Chicago street vendors urge city to make it easier to earn a living

Yeah, and meanwhile, Chicago street vendors are calling on city officials to pass an ordinance that would make it easier for them to make a living. Gabriela Primas joins us live to break down that measure. Hi, Gabby. You know, guys, if you drive around parts of Chicago for five to ten minutes, you're going to pass by likely many street vendors. Brittany, growing up in Canaryville, I know that you probably have frequented some. And, yeah, there's some new ordinance. There's a new ordinance that's proposed in Johnson's proposed 2027 budget that could change things for these friendly faces that we see around our neighborhood. We just wrapped up with a press conference, and Mayor Johnson was here, including some of the... The Food Vendor Association folks as well. And I wanted to bring in 25th Alderman Byron Central Lopez. Thank you so much for taking some time right after the press conference wraps up. Can we talk about this ordinance? What does it change for these food vendors? Well, one of the main changes that now vendors can kind of obtain licenses when they sell food. Hot dogs, elotes, tamales, things that in the past were very difficult to obtain. We have over 6,500 vendors across the city. We've all seen them, but very rarely they're able to obtain a license. This will give us an ability to generate revenue for the city and also make sure that we have guidelines, especially sanitation guidelines, so that we can enjoy it or vendors have been part of the social fabric of our neighborhoods for a long time. Yeah, that's so surprising to me, because you said it's been a fabric of our community for so long. I mean, there's so many that we know and love. Why it happening now for this 2027 budget? And also, how are some of the food vendors feeling about this new change for them? Yeah, we talked with the Street Vendors Association in Chicago. They feel optimistic. You know, we've seen how vendors get ticketed. Sadly, sometimes get arrested even for these unlicensed businesses. So this is a step forward. I think that this is a way for us not only to generate revenue, but also to think of how we in the city of Chicago, we treat families who live out of a lot of these businesses and coordinate with the small businesses. This will give like a distance 200 feet. We'll regulate the way, also give jurisdiction over local older persons Thank you. It's very common in some areas of the city, some maybe not as much, but this provides guidelines, a guideline, a process, and hopefully in this budget, you know, city council makes history. Again, we're learning from LA, we're learning from other cities, New York City, so it's time that Chicago has this. We have great hot dogs, great elotes, great tamales, and we got to celebrate our social fabric. This is what makes our Chicago vibrant and special. It was funny because that's the next question was going to be, where do you guys draw inspiration? Because I know, growing up in Southern California, I've visited many food carts and I was surprised to know there wasn't some changes here. I think a part of the argument is food safety and I'm reading actually this sheet that you guys handed out and it said that there needs to be obviously safe temperatures were already done, but a hand washing sink attached to attach their cart. Is that going to be easy for some of these food vendors to do? Can the city help them if they don't already have that? Well, that's what we're working on, you know, designing a cart where the vendors can have those sanitary requirements. There's a licensing fee that will help us with that, and so we were discussing with the street vendors how these new carts will look like, but the fees for these licenses hopefully help us to get into an agreement where they can have the necessary equipment to make sure that this food is safe for consumption, and also that we have the guidelines so that makes it easy for them to have sanitary conditions, including water, as well as the cart to be able to move around. Okay, this is part of the 2027 proposed budget. Do you think that, you know, it's going to have a lot of support? Also, what happens for the time being? You know, are these food vendors going to continue to see fines? Well, that's what we're working in every ward. We've been working to make sure that those vendors are applying. They're working with us. We work to make sure that BACP is being collaborating. We've been in meetings to prevent fines and fees and rather to provide a pathway. That's what we're discussing, the way to make it sanitary, to make it safe, to have a licensing process that is up to code, but also that is fair. So the Street Vendors Association. This is the consolidation of many years and we hope that we've got a city council that supports this. I think the street vendors and the small businesses, instead of going at odds, they complement each other. I tell you, I have many visitors that come from all over the country to come to communities like La Villita, Pilsen, and they enjoy both our beautiful restaurants, but also our street vendors. Thank you so much, Alderman. I really appreciate you taking time right after that press conference and speaking with some of the other folks. Okay, here at 11 o'clock, we're going to do a full wrap-up of what we heard in the press conference. So I'll be back then. Brittany, Natalie, I'll send it back to you.