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street vendors = low priority

By Matt Artz
Sunday, July 6th, 2008 at 9:18 am in cops, Fremont.

A Fremont fellow has been waging a letter writing campaign to force out fruit vendors on his street. I haven’t written anything about it for the paper because it seems like small potatoes. Apparently the cops feel the same way

Here’s a bit from one letter:

For the past two months driving from my house and back I have been stopped in my tracks every time when I get to the bottom of Parkmeadow Ct.  At the intersection of Parkmeadow Court and Grimmer Boulevard an unlicensed and non-permitted person is selling numerous fruits in a residential district and knowingly putting the lives of pedestrians and drivers in harms way.  Not to mention the individuals may be here illegally.  What about the fact that because the fruits are not being regulated someone ends up dying of salmonella poisoning.  I have at least 10 times contacted Dennis Robinson, Operations Supervisor and the Police Department to no unveil.  This letter is my next step hoping that it may light a fire under someone and some real enforcement may take place.

Now here is a portion Chief Steckler’s response::

We are trying to address the issue of street side fruit vendors with some of the other City Departments that have authority over this type of activity.  Our Street Crimes Unit is helping.
This is a very low priority issue for the Police Department.  In my time as Chief of Police which is over 16 years I do not recall a single incident where a street fruit vendor has been the causal factor in any type of traffic accident, nor have we had any reports of criminal activities involving these vendors.  In fact I cannot find a single complaint from a citizen about their activities besides your complaint.  This is not to say that people dislike the idea of a street fruit vendor, simply that no one has taken the time or effort to call the police department.

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No Responses to “street vendors = low priority”

  1. Mike J Says:
    July 6th, 2008 at 9:45 am

    Chief Steckler, Check with your code inforcement officers. I have personally called in fruit sellers locations a multitude of times and would like to see the Fremont PD go after the bigger fish. How about busting the sorce, The people that are hiring these sellers, suppling the fruit and droping them off.

  2. Jon Simon Says:
    July 6th, 2008 at 10:25 am

    Mike,
    Did you vote against the utility tax?

  3. Sandi Says:
    July 6th, 2008 at 7:32 pm

    I have also called code enforcement. No one answers and I was asked to leave my name and phone # and someone would call me back. No one ever did. The fruit sellers are urinating in people’s bushes and then returning to the fruit they are selling. They often pull out a few strawberries to eat. This is highly unsanitary and could spread sickness quite fast. I’m preety sure this is not following food safety rules. Oh well, at least I am not buying the strawberries.

  4. ICE ICE BABY Says:
    July 8th, 2008 at 1:51 pm

    Contact ICE! I agree with Sandi DON’T Buy the chiz

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