Vendors venting on both sides of chain-link fence
New barrier escalates feud between L.A. swap meet owner and street peddlers.
An ongoing feud between street vendors and the owner of the Los Angeles City College Swap Meet escalated last week when vendors arrived to set up shop and found chain-link fencing blocking their usual spots.
Posted signs in English and Spanish cited city codes and warned that sidewalk sales are prohibited, but they were clearly not from the city.
The chain-link fencing is the latest incident in a battle between the new owner of the swap meet and vendors who set up shop along the street outside.
Vendors have accused the owner, Phillip Dane, of harassing them, trying to remove them from critical locations established during the COVID-19 pandemic and even turning on sprinklers to keep them away.
“They blocked everything,” one vendor, Sandra Escalante, told L.A. Taco, which first reported on the new fence.
Dane argues that street vendors are undercutting those who set up booths inside the swap meet and are avoiding paying rental fees. He said they also stretch resources meant for the swap meet, such as restrooms and security personnel.
Elena Stern, a spokesperson for the city’s Department of Public Works, said the agency became aware of the fence Wednesday. She said department investigators told the “responsible individual” to remove the fence, which had not been permitted.
“The fencing is down, but our investigators will continue to follow up to ensure they remain down,” Stern said. Fines could be levied if there are “repeat violations,” she added.
Dane declined to answer questions about who may have put up the fence but said he welcomed the attempt to curb what he called “illegal street vending.”
“I’m not going to discuss the fence, how it got up or who put it up,” Dane said in an interview with The Times. “But if you find out who put up the fence, let me know, and I’ll write them a thank-you note.”
Dane bought the ailing L.A. City College Swap Meet in 2021, after the pandemic forced the previous owner to sell.
The swap meet has been a steady source of income for vendors and a staple for cheap goods for the community for more than two decades. Over the years, the meet has forwarded a portion of its proceeds to the
Los Angeles City College Foundation.
Some regular vendors set up shop on the street when the pandemic forced the swap meet to close, and many have continued to sell their goods there, luring visitors just outside the gates.
Since taking over, Dane has faced accusations of trying to “gentrify” the swap meet, harassing and spraying water on street vendors and trying to remove people whose income relies on the foot traffic in and out of the meet, he said.
Dane denied harassing vendors and said the sprinkler allegations are false; he said street vendors removed them before he took over.
But he said the street peddlers continue to be an issue for the swap meet, undercutting its vendors’ prices and taking up resources meant for those who pay rental fees.
“They are all vendors; the difference is the guys inside that are trying to feed their families are contending with the guys outside,” he said. “It’s literally street vendors hurting street vendors, and I’m the guy in the middle.”
To address the issue, he offered some of the street vendors a spot inside the swap meet for one weekend, waiving the fees of $70 for Saturday and $75 for Sunday, but only a handful took him up on the offer, he said.
He said 90% of the swap meet’s vendors are the same ones who were there before he took over.
“My commitment was to keep it the way it was,” he said.
Dane said he has reached out to the street vendors and to the office of Councilmember Mitch O’Farrell (now acting president) to find a resolution, pointing out that a city ordinance prevents street vendors in the area, but he has not received help.
O’Farrell’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
Dane said he has had to use security personnel to settle disputes with vendors outside the swap meet and his own crews to clean up the area.
“They leave their trash; they’ve left cases of beer they’re trying to sell on school property,” he said. “There’s nothing OK about this. If they want to paint me as a bad guy, I can’t stop you from doing that.”
Still, he repeatedly declined to say whether he was responsible for the fence that went up this week.
“I’m not allowed to talk about the fence,” he said, without elaborating. “I’m not opposed to having a fence going up if it gets the job done, but it’s ugly.”
Stern, with the Department of Public Works, said she could not identify the person who had installed the fence because of the ongoing investigation.