Food vendors from Chicago, other cities rally downtown against restrictive regulations

Chicago street vendors were joined by food workers from across the country downtown on Monday in hopes of reforming laws they say are hurting them.

The mayor's office says the new budget includes a plan that would allow street vendors to prepare food in public for the first time.

"We need to unionize, we need to organize. We need to be togather. We need to be united," said New York street vendor Guadalupe Sosa.

It's a call to action from not only street vendors in Chicago, but from other cities like Los Angeles and New York where organizers say their advocacy is making a real impact.

"What our brothers are struggling with here in Chicago does no longer happen in New York City. It took us a long time to fight, but we did it," Sosa said.

Movement leaders say while the 2015 ordinance legalizing street vending in Chicago marked a major victory for local vendors, the law still requires food to be pre-cut and pre-packaged in a licensed commercial kitchen — including tamales, fruit and corn cups.

They say the law prevents vendors from preparing or seasoning food to order and subjects them to citations and potential immigration enforcement.

Organizers say they centered the rally around the Haymarket Memorial because it symbolizes a place that marked the beginning of the modern-day labor movement — fighting against injustice.

Juana Gama with Chicago's Street Vendors Association says that he's been working for four years to modify the ordinance.

"That they can sell freely, that they cannot be fined," he said via translator.

A spokesperson from Mayor Brandon Johnson's office said in a statement that his administration included an ordinance proposal in the new budget that "would for the first time allow entrepreneurs to apply for a license to sell food and drink that require hot holding, cold holding, preparation, and topping on the public way." It went on to say that the mayor's office "continues to hold productive conversations with Chicago Police Department leadership regarding means of enforcing existing regulations while avoiding unnecessary harm to residents."

It's a change street vendors say they want to see in wards across the city.

"We are going to try to get each ward has an area where street vendors can sell their products," Gama said.

Full statement from mayor's office

The Johnson administration appreciates the advocacy and feedback it has received from street vendors regarding shortcomings with the City's existing regulations.

Over the past year, the Mayor's office has been working in concert with City departments, industry groups, and individual vendors to advance legislative measures that address vendor concerns surrounding licensing and enforcement. Through this the Johnson administration has prioritized maintaining a fair and equitable permitting process that supports the success of small businesses and neighborhood entrepreneurs while promoting safe and accessible public spaces across Chicago. 

As part of Mayor Johnson's FY27 budget proposal, the administration has put forth an ordinance for consideration by the City Council that would for the first-time allow entrepreneurs to apply for a license to sell food and drink that require hot holding, cold holding, preparation, and topping on the public way. Currently, Chicago does not have a license that allows food entrepreneurs to sell prepared foods from a mobile cart on the public way, making it the only major city with this gap in licensing.

This proposal would open new opportunities for food entrepreneurs while addressing gaps in the City's licensing framework and expanding pathways for vendors to operate legally on the public way.

The Mayor's Office continues to hold productive conversations with Chicago Police Department leadership regarding means of enforcing existing regulations while avoiding unnecessary harm to residents.