Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Ice Cream And Paleta Peddler Gets License To Work In Milwaukee's South Side Chavez Drive

Ronald Scott
Paleta Vendor

Photo by HNG

More than 30 El Chavo push cart paleta peddlers failed to report for work due to lack of valid licenses, and health department requires them to have a license to sell. Police began to crack down on unlicense vendors.

By H. Nelson Goodson
July 13, 2010

Milwaukee - On Monday, the Health Department and police began cracking down on peddlers and vendors selling without a license in Milwaukee's South side. One company, El Chavo that sells Mexican flavor ice cream and popsicles (paletas, ice pop treats) were left with four ice cream push cart peddlers. More than 30 carts remained unused at about 8:30 a.m., because workers didn't report to get a cart assigned to them for lack of valid peddler licenses on Tuesday.
As of this week, all peddlers and food vendors are required to have a valid peddlers license from the City Health Department. Unlicense peddlers are cited and fined $500 for not having one.
Police began to inspect peddler licenses in the South side along with health inspectors. On early Monday, Ronald Scott, 38, who works independently for commission at El Chavo Paletas, 730 W. Historic Mitchell Street went to City Hall and applied at the Milwaukee Health Department for the license. He was walking along W. Cesar E. Chavez Drive with his cart and smiling on Tuesday afternoon.
Scott paid $68.00 for the permit and had to register his finger prints with the health department and a background check was also required in order to receive a permit. "I don't want to get stop by the police and health department, that's why I got the license and I just wanted to continue working for a living," Scott said with a big grin.
At El Chavo, a majority of push cart peddlers are Latinos and Scott is one of the few African-Americans at the company who is not deterred from working by selling paletas. Scott is very candid about his current career and proud of accomplishing one of his goals by working during the recession.
There are numerous other Mexican style ice cream and popsicle push cart peddlers and food vendors in the predominately Hispanic neighborhood.
On June 6, the Milwaukee Health Department cracked down on food, cheese and ice cream peddlers without licenses. The health inspector shut down 8 vendors for health violations, unclean carts, improper temperature, preparation kitchens to clean up carts not certified, and other violations.
Most of the corn, and food vendors working outside at both El Rey Grocery Stores on S. Cesar E. Chavez Drive were shut down and were no longer selling food at Chavez Drive until the next day.    
The South side is one of the largest tax generating districts for the City of Milwaukee.
City officials cited, "the Near South Side consistently showed signs of robust investment, business, and property value growth Between 2002 and 2006, sales price per building square foot increased each year and rose from $39 per square foot to $61 per square foot. The annual value of al construction investments increased from $37.8 million to $124.1 million and averaged $56.3 million. The value of land per square foot for residential, commercial mixed, and industrial use increased and exceeded that for the City of Milwaukee as a whole," according to the City of Milwaukee market study.
A city economic study reported that the south side households in the predominately Latino community located inside Postal Zip Code 53204 in Milwaukee spend more than $91 million annually in retail goods, according to the 2006 Department of City Development statistics. In one day, they spent approximately $249,315.06. The biggest tax-generating base for the city comes solely from the south side.
In Milwaukee, over 850 Hispanic owned businesses generate more than $225 million in annual sales. It is abundantly clear that the immigration of Hispanics and undocumented immigrants to Southeastern Wisconsin is tied to a large degree to the available resources that Hispanics have in the area.
In Wisconsin, over 3,000 Hispanic owned businesses generate more than $800 million in annual sales creation of jobs and available employment resulting in population growth as well as business growth. The Hispanic population increased by more than 4%, greater than the national Hispanic growth rate, and more than 271,000 Hispanics lived in Wisconsin in 2007. The population of Hispanics has grown by 40% since 2000 according to the U.S. Census report.
An update, the Chavez Dr. improvement project is almost completed. Construction workers are now working on the West side of the drive and should be completed by the end of August.
At least 20,000 vehicles drive through Chavez Dr. a day and more than 147,000 per week. This has been the first season for major construction or business improvement streetscape in decades (more than 35 years) for Chavez Dr. formerly known as S. 16th St. The project was initiated by the City of Milwaukee and Chavez Dr. business district board members.
The South side project is part of the $1.968 million dollar improvement plan for the Cesar E. Chavez Business Improvement District (BID) #38 Streetscape Project. This is an American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) Project.
Engineers from Community Engineering & Building Services, LLC are managing and supervising the project.

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