Help Keep LACC Swap Meet Thriving!

A Mother and Her 16 Year-Old Daughter

In September, a mother and her 16 year old daughter who are regulars at the swap meet, were accosted and followed to Melrose Avenue. They have not been back since. They blame the swap meet for not having security out on the street.

A Letter from Phillip Dane

Councilman Hugo Soto Martinez, LA Taco, and the street vendors have taken their best shot at spinning their rhetoric about how bad a person I am without a single shred of evidence to back them up. I decided the time is right to present my side.

Ordinance 41.18 prohibits street sellers to sell within 500 feet of the school.

That is the law. I did not make this up. Councilman Hugo Soto Martinez chooses to ignore the law and advocate breaking the law instead of doing what he was sworn in to do. If he wants the law changed, then that is what he should try to do. Instead he has been spreading lies about me for more than a year even before he was a Councilman. He has never reached out to discuss anything with me. 

FACT VS FICTION

Sprinklers are turned on to harass the street vendors.

What sprinklers? There are NO sprinklers left to turn on. Six months before we were asked to save the swap meet from closing indefinitely, we were informed by the previous operators that the street vendors destroyed all the colleges’ sprinklers. Street Vendors destroyed over $40,000 worth of LACC College landscaping. 

The Parkway (area between the curb and sidewalk) is the City’s.

Okay, let’s start with the basics. A parkway is that little strip of grass, trees, or (depending on your neighbors’ level of motivation) dirt and weeds between the edge of the road bed and the sidewalk. Although the parkway is technically within the public right-of-way, the adjacent property owner is responsible for its design and maintenance.

Parkways are an important part of the pedestrian landscape for two reasons. First, they provide space for streets trees and other plantings that make the pedestrian environment more comfortable and interesting for walking. Second, they act as a buffer between the sidewalk and the traveled roadway, which increases pedestrian safety.

Threatening the Street Vendors.

Neither my staff nor I have ever threatened, harassed, or intimidated any street vendor. In fact, when we first took over, we met every street vendor and invited them in for a free weekend to test the market out. That was the one and only time I’ve ever had any interactions with the street vendors. 

Posted Illegal Signs (Fake ones too)

The signs posted that states no street sales within 500 feet of the school was not posted by us. The green signs were posted long before we took over. 

Power Washing the Sidewalks

Never happened. I would not have approved this tactic to remove the street vendors but we are accused of doing it more than once. 

Gentrification

Most of the swap meet vendors have been there for over 20 years! The two food trucks are the same trucks that were there when we took ownership. 

Vendors banned from the swap meet for no reason according to Hugo

We saw that the swap meet had been operating without adhering to LAFD and Building and Safety codes. We spent weeks educating hundreds of vendors on the new practices that are going to be in place to help keep the market safe and a fun place to sell. Unfortunately some vendors felt entitled to operate with complete disregard to others. We have a record of every incident and we gave multiple warnings to several vendors. The vendors that we have banned from participating at the LACC swap meet had multiple violations and were a danger to both attendees and other vendors. The enforcement of our safety-oriented policies, have been well received by vendors and many of the old-time customers for making this new swap meet a fun, safe, and vibrant place to attend on the weekend.

Here is an email sent to the President of the LACC Foundation by Hugo Soto dated February 15th 2022, attacking me with false accusations. I attempted to reach Hugo many times through email and phone messages and to this day Hugo has never bothered to contact me.

Here is one of many emails where I requested to speak with Hugo.

Vendors can’t afford to sell inside. 

This too is a false assumption. The vendors outside the swap meet know that the City nor the police will enforce the law and that they’ve got Hugo to back them up. The truth is they sell out on the street because they choose to do so, not because they can’t afford to come inside. Each week, inside vendors who are doing it the right way ask us to please do something about the growing number of outside street vendors. Many have mentioned that if a vendor inside is selling a pair of sneakers for $10, a vendor outside will sell the same sneakers for five dollars. If a vendor inside is selling toilet paper for $5 dollars, a vendor outside will sell the same toilet paper for three dollars. A vendor inside has to adhere to the LA Fire Department rules and regulations and the policy set forth by LACC swap meet. The vendors on the street cook illegally under their tent, which is a violation of LA Fire Department code. Vendors outside sell alcohol and dump their boxes and trash inside the structure. We have video footage of street vendors arguing with my staff demanding to use our restrooms and to use our trash bins. 

Fake LA Fire Inspector?

Councilman Hugo Soto Martinez in a recent Instagram post on the Councilman’s account, made the outlandish accusation that I hired a person to “pose as an LA Fire Department Inspector.” This is a complete and utter lie. The fire marshal that came out that day is Lamorris Wilcher, a well respected senior inspector with the LA Fire Department.

Parking Signs were not authorized?

Councilman Hugo Soto Martinez claims that the No Parking Signs posted, were put up without DOT permits (see below) because their office blocked it. The Parking permit was granted and the DOT placed the Temporary No Parking Signs themselves 48 hours prior to the weekend, giving everyone plenty of notice. The No Parking Signs were for Saturday and Sunday. The No Parking Zones were the south side of Monroe from Vermont to the Parking Structure, the north side of Marathon from Vermont to the parking structure and they were at the request of the LA Fire Department inspector Wilcher, in an effort to keep a safe passage for emergency vehicles to get through these streets and allow for the swap meet vendors to load in and out without blocking the street. The week prior, Station 35 had an emergency call where their Rescue Truck was stuck for 27 minutes on Monroe trying to drive from Vermont to Madison. IT IS NOT SAFE to have non permitted street sellers surrounding the swap meet.

Streets LA Regulations for vending IGNORED! 

Even if street vending was permitted, (which it is not) there are specific rules and regulations to sell on the streets. For example, vendors must be 18″ from the curb and 3 feet between vendors. None of these SAFETY Regulations are being adhered to. No cooking is ever permitted under a tent. No Alcohol sales are permitted. Both are a weekend occurrence. 

Swap Meet vendors are Street Vendors too. Who’s their advocate?

What I find ironic is that there is all this support for street vendors who know that they’re out there with no permits, and illegally within 500 feet of a school, but the  vendors who have been inside the swap meet for 2 to 3 generations are completely ignored and they are the ones that do the right thing every week. Who is advocating for the vendors who are in the swap meet? Certainly not Councilmember Hugo Soto Martinez. They’re simply trying to feed their families but their income has dropped significantly due to the street vendors on Monroe, Marathon, and Vermont avenue. 

LACC Swap generates $700,000 annually to the LACC Foundation. 

The swap meet revenue to the LACC Foundation directly impacts over 18,000 college students, many of them who are in foster care, who have to choose between eating and getting to school. If the LACC swap meet is forced to shut down due to the lack of moral responsibility shown by the outside street vendors, Councilman Hugo Soto Martinez and LA taco, it will negatively impact these 18,000 students. I will fight to the end to make sure this does not happen.