City shows support for vending bill

City Council members voiced their support for the University's vending bill during yesterday's open hearing. Despite numerous protests from vendors, students and professors and community residents, most Philadelphia City Council members present during marathon public hearings yesterday indicated that they clearly favor a controversial, University-backed ordinance that would regulate vending on and around campus. About 50 people testified on the ordinance, which would ban food trucks and carts on many streets and sidewalks around campus, prohibit electrical generators a year after its enactment and establish a Vending Advisory Board to approve vendors for specific sites. The much-anticipated City Council hearings, which took place in City Hall from 10 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. with one 10-minute break, were attended by about 150 people. Although a total of 97 people had registered to testify at the hearings, the day ran so long that dozens of people left before their turn. Penn's separate proposal to build five food plazas on its property to hold vendors displaced by the ordinance, if enacted, was also discussed. All hopes for significant revisions to the ordinance seemed to dissolve at the hearings, during which Council members largely rejected the protests of the ordinance's critics -- mainly because Penn's interests are important to the city, they said. "We don't care if you don't like the bill," an exasperated Council President John Street said at one point after several critics had testified. "You're not supposed to like the bill." Street attributed Council's largely pro-ordinance position to the large influence Penn has in the city. "We have an obligation to the second-largest employer in the City of Philadelphia," Street said. "If you don't think that I and the other members of Council are conscious of all the economic benefits that flow from [the University], you're wrong." The hearings addressed many issues and concerns: the number and viability of the locations that would be available under the ordinance; all aspects of the proposed food plazas; the process for selecting vendors for public and private locations; the vendors' effect on other businesses; and the long negotiating process between University officials and vendor and consumer groups. Speaking for the University, Director of Community Relations Glenn Bryan argued that the ordinance was necessary to end "an unbridled, almost chaotic proliferation of vending activity in University City." More than 90 food trucks, carts and other vendors currently operate around campus. The number has jumped over the past several years, as similar ordinances have been enacted in Center City and Germantown. Opponents of the ordinance, who suggested many amendments, argued against the bill largely on the basis that it would destroy vendors' viability and greatly inconvenience consumers. About 16 people testified in support of the ordinance, including Bryan, Penn Vice President for Government, Community and Public Affairs Carol Scheman and several retailers, faculty members and students. More than 30 people, by contrast, testified against the ordinance, including University City Vendors Alliance Chairperson Scott Goldstein, members of the Penn Consumer Alliance, other vendors, students and faculty members. The hearings are not yet complete. Street asked officials from the Department of Licenses and Inspections and the Philadelphia Parking Authority to testify today at 8:30 a.m. After the hearings' conclude today, Council members will vote on whether to keep the bill alive or strike it down. If the bill makes it out of hearings, the members can decide to vote on the bill in two or three weeks. The next time the bill makes it to the floor, Council members can offer amendments. If the bill comes to the floor any time after that, however, no further amendments can be made to it. Despite the mostly favorable reception from Council, University officials did not emerge unscathed from City Hall's room 400, the majestic hall where Council traditionally meets. For instance, the University received its strongest rebuke of the day over its decision to stop negotiating with the UCVA and PCA -- the two ad hoc groups formed in response to Penn's initial proposal a year ago -- after Blackwell introduced the bill to Council February 12. "I'd have to fault severely a decision that once a bill is introduced to City Council, discussion ceases," at-large Councilman David Cohen said. Three days before Blackwell introduced the ordinance, she held a meeting to hammer out a final version of the bill acceptable to all the parties involved. At the end of the five-hour meeting, Blackwell asked Penn officials to draft a proposal incorporating the revisions discussed at the meeting. The UCVA, the PCA and others have accused Penn officials of reneging on several compromises they allegedly made at the meeting. Penn has denied the accusations, which were discussed at the hearings. But Council members indicated that they gave little weight to the allegations. Also, they rejected the vendors' claims that they have a right to vend in some of the areas that will be prohibited under the ordinance. "You are assuming some right to conduct economic activity on a public easement," Street said. Many graduate students and faculty members who testified against the bill said the ordinance would take away the cheap and convenient food they have become accustomed to. But at-large Councilwoman Augusta Clark said matters of "personal inconvenience" are not reasons to reject the ordinance. "You didn't come to the University to buy low-cost food," Clark told one graduate student. During her testimony, Scheman said that "anyone, anywhere on campus can reach the vending in three minutes" if the bill goes into effect and when the food plazas are built. Councilman Frank DiCicco, who represents South Philadelphia, spoke about the stringent regulations rent-paying retailers face as he questioned Goldstein on the issue. DiCicco said that while he sees the vendors' position, "I've also got to respect the store owners." North Philadelphia Councilman Michael Nutter grilled Scheman, Penn Managing Director of Economic Development Jack Shannon and Penn Associate General Counsel Roman Petyk on many of the details of the ordinance, including the viability of some of the locations on Market Street. Many Council members expressed concern about how the spaces available under the ordinance would be assigned to vendors by the proposed Vending Advisory Board. "If there's a spot that's going to be there, we want the person who's been on the spot to stay on the spot," Street said. Street and at-large Councilwoman Happy Fernandez also asked University officials to discuss the details of their food plaza plans, including how the space in the plazas would be allocated and how they would be designed. Council members' attendance at the hearing varied during the day. All but four of the body's 17 members attended at least part of the hearings. The hearings are the latest round in the controversy over the ordinance, which began last May when Penn submitted its first proposal to Blackwell. In the face of protests from students, faculty members, staff, vendors and other community members, University officials withdrew the proposal in mid-June. Many hours of negotiations led to the current proposal.

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