Michael Trimble is no stranger to publicly calling out the city.
The Gaslamp Quarter Association executive director has clashed with the mayor over terminating the Fifth Avenue Promenade contract, increasing the cost of valet parking permits and new surge street parking prices around Petco Park. Many complaints are related to the city’s efforts to raise revenue amid a budget shortfall, often by nickel and diming the tourism industry.
Trimble has a new target, announced Friday, after a series of cryptic social media posts this week stating that the historic heart of San Diego “deserves better.” He is calling on the city to immediately, and consistently enforce a no-vending zone in the Gaslamp.
View this post on InstagramThe city designated the Gaslamp a no-vending zone in 2022. The street vendors take up precious sidewalk space, particularly after the Fifth Avenue Promenade ended, with huge crowds now crammed onto sidewalks so cars can drive through — even during busy nightlife hours.
Pete Soto, a hot dog cart vendor who does not operate in the Gaslamp because of the no-vending rules, criticized the unlicensed vendors for causing a friend’s restaurant to close.
“There’s lots of places you can go and make money the right way,” Soto said. “You don’t have to do it the illegal way and kill all the other small businesses.”
The Gaslamp Quarter Association believes that the carts, tents and stalls violate ADA access by blocking sidewalks as well as restricting emergency access, causing sanitation problems and other public safety risks. Open propane cooking without oversight has an obvious fire risk to the surrounding historic buildings and highly-trafficked areas, the callout says.
“The Gaslamp deserves better. The city has known about these conditions for years, and the longer this goes unaddressed, the greater the risk to public safety, public health and the future of one of San Diego’s most important districts,” Trimble said in a statement.
Local businesses fund the Gaslamp Quarter Association, which promotes them and is their voice to the city. Trimble brought up the inequity that struggling brick-and-mortar businesses face while paying city taxes, permits and fees as well as meeting health, fire and safety standards that unregulated vendors do not meet.
Letty Soto documents unlicensed vendors near where Brooklyn Dogs operates at the Civic Center Plaza. This video is from 2023 when she first began documenting vending violators. (Video courtesy Letty Soto/Brooklyn Dogs)Even other street vendors are fed up with lack of enforcement. Letty Soto, who has operated licensed hot dog cart Brooklyn Dogs for 20 years with Pete Soto, has complained for years about unregulated vendors violating the no-vending rules.
“These vendors have not been stopped, even with a city ordinance or posted ‘no vending’ signs,” Letty Soto said. “It is still a major problem down here. We pay rent, have health permits and pay taxes. They do not uphold any of that and place the public in jeopardy with unsanitary practices.”
“They get into fights with us because they want to be there regardless of the law,” Pete Soto said of his lease in the Civic Center Plaza. “If you call the police, they don’t come. They don’t show up. They say they got better things to do.”
Letty Soto, of Brooklyn Dogs, sees unlicensed vendors like the one above outside the Civic Center as unsanitary and harming her business. (Photo courtesy Letty Soto/Brooklyn Dogs)Trimble said there have been short-term enforcement efforts, but the neighborhood needs consistent enforcement, including at night when crowds are biggest. And while the issue continues, sanitary conditions will continue to deteriorate.
SB 946, the state law passed in 2018 that decriminalized street vending, complicates the issue. Still, local jurisdictions can pass vending restrictions under the law — as long as the rules relate to objective health and safety concerns.
The Sotos supported efforts to pass the local ordinance.
“We worked so hard to help create a strong ordinance to stop this behavior,” Letty Soto said.
“(The) ordinance passed but it has not done anything for us except put stress on our family business.”
However, another licensed vendor outside Petco Park, Imhotep Mustaqeem, is suing the city for violating state law in its vending ordinance. The 2024 case is ongoing, but the California Courts of Appeal in January invalidated parts of San Diego’s vending ordinance. A three-judge panel ruled the city impounding vendors’ items and limiting their hours of operations contradicts the state law.
Of the January decision, Mustaqeem said, “I am a legal business. I have every right that a brick-and-mortar business has.”
Comic-Con crowds outside in the Gaslamp Quarter on Saturday, July 28, 2024. (Photo by Chris Stone/Times of San Diego)Trimble believes if the case has ended enforcement efforts, the city should publicly state that.
“If current tools are insufficient, officials should say so publicly and identify exactly what changes are needed,” he said. “Until then, responsibility for non-enforcement rests with local leadership.”
“The mayor should be doing his job and getting them out,” Pete Soto said.
The Gaslamp Quarter Association is calling on the city to take three immediate actions. First, the association wants public confirmation of whether the no-vending zone is enforced. Second, they want the city to release its operational plan for the district. Finally, they want a coalition of downtown stakeholders, who originally met with city leaders and the police department in 2023 to push for enforcement, to reconvene.
“The time for excuses has passed,” Trimble said.
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