The city’s crackdown on eloteros–or corn vendors–could easily have been ended through common sense. After all, the issue seemed fairly straightforward this spring: the vendors needed to conform to the sanitation code, while the city needed to acknowledge the vendors’ right to make a living. In the months following the initial controversy, city spokespeople even said a compromise was imminent. Yet as negotiations have dragged on, the situation has grown more complicated, and street vendors continue to be prosecuted.
Valadez says he entered into negotiations with two assistants to the mayor, John McDonough and Lisa Bolden. The vendors’ position was unequivocal–they wanted permission to sell their food, period. McDonough and Bolden laid out the city’s view–what about the noise, litter, and sanitation problems the vendors posed in the neighborhoods?
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“We objectively acknowledged that there were real problems,” Valadez says, “that there were some legitimate health concerns. We also understood that if we responded to these concerns, they would respond with an objective viewpoint.”
Overall, the negotiations took two months. Even if the city wasn’t flexible, Valadez says, it seemed like the eloteros would be able to stay in business. They were “within days” of a deal that he describes as “90-10” in favor of the city.
The police in Little Village say they aren’t to blame for the crackdown–it’s only the latest manifestation of a long-term conflict between recent immigrants and the neighborhood’s business class. On one side, the vendors resent the law interfering with their livelihoods. On the other, business owners don’t like to see these makeshift carts cutting into their profits–if they have to pay taxes and follow the city’s sanitation code, why shouldn’t the eloteros?
“He makes himself out to be the archangel of their plight, which he probably is to some extent,” Garcia says, “but he has other reasons.”
For his part, Munoz says, if the city really meant “no deal” then he and Alderman Ray Frias were prepared to draft their own measure to counter the confiscation ordinance. “There’s a way of doing it right,” Munoz says. “Obviously, we will not be able to legalize everything they’re doing now, and the vendors need to recognize that. But there are a number of activities that could be legalized and managed and regulated.”
