Vendor regulations excessive

Say you have a hankering for a steak taco. You can go to a sit-down restaurant in Salt Lake City, soak up the atmosphere and avail yourself to amenities such as the restroom or the juke box. Or you can go to a street-corner taco stand, understanding that it's a no-frills take-out joint.

That's about to change under a new ordinance passed unanimously by the Salt Lake City Council. Street vendors now are required to have "restroom agreements" with neighboring businesses. The ordinance also requires street vendors to clean sidewalks twice a month. And some owners will be required to provide parking.

So much for the no-frills businesses.

Some vendors are finding means to make the new ordinance work, but for others, the new requirements could prove to be onerous. There are a number of walk-in establishments in Salt Lake City's downtown area that do not provide patron parking. And this is to be expected of these shoe-string street vendors?

Street vendors encounter many challenges that store-front businesses do not. They are constantly exposed to the elements. At the end of business each day, the carts have to be removed from city sidewalks. Earlier this summer a woman working at a taco stand at the corner of 800 South and Main was robbed at gunpoint.

The council has the right to regulate businesses, but there may come a time when regulations become so onerous that these merchants shutter their carts. That would be highly unfortunate because the point of allowing street vendors was to create a dynamic downtown. But for many such operators, it's been one travail after another since the city first allowed them in 1991. Market forces have squeezed out many vendors. Others have endured false allegations that their food service operations were not sanitary. Inspections by the Salt Lake Valley Health Department debunked those rumors.

The restroom requirement came about because of complaints from nearby businesses that street vendors' customers have been urinating in parking lots. Seemingly, this issue could have been resolved by stepping up the police presence in the affected blocks.

It is legitimate that government attend to health and safety issues with respect to the food service industry. But there must also be some recognition that a brick-and-mortar business is a different animal than a vending cart.

Vending carts are strictly carry-out establishments, thus requiring license holders to clean the sidewalks in the vicinity of their respective carts makes good sense. But let their customers find their own parking spots. And people who urinate in public? Issue citations with the hope they'll develop better social graces.