Zero Tolerance Experiment?
Seems like last week there was a minor effort to crack down on Compliance Violations downtown:
New videos show street vendors being escorted away from their carts in the Loop—facing fines, citations, and possible arrest.
Experts say this is something that's happening more and more recently and is renewing conversations about the legality of vending in the city's most popular areas.
Typically, around Michigan Avenue, vendors line that part of Millennium Park, but as of Monday, the majority of those vendors were missing. Those who were there shared videos showing their fellow vendors being whisked away by Chicago police.
And they're complaining that the law hasn't been enforced for years, decades even, so it's unfair to enforce it now:
"One ticket is maybe alright, but like the police are strict now—every week, every Saturday and Sunday they come," he says.
Marlen Romero is also a street vendor selling fruit.
"Because we have needs, we have to support a family, I have four children here," she said.
Her husband had to run and rotate locations to avoid being seen by the police.
"Meantime, we're looking to sell. I know there are laws here, I know is prohibited, but we're not hurting anyone, and sometimes they treat us like thieves," she said.
Um, you're hurting actual established businesses who pay rent, property taxes, business licenses, etc. And you're selling in locations prohibited to be at. Not to mention you have no running water, no health inspections, no refrigeration for perishable items etc. Oh, and your tracking of Sales Tax Revenue leaves a lot to be desired.
That $100 peddlers license (valid for two years) doesn't offset the downside of creating a Third World atmosphere.
posted by SCC at 12:03 AM
114 Comments:
ONCE AGAIN, this is a country with laws, rules ordinances etc.
The Left has NO concept of any of this.
Therefore the nation will become a SHITHOLE like many 3rd world garbage pits.
Mayor ZERO.6 needs the cash to plug his budget holes. Someone has to pay for his trip to the Vatican!
Hands off the teens, but go after the old Mexican fruit vendor! CPD!
I am not in favor of letting these vendors ply their trade. But first, get the streets under control by going after the shooters, car jackers, robbers, retail theft thieves and the “teen takeovers” (brutal thugs) causing mayhem. The priorities are wrong. Looks like the City wants easy arrests for show, but not solving the real problems. Get the vendors later.
Bet they’re also all illegal.
Zero tolerance for ANOV offenses, but it’s a free-for-all when it comes to gun offenders, Armed Robbery offenders, Agg Batt Offenders….
Oh I see the overall plan now! It’s genius!
Circa 1997 (DUI .10 < .08 BAC), a 70 yoa driver stopped for DUI demanded to know why he was being stopped for DUI, now, since he had been driving home drunk for the last 40 years.
should be:
first time ticket...
second time ticket and $1000 fine
third time: ticket, fine $5000, confiscate cart
This is part of Rahm's legacy when he stopped having police enforce license laws and vagrancy
Think a reporter might ask him about that?
That is why last week I asked WHEN ICE WAS COMING BACK. These vendors have been out in full force across the city. Hell there is a reel on fake book some lady selling food out of her back yard. When I made the same comment about brick and mortar restaurants the far left idiots all jumped on my post , she is not hurting anybody, she is just trying to make money .The best I don't see any health violations. Shitcago is a third world city and is being OVER RUN by ILLEGALS.....WHERE IS ICE ???
“I know there are laws here” but I’m not going to follow them. That seems to be the theme with low confidence and low trust cultures among us. From entering the country to following laws, rules and even American societal norms and standards, I’m not going to comply. I’m going to jam my cultural and societal norms down your throats. That’s how so many beautiful neighborhoods have been turned into crime ridden dumps.
OT. Bears staying in Chicago!!! Last minute touchdown by state legislature.
Screw them. I would never support a street vendor. American citizens have to get licenses to open businesses, pay money for overhead, pay rent or buy the property, pay taxes, get inspected and hire employees. The vendors ( mostly illegals) just set up and sell slop they make in their kitchen. Arrest them and deport them. They can go back to their country of origin and sell their slop on the street. When I grew up, I never saw people cooking in the street. It's called a third world activity. We are turning into the third world and it's not a good thing.
First of all, I live on North Michigan Avenue and I support the police 100%. My husband and I love the men and women in blue.
It is an absolute shame that the city allowed the Hispanic food vendors and the man selling cotton candy to just do whatever they want.
We are a nation of laws and the laws need to be enforced. Finally City Hall and the police brass are listening to us.
Thank you CPD. You guys and gals rock.
Not to mention attracting rodents
Send
Them
Back!
Bare-handed Venezuelans everyday selling cut fruit on melting ice in a cart by the Art Institute at Michigan & Monroe. Not twenty feet from a trio of food trucks which have to deal with all sorts of taxes, licensing, & the skyrocketing price of both truck fuel & propane for their stoves.
sounds racist since the majority are latino, or is it latin-x now
They are hurting..Please...Dont tell me your NOT getting free money from the govt/state..free phones, housing, vouchers, CTA passes, etc. Give me a break..Its about time they learn to follow our rules of law..Maybe ICE would think differently!
I love it, but the flip side is the same intensity of enforcement needs to be applied to the mad max motorcycle/att gangs that terrorize Chicago.please allow the police to police.
Side note: change the maximum payout for lawsuits against the city for injury/death to be $1.00.
Where do they get their items from BTW? Fall off a truck?
This is a prime example of not nipping it in the bud. You let these things slide, then you have a huge problem.
I agree that these laws need enforcing, but let’s start with enforcing laws against real criminals.
Ghetto mayor needs to enforce the laws that the non-demonized youtes are doing daily. Once these real criminals are dealt with then go after the annoyances.
It has to be a plan of some sort.
Woohoo
Don't say latin-x.
Does not matter what race the vendor is- get the proper paperwork and pay the license fees.
No one said - hands off teens you fool- Grow the fuc up!!!
I tried ticketing the unlicensed “elotes” peddlers in 013 thirty years ago but found little support amongst my Hispanic police officer peers. Important the third world, become the third world. And that goes for roll calls as well as the street corners…
The reasons the kids aren’t dealt with are purely political, not because of the police you clown.
Saw that video too. I work in 009 and believe me, they’re not the only ones selling food from their backyard/front yard/car. This city has def become a third world country.
Not.......... Spring legislative just ended without a vote.
I don't patronize the unlicensed food vendors. Who needs a taco made out of rat or dead pitbull?
At my former residence in the city my neighbor moved a family in his vacant home. There hadn’t been anyone living there for over a year because of plumbing issues that was caused by a deranged relative that had no business living on his own. The family was preparing tamales inside the home and selling them on the corners of our neighborhood. If people could see the conditions of some of these kitchens where food is prepared they would never ever give their hard earned cash to these people.
It’s the Policemen’s job to enforce all laws(Broken window theory) It’s the elected’s job to make the laws.One day it’s selling fruit, the next there’s a plate of foil covered tamales.next it’s food poisoning .Its where laws come from.
It's simple, enforce the law.
What are the chances that one overzealous copper and maybe a sergant have an axe to grind with street vendors and have made it their personal mission to start enforcing city code? Perhaps they accepted a free hot dog or elote and got a nasty case of the runs. Or a new foot guy was given a permanent post and he/she promised the DC that enforcement would be stricter on his watch? Either way, I think CPD has bigger fish to fry here. The teen riots do come to mind. Not to mention yutes with guns shooting up the downtown area at will. Someone needs to inform these revenuing police officers that taking in money for the city is pointless. Especially when none of it is going intot he pension fund. With the new chairs going in at the fountain, and now code enforcement along Michigan Ave it seems like there is some special attention being given here. Does anybody know anything?
BFD> Bears suck all FN haters
I find this entire issue very laughable. The Mexican food carts have been on the streets in Little Village for decades and have been protected by the alderman and congressman. They are unlicensed and sell cut fruit and corn with mayo that is unrefrigerated . Tey do not wash their hands, have no running water. Why bother them now? The police in the 010 District were told to leave them alone along with the ice cream carts and trucks all without license. In the meantime, the hot dog carts in other areas were chased and arrested. hypocrits all
Left the city a while back. Reading this makes the mag mile sound like it’s the new Maxwell street.
FUCK the bears and all kneeling supporters!
Where did you get that info slick? Several media sources are reporting the legislature adjourned with no deal
Its called the broken windows theory. It works.
I was told they were here to work
Legit question from a civilian: Is it legal to set up a fruit stand in the front of a house in a residential neighborhood??? It's between the front porch and the sidewalk so it's technically on their property. But it's on a main N/S street in the neighborhood so it causes traffic problems occassionally . Thanks
Thank God
has become a shithole
They make Michigan Avenue look like a Tijuana ghetto.
How the prosecution of Derek Chauvin continued after THIS is mind-boggling…
https://revolver.news/2026/06/how-the-prosecution-of-derek-chauvin-continued-after-this-is-mind-boggling/
Put down the pipe buddy. They are long gone.
I trust buying food and drink from one of these street vendors about as much as I trust Mexican tap water. As for people asking “where is ICE?”; it was made abundantly clear the majority of Chicago citizens and our politicians don’t want ICE enforcement here. Let them help out in red states where they have the backing of its citizens. After all, these street vendors “are just looking for a better life”…or something.
how about go after the teens n the mexican fruit vendors chicago is turning into a third world country
it was always enforced in the Chicago Lawn Neighborhood. Time for enforcement on 47th St(Back of the Yards),26thSt(Little Village)
Chicago Ave.DivisionSt(Humboldt Park) are they paying off politicians
I sure hope so, there is plenty of vacant land 55thst west of King Drive or ghetto ,vacant homes in area . It will help provide jobs for the neighborhood
let's start enforcing these vendor in local neighborhoods , snow cone sales, bicycles, paintings and the bucket boys that are beating drums
what about all the unlicensed street corner drug dealers in the ghetto
Thank you CPD. Can someone get rid of the squatamalan and her little kids at I-55 and Cicero before an Indian trucker flattens one of them?
Let’s focus on bigger things-
Like homicides, agg batt’s, teen takeovers, the drifting assholes…
Let’s get that under control, then we can move on to some street vendor!
Broken windows works, if applied correctly.
Yes but with limitations...The vendor selling the fruit MUST be the grower of the fruits they are selling. The fruits must be sold WHOLE, UNCUT OR UNPROCESSED. Selling the fruit cut, or making them into jams, baked goods etc, MUST have a vendors license from Chicago. They also cannot have a cart that obstructs a sidewalk, street, and cannot exceed 150 sq ft in area or 15 ft in height. Plus, must be at least 15ft back from the front property line and 5ft from either side property line. Basically, they cannot buy and resell commercial fruits. Selling food has the same rules. Hope this helps. If you think theres something else going on then check with your alderman...(even though aldermen are useless, they always say call police)
In all fairness, Rahm ordered cops to look the other way because (former A/5 Deputy Chief, then back to Lt) Rickey Gurrero was pushing an Elotes cart around Humbolt Park back then.
Best way to get rid of them would probably be the Indian Truckers!!
That’s what people here want. That’s how they voted.
Let them choke on it!
Brando goes the worst of the worst
Deport every last one. 020 could’ve gone either way around 1990. Old white alcoholic families were leaving and dying off. It was starting to fill up with illegals and elotes vendors were everywhere. The sidewalks were covered with corn cobs, rancid mayonnaise, and paper wrappers. Gentrification and upwardly mobile libs were having none of that. The elotes vendors were banned by order of the 40th and 47th ward$.
Probably purchased with EBT cards that they get.
They need to continue to issue tickets and confiscate alcohol from all these illegal vendors on the museum campus. Along with the illegal Venezuelans who sell sausages that they cook on thier coooktop carts at every concert and soccer games. The new1st district commander Seamus is doing aa great job but the ppussu ass detail unit sergeants and thier PPO's are afraid of thier own shadows. This campus is a disgrace with the speeding motorcycles, Rick shaw assholes and useless TMA's.
John Corless was not liked but that was a no-no when he was commander in 008 and Area Three Deputy Chief
Especially the bucket boys! JFC. Imagine paying all that money to live or work in a downtown skyscraper & having that racket drilled into your head for 8 hours a day.
She occasionally moves to I-55 and Harlem or Archer and Harlem. One time when it was single digit weather ahe was on Harlem with her kid strapped to her back! I was going to call Child Protection...
Health Dept. used to "denature" unlicensed food carts by pouring bleach all over the stock. No more - it has been decided that a good case of amebic dysentery is preferable.
wood shampoos for the bucket boys. next time, the fingers. Hard to play if you can't hold a drumstick.
What kind of rat? german or Norway?
I don't know, kind of sounds like it would be a self-correcting problem all the way around...
They make the tamales in their bathtubs. More room in the bathtub to make hundreds of tamales to sell on the streets. Disgusting
The peddlers license isn't any good in the central business district.
We can do it all.
When I was in the service, I got tape worms from a vendor in Mexico. After that I only drank beer and made sure I saw it get opened in front of me.
I would like to point out that on several deployments the only option besides not eating or drinking anything have been those vendors. 4pm to 6am on a mexican independence day weekend and they are appreciated. The city and CPD provided nothing. Same with face to face relief during DNC. It sucks but its true. CPD sure as hell isn't gonna provide.
That's what Summer Mobile would enforce
There's an episode of Mayberry that illustrates this same issue. A street farm stand that undercuts the storefront merchants.
Maybe they will bring the pickle ball championship tournament to Chicago instead of the Bears.
Absolutely just like shitcago is now.
Cutting crime is a choice! Exclusive — Doug Burgum: Trump’s Restorations of Fountains, Monuments, and Parks Show Squalor Is a ‘Choice’
https://www.breitbart.com/radio/2026/06/01/exclusive-doug-burgum-trumps-restorations-of-fountains-monuments-and-parks-show-squalor-is-a-choice/
Bingo
Johnson said today Chicago has opening to keep bears. Hopefully this will work out and they will stay
If you're stupid enough to support these illegal businesses who don't pay taxes and get all cash, you deserve food poisoning. Meanwhile, actual American citizens who get caught making cash, get in trouble.
Disagree....hammer the disgusting food peddlers.
Same in 014. But we, the proud supporters of law and order that were usually m/2’s still wrote the anov’s.
2 birds with one stone.
No its illegal.
What’s kind of sad and ridiculous is Tac teams in the 001st district are rounding up street vendors but not touching the guys selling crack all day and every day like two blocks away.
There's no $$ in arresting shitbirds... that's why.
That was when Sleepy Joe was in charge. He thought siesta time was working 10 Am-4 Pm
I thought thats what the FOP food cart was for...
I saw an interview in LA with a homeless guy and a reporter. After the interview the reporter told a story about the guy he interviewed asking if the reporter mined if he had a smoke? The homless guy then lit up a crack pipe and continued the interview. They cut the part of him getting high out. But yeah, that our future in Chicago.
025 is a mess
Si se puede…………..get deported.
Alice didn’t know Sam the butcher’s criminal past.
Purely political! You're that PO who stands around at the shithead sideshows and does nothing about the dope dealers but writes movers and parkers to our compliant fellow Chicagoans. Sorry, it's just politics, ma'am! Fkn pathetic!
You can buy a "Bucket Boy" franchise and pick one of many locations still available throughout Cook county and Chicago.
Democrats want a complete breakdown of society and making our laws irrelevant is one of their strategies to achieve that.
What's sad is any of the above is allowed in this once great country. All of it should be eliminated...permanently and forever.
Don’t assume that a lot of the current officers could see a drug deal if it was right in front of them.Many haven’t made 15 arrests their entire career.
What do you want, a free lesson in policework?
A good policeman never gets cold, wet, or hungry.
Here endeth the lesson….
"it was always enforced in the Chicago Lawn Neighborhood." Key word Was.
It is no longer enforced in Chicago Lawn Neighborhood.
from the Gypsy pilfering crew Warehouse that's where they get everything, those fuckers have entire houses garages and storage facilities full of stolen stuff that they sell all over the place...
Because the venders don't sue you. The dope boys do.
Hammer down on someone working....while......oh look, about 1000 black teens. Gosh, they just be funnin.
I never cared If they sold loosies look at the price of smokes in the City compared to the suburbs , Look at how long a yellow light lasts in the burbs VS Chicago less than 2 seconds VS 4-5 Fuck the City.
025 always was a mess. Now it is in a city that is an even bigger mess. Some things never change.
The "Bucket Boys" have become a part of the rich cultural heritage of Chicago. Everytime I break out my Home Depot "Lets Do It" bucket, I start jamming out a tune. It has become kind of a tradition.
And who is gonna pay these fines? Yeah I’m sure they’ll get on a payment plan and pay off their fines each and every single time. Idiot
Would always hear 800 on zone 6 barking out orders for a car to clear the peddlers away from near the ramps of the Stevenson expressway. Those little things make life easier for the public. Those peddlers would really tie up traffic, as if traffic wasn’t bad enough to begin with.
We can focus on more than one thing at a time, and indeed we should. Pick off the low-hanging fruit and clean up that bullshit which has been allowed to grow out of control. Knock it all out in a weekend.
Then you can stop playing with that and the complaints about it and move on to some other stuff... Attack them with the same vigor and knock it out.
Surround the block of wildings, arrest everyone there. Let the judge figure it out. Impound all the cars participating in it. When convicted - crush the cars, imprison the fools for 5 years. This crap will come to a swift end.
Shortening the yellow light was another one of Rahm’s special gifts to the citizens of Chicago - look it up
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