IJ Clinic Scores Big Win for Chicago Food Carts
The Law School’s Institute for Justice Clinic on Entrepreneurship helped score a major victory for Chicago’s food carts today when the Chicago City Council unanimously approved an ordinance that will allow non-motorized food vendors to operate legally, marking another milestone in the clinic’s years-long effort to champion the rights of mobile food entrepreneurs.
“It was overwhelming to share in the joy and satisfaction of so many hard-working, dedicated vendors. I am overjoyed,” Clinic Director Beth Kregor said after the vote. “Existing street vendors have pled with the city for licensure for decades. Until the IJ Clinic got involved, they did not have advocates who could strategically draft legislation and craft a coalition with officials. We have been able to build a bridge between the hardworking entrepreneurs of Little Village and the politicians of City Hall. We are deeply gratified that we could lend our lawyerly voices to the frightened immigrant vendors of today as well as the creative vendors of tomorrow: people who typically have no place at the negotiating table when laws are passed.”
The IJ Clinic and the Street Vendors Justice Coalition helped write the ordinance, which will allow food cart vendors to obtain licenses if food preparation and other rules are met, and they took the lead in engaging public officials, food cart operators, and the community in a series of public discussions that ultimately helped the measure win the broad support it needed. The proactive strategy culminated in a City Hall rally last week shortly before the City Council’s License Committee unanimously approved the ordinance, clearing the way for today’s final vote.
“It was all about building a coalition,” said Michael Lanahan, ’14, who played a lead role in drafting the ordinance when he was an IJ Clinic student, a process that included meeting with government officials, building the trust of vendors—many of whom are immigrants for whom English is not a first language— and looking for ways to meet the needs of both sides. “Part of the challenge was keeping in touch with the vendors and getting them to show up to community meetings. There’s a language barrier, and because they were operating without the shield of the law, we had to build their trust, too.”
The new ordinance will allow the city’s estimated 1,500 vendors to apply for licenses to sell prepared food from non-motorized push and bicycle carts. Food cart vendors, who were excluded from the 2012 ordinance that allows the operators of motorized food trucks to prepare food in on-board kitchens, have spent years dodging tickets despite what Kregor said is a widespread desire to operate their businesses legally.
“There is a real determination among a lot of these entrepreneurs to do things right,” she said.
Under the new ordinance, pushcart vendors can obtain a two-year license for $350, provided they comply with rules for heating and chilling food, have their carts cleaned and serviced in a commissary, pay sales tax, and prepare food in a commercial kitchen before placing it fully wrapped on the cart. The container rule will force some vendors to change their operations. For instance, vendors won’t be able to slice fruit at the cart or customize elotes, a Mexican grilled corn on the cob that often comes with condiments such as cheese, a mayonnaise sauce, lime juice, and cayenne pepper. Fighting these limitations may well be the next step, Kregor said.
But the new law will give vendors the freedom to build their businesses without fear of fines or arrest.
“One of the vendors made a statement to the committee that really stood out for me,” Kregor said. “She said, ‘I am tired of being scared.’ And this is a woman who has been arrested … she’s had to throw pots and pots of tamales away, which is just sickening. This is how she provides for her family, and she works so hard. A lot of these vendors want to feel safe, they want to feel secure, and they want that license they can show to police.”
Last week’s rally highlighted the passion and support for the new ordinance.
“It was glorious,” Kregor said last week. “Our rally/press conference in City Hall went like it had been rehearsed a hundred times. Vendors gathered behind the podium with signs, chanting. Representatives of the vendors spoke passionately about vending as a livelihood and a great prospect for the city. The Illinois Policy Institute talked about the huge tax gains that the city stands to see if it encourages these entrepreneurs. Brooke [Fallon, IJ’s Activism Manager] spoke of the hard-working vendors who have struggled so hard and so long and our commitment to struggle with them. Our sponsor Alderman Roberto Maldonado and a long-time ally Alderman Scott Waguespack also spoke eloquently about their goals for the city to respect these business owners.”
Kregor said she was moved by the vendors’ response.
“When a tiny tamale vendor, who has overcome her fear to testify before City Council about her passionate desire to earn an honest living in spite of harassment and arrests, asks me to pose for a picture with her like I'm the hero, I'm humbled indeed,” Kregor said.
The IJ Clinic has worked for years to ease restrictions for mobile food vendors, including helping launch My Streets My Eats, a grassroots campaign to spread the word about the legal restrictions Chicago places on mobile chefs and to advocate for reform, and hosting a mobile food symposium at the Law School in 2012.
For clinic students, the mobile food project has offered opportunities to meet with government officials, to learn how to analyze legislation and present a persuasive case for policy change, and to draft legislation strategically so it “has the biggest bang for the least amount of red ink,” Kregor said.
“A lot of those skills are directly transferable to any kind of contract drafting,” Kregor said. “The students can have so much impact doing this kind of work. It also exposes them to the bigger social issues that are connected to people’s right to earn an honest living and make their way in this country.”
Lanahan, now an associate at the Bryan Cave law firm in St. Louis, said it has been “exhilarating” to see his hard work come to fruition.
“I went to law school because I wanted to use law to help people, to create opportunities,” he said. “The street vendor ordinance will do just that – now honest, hard-working folks can make a living and share their culture – and, of course, flavors – with all of Chicago."