Dear Governor Gavin Newsom and Mayor Karen Bass,

It's time to fully legalize our street food, for good. Tacos, burritos, fruit stands, danger dogs, and large night markets make California what it is. They bring people together. The problem? There should be way more of it all.

When you talk to anyone who travels to California or countries abroad with good street food, it is always one of the first things that is mentioned: the food. It is cheap, delicious, and made by people who CARE.

Now you may worry about the safety of this all. In a world where restaurants can cause massive foodborne illness (chipotle), we have tv shows like kitchen nightmares and bar rescue, and grocery stores sell donuts with listeria... this might seem like a reasonable concern. For street vendors, it is not.

Our current laws force vendors to operate in legal gray areas, worsening the chances for mishandling. How do we fix that?

1. Make it dirt cheap to register as a street vendor ($25 or free)
2. Train the vendors on health safety practices in 1-2 hours upon registration
3. Setup common lots and cleaning facilities for trucks and carts in major cities (Mexico does this)
4. Make it unquestionably legal to sell food on our streets

This is an invitation to make meaningful legal progress for real workers of California.

Thank you,
dangerdog.org