As summer wanes we are reminded that many people have had their busiest time for earning income. Many people work two jobs, one paid and in the wage economy, but another where they work for themselves and they work hard in small scale street businesses catering to tourists and vacationers, or at periodic public markets selling items they create themselves or which they purchase at auction or by other means.

These self-employed entrepreneurs are often seasonal, as illustrated by this NYT story about people selling refreshments on the beach.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/01/nyregion/01hustle.html?emc=tnt&tntemail0=y

Notice the hard work and longevity involved. Certainly not all merchants are so long-lived. It is the case the these jobs are demanding and not always welcome. But some merchants only vend to tide them through a tough time or to fulfill a particular economic desire or need.

In these tough economic times we should expect even more of this honest hustle, in the face of often dishonest business dealings which leave so many with dire economic problems.

Recently the ACLU announced the settlement of a dispute involving day laborers in the Orange County, California community of Lake Forest. That community had attempted, with the assistance of county law enforcement, to drastically to limit the ability of day laborers to solicit work on public sidewalks. Day laborers there are right to be encouraged by the settlement of their lawsuit, but celebration may be premature. While the settlement affirms laborer’s 1st Amendment right to solicit work from sidewalks, it also leaves county defendants with full authority to enforce laws regulating conduct, including those prohibiting jaywalking, double parking, and littering.

It remains to be seen whether Lake Forest will attempt to find another way to exclude day laborers, such as by simply lengthening the list of laws “regulating conduct.” This has been a favorite tactic of other U.S. communities who are hostile to street side solicitation by day workers. The City of Orange earlier this year made it illegal to solicit for work from sidewalks next to streets without parking lanes, medians or driveways on a public right of way. Marietta, Georgia, an Atlanta suburb, put the squeeze on day labor employers, changing the traffic rules to prohibit stopping a vehicle where day laborers congregate. These tactics are of questionable legality. They are certainly bad policy.

My Markets and Food Systems class traveled to Milwaukee WI from Madison for this conference over the weekend of September 19-21. You can learn about it here:

https://www.growingfoodandjustice.org/Home_Page.html

The conference was useful in learning about the variety of ways farmer's markets are organized around the country.

One purpose of this webpage is to provide examples of market organization - feel free to post what you learn in your particular place. We will post examples of market organization from time to time.

About 3 weeks ago I blogged about a Taco Truck Triumph, where an LA county ordinance imposing prohibitions on taco truck operations was held to be invalid. http://www.openair.org/node/439. Not content to let justice prevail, the County made a motion for reconsideration. In support of its motion, the County submitted declarations from sheriff deputies purporting to justify the prohibitions on taco trucks. It was not clear that the declarations would even be considered by the court. The ordinance had been invalidated on a demurrer. Demurrers are generally based only on legal pleadings and the laws themselves. Generally they do not involve consideration of declarations, affidavits, or other evidence.

Today hearing was heard on the County's motion for reconsideration. Attorney for the taco truck operators, Phillip Greenwald, moved to strike the deputies' declarations, citing well-settled authority that evidence is not to be considered on a demurrer. While the court acknowledged this general practice, it decided to deny the motion to strike and admit the deputies' declarations.