NEWS
Vending-cart fates still undecided
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by Megan Costello
Thursday, October 30, 2003
The final placement of local street vendors is still undecided after the Vending Oversight Committee pushed back discussion of recent food-review results and site assignments until Dec. 10 due to time constraints in Wednesday’s meeting.
Madison Street Vending Coordinator Warren Hansen said competition between vendors is increasing. This year 36 vendors competed for 30 sites around the Capitol Square and Library Mall. Vendors compete for weekday and Saturday locations.
The vendors scoring the lowest are generally subject to be put on a waiting list until an open site is available. Vendors can also be placed on a waiting list if they do not complete necessary forms for the upcoming season by Sept. 1.
The committee conducted its annual survey of each street vendor during the last week of September. The process involved members of the Food Review Committee, who sampled food from each vendor as well as surveyed the size and presentation of the food menu. The committee also took maintenance, design, visual impact, cleanliness and graphics of the food cart into consideration when scoring each vendor.
“I think the way in which [the Vending Oversight Committee] scores the vendors is a good process,” District 8 Ald. Austin King said.
“It’s a jury review kind of process that gets the public involved,” King added.
In order to pass the committee’s evaluation, each vendor must score 70 out of 100 points to be granted an operating license for the following year. All street vendors are subject to citations, cart relocation and possible license suspension, if health violations and city ordinances are not followed.
Local vendor Suong Tran received three citations over the past year, mainly due to moving her cart to a Library Mall site when she is assigned by the city to a Capitol Square site.
Tran’s attorney, James Connors, was able to have the municipal court drop one of the citations, and according to King, the committee said it has come to a fair and adequate solution to her situation.
Hansen, who handles much of the work involving the location of each street vendor, said he bases vendor location primarily on variety between carts at each site and their review results. In doing so, he helps prevent two beverage carts or Asian food carts from creating animosity toward each other.
“The balance between the vendors has to be remained,” Hansen said.
Both Hansen and Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4, said they feel that keeping the originality of Madison street vendors is important to vendors’ reputations and survival in business
