Letters: Sidewalk Fruit Vendors Back For Summer

(Letter also sent to the Mayor of Lafayette)

Dear Editor and Mayor of Lafayette:

Almost every single weekend there is ILLEGAL street vending in my neighborhood. If this email seems familiar, it is! I have written to you at least once and I call the sheriff's department every single weekend I see this happening.

As of this email the current temperature in Lafayette is 87 degrees. There is a woman standing in the sun at the corner of Acalanes and Glorietta without benefit of a bathroom or any shade selling fruit in a residential neighborhood.

Cars make U-turns onto, once again, a residential street with children playing, people walking etc. The vendors have NO ACCESS to any bathroom facilities and are exposed to the elements until they are picked up by whomever brought them here.

We have FOUR grocery stores and now, a weekly farmer's market where we are able to procure fruit. The vendors pay no taxes and we do not benefit from it in any way. It is inhumane working conditions and we are supporting it by tolerating it here.

I am beyond frustrated by this ongoing situation that the sheriff's department seems to not address either.

Claire Whaley