Z Beat Goes On

Unfortunately it is not only the 'dog's on the beach' issue that Ybarra is against. This self proclaimed "King of La Ropa" is lobbying to have ALL of the beach vendors that sell food - peanuts, Oaxaca cheese, ice cream, chips with salsa, tacos etc. etc. be removed from the beach as they are stealing 'his' business.

I don't disagree with him on wanting the beach vendors and all ambulantes to be much better controlled and regulated. They are hurting everyone's business. Since the artisans markets were established over 20 years ago supposedly to remove most wandering vendors from our beaches and streets, the established businesses have had to deal with year after year of decreasing sales and declining profits, many simply closing up shop and moving elsewhere. The wandering vendors and the artisans markets have never been properly managed. Instead, the taxpaying rent-paying business owners have suffered while the wandering and informal vendors build new homes on invaded lands, buy nice cars and take vacations. I can't even recall the last time my wife and I took a vacation. I think it was 9 years ago. We certainly don't make enough money to build a new home, not even out of adobe and palapa. Like Francisco and others on La Ropa are doing, we had to put our foot down, too, when a wandering vendor tried to set up a shop to sell handmade clothing across the street from our own shop in the Plaza del Artista. Wandering vendors and artisan markets operate on an entirely different economic system than the rest of us. Much like the economic difference between the USA and China. We consider such practices to be competencia desleal, unfair for those of us who pay must taxes, utilities, rents and employees.

So even though Don Chico, Francisco's dad, established himself at La Ropa by essentially being a wandering vendor selling clams and oysters, back then he filled a void. Today that void no longer exists and we have a saturation of too many services, including unregulated food vendors selling potentially unhealthy products near restaurants. That is not fair and we should not promote the continuation of such services without some kind of equitable regulation as much to protect the public as to level the playing field for established businesses. Most of my fellow citizens agree with the point of view I've presented here.