Okay. You are going to have to go a long way to prove to me that Mayor Karen Bass of Los Angeles doesn’t actually despise the tax-paying residents and business owners in her city.
I have yet to see the woman do a single thing to their advantage in the time I’ve been painfully watching her let the city waste and burn away. In fact, nearly every move the woman makes seems to be directly related to causing as much consternation and pain as possible to those residents who pay for the world she lives in and the illegal residents she indulges.
And dang if there hasn’t been another one that’s dropped.
If you’re a restaurateur in the city, I have no clue why you put up with the abuse from everyone, from the city taxes to the health department, when you could just close up and get yourself one of the free food carts the city’s handing out.
What’s you’d save in fees, taxes, and aggravation, well, who knows? You might even come out ahead.
It helps if you’re an illegal, though.
Guess who really can’t afford food carts?
Restaurant owners who are busting their asses to jump through @CountyofLA and @LACity and California hoops.
Why are @LACountyBOS @LACityCouncil @MayorOfLA subsidizing cartel carts?
— Roxanne Hoge (@RoxanneHoge) March 14, 2026
It’s another knock on cruel immigration enforcement. Seriously, it is.
…In a news release, the county noted that the free cart giveaway is to “support low-income entrepreneurs and strengthen economic inclusion,” as the new requirements introduced new costs for vendors.
“Many vendors are navigating increasingly difficult and uncertain times due to cruel federal immigration actions, and we know vendors play an essential role in the economic and cultural vitality of Los Angeles County,” Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda L. Solis said.
The free carts vary in purpose, including hot-holding, cold-holding, cut-fruit, and integrated grill models, according to the county.
The program got its start a couple of months ago, with a splashy announcement from the city.
‘Supporting vendors’ who actually aren’t ‘vendors’ yet because they have nothing to ‘vend’ from. How nice of the city to step in and foot the bill for these mobile business thieves.
COMPACT MOBILE FOOD OPERATION
LA County and City of LA Launch $2.8 Million Sidewalk Vending Cart Program to Support Vendors
Today, the Los Angeles County Department of Economic Opportunity (DEO), in partnership with the City of Los Angeles Economic and Workforce Development Department (EWDD), announced the launch of the Sidewalk Vending Cart Program, which invests $2.8 million in more than 280 free, health-code-compliant food vending carts for eligible sidewalk vendors across Los Angeles County and the City of LA. The program is designed to help vendors meet new legal requirements, overcome financial barriers to formalization, and operate safely and legally in their communities.
The cart giveaway is part of a broader effort by the County to support low-income entrepreneurs and strengthen economic inclusion. Following the passage of Senate Bill 946, known as the Safe Sidewalk Vending Act, and Senate Bill 972, which amended the California Retail Food Code to create a new permit category called Compact Mobile Food Operation (CMFO), Los Angeles County adopted its own Sidewalk Vending Ordinance, which went into effect in August 2024. The ordinance established a formal process for sidewalk vendors to operate legally in unincorporated areas of the County, including requirements to obtain a Sidewalk Vending Registration Certificate (SVRC) and, for food vendors, a CMFO permit from the Department of Public Health. These changes created a clear pathway to legal vending and the formal economy but also introduced new costs and permitting requirements that many vendors cannot afford on their own.
Ah, it’s always the community with these people.
BARF
…“The sidewalk vending movement was built by working families, microentrepreneurs, and immigrants who never stopped showing up for their communities, even when the system was not built for them,” said Second District Supervisor Holly J. Mitchell. “Today we are changing that story. By providing free, health code compliant carts and removing cost barriers, we are making sure our laws come with real pathways for vendors to thrive in the formal economy. This is what inclusive economic development looks like. We meet people where they are, honor their work, and invest in their success.”
The argle-bargle trying to justify what is essentially yet another giveaway to the illegals in the community, all paid for on the backs of the businesses that are also in the community, is classic woke prog speak.
Businesses that have noticed the disparity in support, as you would imagine.
Local businesses also received a similar program of equal value to help hedge against rising costs and regulations. Just kidding, they hate businesses. https://t.co/czpB6fgIiP
— Chef Andrew Gruel (@ChefGruel) March 14, 2026
This is also something I’m assuming free-cart recipients would be pretty able to circumvent that the briock and mortar types cannot – Los Angeles has a gross receipts tax charge.
EVERY retail business pays Gross Receipts tax of $1.19 PER $1000 of sales. NOT NET INCOME. @MayorOfLA driving business out. Gross receipts is on rental income too. @spencerpratt look at this issue. You are going to need bankruptcy counsel
— Dr-Ann-Esq (@DRAnnEsq) March 15, 2026
Doing some digging, I found it was a little more than $1.19 for retail.
Retail Sales $1.27 per 1,000 or fractional part thereof of gross receipts. Retail sales are the selling of any goods, wares or merchandise for any purpose other than resale. Common examples would be grocery stores, drug stores, hardware stores, clothing stores, restaurants, etc.
Holy smokes, they get you coming and going – but not the free chalupa cart!
…In California, businesses pay state income tax, sales tax, unemployment insurance, and disability tax. Those taxes are on top of federal income, sales, and unemployment taxes, not to mention Social Security and Medicare taxes.
In some states, restaurants can deduct what servers make in tips from their taxes. Not in California — where if a restaurant puts a required tip on the bill for a larger party, the owner has to pay taxes on the tip that goes to the server.
The City of LA adds its own sales tax, bringing the state and local total to 9.75%. There is also a city business tax, based on a percentage of what the business makes.
Moreover, if a business operates out of a facility owned by the city or county, the business pays a “possessory interest tax,” which is essentially a property tax on a property you don’t own. The restaurant also has to pay liability insurance for the government property.
LA City also charges its businesses an extra occupancy tax. There is even an “unsecured property tax” on any equipment the business owns or operates on government property.
Restaurants in California also have to pay for licenses from the health department and the fire department. They pay extra for a license to serve alcoholic beverages, or soft serve ice cream. They even pay a disposal fee and a fee to be connected to the sewer line.
While restaurants slow-boil in taxes and fees, their street vendor competitors don’t pay rent, or extra taxes on any facilities. They are not required to have hot running water, or provide a bathroom. And now, instead of being charged an unsecured property tax on their equipment, they are getting their carts for free from LA County.
Free chalupa cart is starting to sound like a bargain.
Gosh. Some people are so cynical.
You probably know- it’s not uncommon to use SNAP to buy the food sold from the carts. In some ways I admire the ingenuity, while also resenting taxpayer funding
— Kat (@Azfunaziam) March 14, 2026
I can’t imagine why.
As for ‘cruel,’ what about the poor schlubs trying to keep a brick and mortar business running in LA’s current climate and then watching as the city hands your illegal competition the free tools to rip you off with.
Why can’t the business taxpayers catch a break every now and then in the interest of fairness?
…“There’s two different sets of rules,” restaurateur Andrew Gruel told The Post. “If I were, as a brick-and-mortar business, to do anything outside the regulatory framework of the city — zoning, health standards, wage laws — I’m going to get smashed left and right.”
Gruel, who made waves in 2020 after calling Gov. Gavin Newsom an “a—hole” following the governor’s notorious pandemic dinner at the French Laundry, said he empathizes with street vendors. He built his restaurant business, Slapfish, into a global brand after going from “one food truck” in Los Angeles to creating more than 55 restaurant locations across three countries.
…“If you’re allowing [food carts] to operate and you’re actually encouraging them financially by subsidizing them to operate under the radar, without the regulations, then subsidize brick-and-mortars and decrease their regulations as well,” said Gruel, who now serves on the Huntington Beach City Council.
…Los Angeles’ program is waiving the county’s $604 sidewalk vending registration fee for the first two years, and that fee will only be $100 in the third year. Vendors can also receive a 75% subsidy for health permits and grants of up to $5,000 to cover additional startup costs.
Gruel argues those subsidies create an uneven system for restaurants already facing heavy regulation.
“You’ve got food vendors operating cash-only businesses, not paying sales tax,” he said. “And they aren’t paying many of the local fees required for things like grease disposal or environmental health standards.”
Now, there are worries that, as extensive and generous as the give-away is, it may come to naught, as the city has a nearly three-month-long process to apply lined up. These people want their free carts, and they want them now.
The city of Long Beach tried something similar not too long ago – they had big plans to hand out 40 or so carts. But they wound up scaling it all way back when the number of applicants who qualified never materialized, or were willing to even attempt the process to begin with.
More than a year-and-a-half after promising to provide up to 40 free carts to eligible street vendors, Long Beach hasn’t even made it halfway to that goal and now plans to cut funding for the program.
As of late February, Long Beach has supplied 11 free carts, with six more applicants waiting for final approvals. Health officials say this is because out of the 123 applicants, the vast majority haven’t completed all the steps necessary.
Long Beach originally allocated $429,500 for the free-cart program, but the City Council recently approved reducing that by $200,201, citing “low participation” and the need to balance a city budget that’s facing deficits.
Applications are still open for vendors seeking a free cart, but city officials are reviewing “the application process and overall program,” Health Department spokesperson Jennifer Ann Gonzalez wrote in an email.
Vendors, for their part, say the process was plagued by delays and complications.
It’s amazing how cranky people wanting free stuff can be.
They should try running a restaurant.
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