Last month, I attended a community meeting organized by Santa Barbara Eastside Society at the Eastside Library in Santa Barbara, where representatives from the city and county gave an overview presentation about sidewalk vending and addressed the community about the uncomfortable situation of street vending without permits.
Over the past year, Santa Barbara has experienced an increase in street vendors setting up shop without permits: from pushcarts with the San Judas design at the beach waterfront to lively taco pop-ups on busy corners of the Eastside and Westside to L.A.-based street-dog providers working the late hours downtown.
The community meeting was a packed house with neighborhood members, fledgling and established business owners, and representatives from local politicians in the Martin Luther King Jr. room.