Policy

Los Angeles Mulls Easing Street Vendor Regulations

Will bacon dogs still taste as delicious if they aren't so illicit?

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L.A. is known for a lot of things: celebrities, wide-eyed ingenues trying to "make it" … the amazing smell of bacon-wrapped hot dogs being sold during the small hours to drunken passers-by.

Selling those hot dogs—along with the host of other goods you'll find people hawking on sidewalks—is prohibited by city code. Vendors face fines, confiscation of equipment and even jail time.

But two L.A. City Council members are trying to change that.

Eastside representative Jose Huizar and Councilman Curren Price, who serves much of South L.A., are expected to present a motion on Wednesday calling for a study that would look into legalizing street vending, according to a statement released by the council members' offices. The move would put Los Angeles alongside other major cities, like San Francisco, New York and Chicago, that allow people to sell their goods on sidewalks.