Street Vendors

Dare to buy red roses or a newspaper from a street vendor, and soon you could be breaking the law. At least in Oakland Park, Fla. Citing traffic safety concerns, officials in the Fort Lauderdale suburb of 42,000 tentatively approved an ordinance targeting not only panhandlers and peddlers, but the people who give to them or buy something from them. Under the ordinance initially passed last month, anyone who responds to a beggar with money or any "article of value" or buys flowers or a newspaper from someone on the street would face a fine of $50 to $100 and as many as 90 days in jail.

Two men suspected of robbing a street vendor selling Valentine's Day gift baskets died Sunday morning when their car crashed into a parked vehicle during a brief police pursuit south of downtown Los Angeles, authorities said. The incident began about 4:30 a.m., when two men allegedly stole merchandise from a vendor set up at San Pedro Street and Adams Boulevard. Officers responded to a 911 call, and the suspects' Nissan sped away, soon crashing near Central Avenue and 27th Street.

Rafael Acosta, the peddler-turned-politico whose maneuverings have captivated Mexico City for months, quit as president of its most populous borough Thursday amid allegations that he filed a false birth certificate when he ran. Acosta, a leftist street vendor who goes by "Juanito," delivered his resignation after foes threatened to seek prosecution on charges that his candidacy papers were falsified. Acosta this week gave reporters conflicting birth dates, first saying he was born in 1958, then 1960.

One of Mexico's most flamboyant political figures, the headband-sporting street vendor known as Juanito, revived a circus-like power struggle Monday by saying he would like to govern the capital's largest borough after all. Juanito, whose real name is Rafael Acosta, threw Mexico City into a fresh tizzy when he showed up to work as delegado , a position akin to mayor, of the working-class Iztapalapa borough after a two-month leave of absence....

El Churrero -- the Churro Man -- sidesteps tamale carts, squeezes between bumpers and beggars, working 24 lanes of idling vehicles. He walks through shimmering exhaust clouds, hawking sombreros teetering atop his head and sweets held aloft in a blue basket. His churros are warm and moist. "Churros here," he yells. "If they're not hot, you don't pay." Deciderio Mauricio Cantera first waded into the sea of traffic at the gateway to California in 1968 and set eyes on the bored and the hungry as they waited, fidgeted and honked, inching toward the San Ysidro Port of Entry.

They began arriving late Sunday morning, dozens of vans pulling up around the northeast corner of Echo Park Lake. Out came black trash bags overflowing with clothing. One woman spread a tarp on a strip of grass and neatly laid out children's clothes that she hoped to sell for 25 or 50 cents each. By 11 a.m., the merchants had turned Echo Park into a virtual swap meet. They displayed used clothing, VHS videos, toy trucks, dolls and baseball bats on each side of the sidewalk. One man displayed dozens of Hot Wheels.

Juanito, we hardly knew ye. The man at the center of a quirky political drama in Mexico City agreed Thursday to give up the post he had won but was supposed to surrender as part of an Election Day deal. Rafael Acosta, a headband-wearing street vendor and activist who goes by "Juanito," asked to be relieved of duties immediately after being sworn in as chief of Mexico City's most populous borough, Iztapalapa. Acosta cleared the way for former congresswoman Clara Brugada to take over managing the community of 1.8 million people.

A group of preschool teachers in Los Angeles was sickened by marijuana this year after unknowingly eating pot brownies purchased by a fellow instructor, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday. The incident took place April 7 at an unidentified preschool and was investigated by Los Angeles police, according to the CDC report. The preschool teacher who brought in the brownies told investigators that she had purchased them two days earlier from a street vendor who claimed to be selling them as a church fundraiser.

The latest public health debate swirling in the quaint beach city of El Segundo is whether to allow the number of ice cream trucks in town to double. For the past decade, El Segundo has had one licensed ice cream truck vendor. But earlier this month, Chekesha Palmer applied to become the second, igniting a debate among city leaders over the pros and cons of ice cream trucks. "I think they create problems," Councilman Don Brann said at last week's council meeting. "I don't see much good about issuing a permit for someone to do this in our town."

For the last two months, Green Truck mobile catering services would park on Wilshire Boulevard along Los Angeles' Miracle Mile and serve handmade organic fare to the neighborhood's lunch crowd. "It was wonderful," said Bobby Allen, general manger of the Culver City-based company. "We had a line of people every day." But last week, the lines disappeared after police officers swooped in and forced Green Truck and several other mobile food vendors parked in the mid-Wilshire area to move on. Some drivers said they were cited for minimal violations such as parking too close to the curb, or parking too far away.