Los Angeles was the last of the 10 largest American cities to decriminalize vending in February of 2017. There are, however, still many questions to resolve—finer points of vending, such as how much control neighborhoods will have over local vendors, the cost of permits, and staff to enforce them, among other concerns, have still not been determined.

The city's previous attempts at regulating street vending have failed due to not just business interests or safety, but also anti-immigrant sentiment. Another issue that was often raised by some council members in the 90's was the potential of alienating brick-and-mortar business owners, who unlike vendors, have to pay rent. The zoning regulations that followed those concerns attempted restricting vending to a single district—like MacArthur Park, which ultimately failed the program due to inefficiency.
The hope is those examples from Los Angeles' history will help shape a successful street vending policy that in the future might guide other cities in the integration of informal street activity into a beneficiary urbanism policy.

“We’re hoping that these vendors that have been asking to come out of the shadows, to pay taxes, to get a permit, will do so, that will create a system that isn’t overly complex, that’s easy for people (especially if English is their second language) to understand and apply for the permit,”—says Dennis Gleason, one of the council members who led the push for decriminalization in February.