Reader comments
Salt Lake's taco-cart rules unfair?

These vendors must realize that they aren't in Mexico anymore. And it does not just apply to Mexican food vendors so where is the discrimination? Go home if you don't like our laws and being sanitary. We have sanitary laws that they need to comply with. We in Taylorsville have a similar ordinance that requires vendors be licensed and have written permission from shop owners to vend on any premises. Then they cannot vend within a limited distance of any other food establishment in a fixed building or restaruant. The tax paying restaurants have the right not to have their business interfered with also, their rights superceed the vendors. This kind of ordinance is needed whether it is disagreeable to taco stands or not. If the taco sellers can't keep the area clean then kick them off the streets, who wants to wade through their litter & garbage. These illegals vending on the streets are a pest and nuisance and food quality and safety questionable. Not to mention they don't have any rights to question our laws or even have any input on them. They are here because our govenment is too gutless to stand up for americans.

What on Earth could be wrong with expecting anyone to follow some rules and common courtesy? I have been near many of these carts and not everyone is clean and organized. It is not racist but rather another step to protect the public and provide a clean eating establishment. The one located near 900 West on North Temple trashes the laundromat's parking lot and I would not object to making the business owner responsible for his/her patron's trash just like any other business owner.

I have to applaud these guys for taking some initiatve to get out there and make money instead of milking the welfare system, but I do not see how this is targeting Hispanics. I belive this would also apply to the hot dog vendor downtown (if he's still there).

Wow... sounds like Bob assumes that all vendors on the streets are "illegals." This is not an issue about whether the vendors are in the United States legally or not. The issue is about a food permit/vending permit and following the associated rules. Funny how we assume that all "Mexicans" are illegal aliens. Classic close-mindedness of many Americans. Or should I say empty-mindedness?

Anyway, regardless of what race or ethnicity a vendor is, they should not be running without the proper permits. Vendors should be fined or their permits revoked if they are not following proper procedures, including zoning, getting permission if they are running on another business property, safe food handling, etc. Sounds like it's more a problem of the health department not following through with their jobs than anything else. This would be a non-issue if they were more on the ball.

The problem posed by the article isn't so much that the regulations as a whole are somewhat harmful to the business owners (which they are) but instead the manner in which the regulations were instituted.

Whenever the city council passes an ordinance, they are obligated to make efforts to notify those that they would affect. If you were a registered business owner running, say, a snowplowing business, and the city were to pass ordinances affecting how you must run it, they would be obligated to contact you so that you could give your feedback to the council.

That's why we call our governmental system representation. They are supposed to represent the interests of EVERYONE involved.

And Bob G., you seem to have a bit of anti-illegal paranoia on the brain. Who said that they were all illegals? Most, if not all, of these stands are owned by registered business owners. Try to think a little bit before making prejudiced statements like "Go back to Mexico if you don't like it."

Hey Bob G., if you don't like how "gutless" the government is then why don't you go to a different country?? The ordinances are a good idea and do not target taco stands alone.

I won't Bob bash, because everyone else already has.

While I see nothing actually wrong with the ordinances that were passed, I wonder how the city notified the vendors, and if this was only in English? I know that the state has a law that English is the official language, and I can�t help thinking that the city didn�t make any allowances for language differences. And you can go on all you want about the benefits of learning English in the United States, but practically speaking there are likely any number of successful vendors who are operating perfectly legitimate businesses without speaking or reading a word of English.

It's nice that affected people are notified by government when ordinances are considered. Usually, there is a public notice in the back of a newspaper announcing the intent to pass a law.

If the vendors weren't contacted, and by law they should have been, shame on the city.

If vendors make messes, they have at least a moral obligation to clean them up. I don't believe they are responsible for messy customers.

But the image of street vendors doing another kind of business on the streets is not a pleasant thought. How does this happen without it being seen during the lunch hour rush?

Correction: e coli carts.

I am one of those taco vendors, and I do comply with all the city and health department regulations.
It is fine that the city council passed some additional laws for the vendors to comply with, but it is ashame that we were not invited to offer our input. Not all the vendors are Mexican, I am from Ecuador and a citizen of the United States of America, a friend of mine is from Afghanistan and he also has a vending cart.
One more thing for those that lack some intelligenge
or education "AMERICA" is a "CONTINENT" AND NOT A
COUNTRY.
The American Continent has many countries:
CANADA, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, UNITED STATES OF MEXICO, GUATEMALA, EL SALVADOR,COSTA RICA, HONDURAS, NICARAGUA. PANAMA, COLOMBIA, VENEZUELA, ECUADOR,PERU, UNITED STATES OF BRAZIL, BOLOVIA, ARGENTINA, CHILE , PARAGUAY, URUGUAY, SURINAM,GUYANA, FRENCH GUIANA.
And one more thing i am well educated I speak multiple languages including Spanish, Portuguesse, Russian, and Arabic, I served in the MARINE CORPS and in the NATIONAL GUARD did some work for N.S.A.
and it does not stand for :"NOT SUCH AGENCY"
BE OPEN MINDED !!!! DO NOT BE AFRAID

To Javier Sanchez, you have listed counties from two different continents. Rember North and South American are considered different continents. For some one of such "EDUCATION" as you are claiming, you should have known this already. With such a background, why are you wasting you education, expierence etc on a cart?

It's a business. As long as someone complies with regulations, you can do anything you want with your education.