Upcoming changes to Merced’s street vending rules could reshape not just where food is sold, but how residents participate in neighborhood culture.
City officials say outdated rules make enforcement difficult. The proposed changes will tighten health standards, limit vendor locations, and expand the city’s authority over unpermitted operations.
Supporters say the changes are necessary to address health risks, sidewalk congestion, and unfair competition with brick-and-mortar businesses.
Critics warn that the rules could criminalize informal workers, many of them migrants, who have few other options to earn a living.
For Gilberto Cervantes — who spoke with The Merced FOCUS on a Wednesday night outside a taco stand near 16th Street and Highway 59 — grabbing tacos from a street vendor isn’t just a quick bite – it’s culture.
“Estamos acostumbrados a comer en la calle — we’re used to eating in the street,” he said in Spanish while waiting for an order of tacos al pastor. “This is part of our culture. For a lot of people, this is what we eat. This is what we like.”
At the Aug. 4 Merced City Council meeting, officials discussed revising vendor rules amid ongoing concerns about food safety, fairness, and the role of informal food vendors in Merced’s economy.
Mayor Matt Serratto opened the discussion by outlining the origins of the proposed changes, which began with a subcommittee of himself and Councilmembers Shane Smith and Mike Harris.
“We currently have a street and sidewalk vendor ordinance,” Serratto said, referring to city municipal code passed in August 2021. “In the last couple of years, it’s become a much bigger issue, with a lot of the pop-up vendors.”
Merced’s existing street and sidewalk vendor ordinance permits vendors to operate with a license and includes general rules about placement. The current ordinance sets fines starting at $250 for a first offense, rising to as much as $1,000 for repeat violations.
Serratto noted that while the state’s Senate Bill 946 and 972 decriminalized sidewalk vending, cities can impose restrictions on the times of operation and the place and manner in which the business is conducted.
Merced’s current ordinance, Serratto said, doesn’t allow the city to seize unlicensed equipment, ban vending on vacant lots, or enforce sidewalk access. The subcommittee is reviewing how other cities regulate similar issues.
Smith said any new rules should reflect what he called a need for fairness in areas with established businesses.
“To me, the problems are of economic fairness in established commercial areas,” he said. “A street vendor can pop up, and the perception is that they’re free-riding on a market that somebody’s paid to be a part of.”
He added that health and safety issues remain a concern, particularly with vendors operating without refrigeration or sanitary facilities.
“I would like to see an ordinance that keeps people more often safe than not, respects the investments that our business owners have made in Merced, but still permits spaces for street vendors to peddle their wares and provide us with food,” Smith said.
Merced Police Chief Steven Stanfield confirmed that his department receives constant calls about pop-up vendors taking over public parking lots.
”For us, it’s mostly health and safety,” he said. “We deal with meats that are not being properly stored in refrigeration. It’s mostly food, illness, and improper refrigeration and sanitation issues, with the occasional sidewalk complaint.”
The issue falls under the jurisdiction of Merced County Public Health Department, who often has staff accompany city police on such calls to enforce sanitation standards.
“They shut them down, and they confiscate the food because we don’t want people getting sick,” Stanfield said. “It’s no different than any restaurant that has gone through a health and safety inspection and has failed.”
Tacos El Rorro workers José Pérez and Joel Ruiz know firsthand what happens when the city cracks down.
They’ve seen police show up with health inspectors and had their equipment confiscated, faced hefty fines, and subsequently lost a week of work.
“They’ve taken everything, even the equipment,” said Pérez, who works six days a week and depends entirely on taco stand wages.
“If we don’t work, we don’t get paid,” Ruiz added. “We have to work in whatever we can find, in the field or wherever we can.”
The workers said they take sanitation seriously. Meat is cooked and kept at high temperatures, while vegetables are prepared fresh daily. However, they admitted that there are no handwashing stations, and they rely on constantly changing the black nitrile gloves they use for cooking.
Merced City Manager Scott McBride said the city is not alone in struggling to regulate a surge in street and mobile food vendors.
A countywide working group, led by public health officials and comprising city managers, attorneys, and law enforcement, is reviewing draft ordinances and exploring potential solutions.
“There’s lots of different types of mobile food vendors that are out there,” McBride said, listing street carts, sidewalk stands, food trucks, and pop-up vendors. “Part of the issue is trying to determine what type of regulations are appropriate for which type.”
While the focus is on public health, he noted that the problem also involves property rights and liability.
“On the property that we have, there’s nobody that has a permit to be operating,” McBride said. “There are liability issues that are beyond public health.”
The city isn’t equipped to do health inspections, but McBride emphasized that officials received reports of “extreme illnesses” linked to unregulated vendors.
Despite safety concerns, Curtis Thomas, who spoke at the Aug. 4 city council meeting, urged caution. He said vendors are essential to neighborhood life in his part of town, near Roland D. Brooks Jr. Park, at the intersection of G Street and Gerard Ave.
“In my part of town, there’s really not anything that’s close by,” he said. “If you want to get tacos, go to the grocery store, or do anything, you gotta get in your car.
Councilmember Fue Xiong said vendors contribute to the city’s vibrancy and sense of community. He voiced opposition to restricting them to a single location, like designated food truck zones, arguing that such concentration limits access and undermines neighborhood presence.
“I’d rather see these food trucks dispersed across the city,” he said. “I’m not fond of us putting up limitations that would prevent food vendors from being around the city.”
Xiong pushed for fairness and an easier way for “hardworking people … to continue what they’re doing.
“I don’t see (street vendors) disrupting businesses. We don’t ever complain about the Girl Scouts selling cookies disrupting the sale of cookies, right?” he added.
Harris clarified that the discussion applies to street and sidewalk vendors, not food trucks, covered by separate regulations. Still, he supported simplifying the permit process to avoid discouraging entrepreneurship.
“I am also in favor of not (putting) too many restrictions on them, with the exception of health and safety,” he said. “We need to make sure that it is of the highest standards.”
Councilmember Sarah Boyle offered a practical solution: copy Fresno. The city recently held a one-day one-stop shop permitting event, making it easier for vendors to complete all necessary paperwork in a single day.
“I think sometimes people are just lost on how to navigate (the process),” she said. “I think that’s something that we should be doing as well if we’re implementing this policy.”
The City Attorney’s office, led by Craig Cornwell, is drafting a revised ordinance.The revised ordinance is expected to include tighter enforcement definitions, site and sanitation standards, and a requirement for the display of permits. A draft is slated to go before the council at its first meeting in October.