CHARLOTTE — On Monday, Charlotte City Council is set to make a decision on whether to ban street vending citywide.
Right now street vending is only banned in NoDa and in Uptown, but that could soon change.
If the vote passes, vendors who break the rules could be criminally charged.
While the city is on the verge of tightly control where street vendors can operate, many of those vendors think the city has gone too far.
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Tru Myers is new to the street vending game.
He started six months ago, peddling his art.
“I’m a muralist by trade, so I typically do larger scale work,” he said.
“I participate in a lot of pop-up markets at different locations throughout the city,” said Jennifer Bradford. She has been a street merchant for three years. “This is my plants with personalities. I thrift or find vintage pieces, mostly vintage, thrift stores, estate sales.”
On Sunday Myers and Bradford shared the same block on Commonwealth Avenue, but they do not share the same opinion about the city’s proposed change in the street vending ordinance.
Under the change, vendors would have to get a permit and would only be allowed in preapproved areas.
“It would make it more challenging,” said Myers. “All you do is put barriers between how I make a living and me doing that right.”
“Structure is always good,” Bradford said. “Again, I don’t have a lot of experience with other vendors.”
If the change is adopted, those vendors who break the rules can be fined and eventually cited for a misdemeanor.
Myers says the change will hurt him financially.
“From my lens as someone who has vended and connected with other vendors doing it a lot longer than I have, it’s impactful and not in a positive way,” he said.
“I would not be opposed to participating in a program for vendors,” said Bradford.
Vendors will be fined $500 per violation, and if their permit is suspended because of too many violations, they could lose their license for a year.