one another,” Garcia said.
