The city of San Jose held a resource fair Monday to educate street vendors on their rights after an increase in attacks and assaults against them across the country.
Monday was the first of several, similar events at San Jose City Hall. It was a welcoming of sorts to street vendors, letting them know that they are part of the city as well.
The assaults on street vendors have been increasing over the last few years.
NBC Bay Area was the first to report on the latest incident last week, where security guards at a San Jose Home Depot knocked over the strawberry crates of one vendor who was on store property.
Veronica Hernandez fears there's so much hate right now against the Latino community. So she showed up to a resource fair for street vendors put on by the city and several community groups.
Veronica wants to operate her own street cart, selling Mexican flautas.
“They are also our small businesses. Micro small businesses. We as a city need to do whatever it takes for them to get the proper permits, make sure they’re safe out there,” said councilman Omar Torres.
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Virginia Sanchez was also there. She operates a hot dog cart downtown, and has herself been a victim of assault and harassment.
She said a woman recently pushed her cart over, knocking over everything on it.
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So she went to see how the city can help protect her and her colleagues.
“We want our vendors to earn an honest living and do so safely. We do need to maintain public trust and people’s access to the right of way,” said Mayor Matt Mahan.
The idea is to teach the vendors how to grow their small business, and perhaps turn it into a brick and mortar storefront.
