It’s just before midnight on a Saturday in South End, and the crowd is hungry. The bars may be closing soon, but Timmy Iskandar is just getting started. He’s greeting customers outside his halal cart parked in an empty lot.
“That’s my customer for five years,” Iskandar said, greeting a friendly face in line for food.
One customer wants chicken and lamb, another wants a quesadilla and a third is waiting on falafel. Iskandar has been running his cart since 2018, but it hasn’t always been easy.
“We feed all South End. And I had another [food cart] by Gin Mill. They towed my truck twice. And I’m not gonna give up,” Iskandar said.
A few feet away, Donnie Morrison is taking orders at a folding table with staff grilling hot dogs and Mexican corn in her family’s custom van.
For five years, Tink’s Taste Munchie Box has been as reliable as the weekend crowds on Bland Street. But for the past two years, Morrison says the police have been crashing the party.
“Lately, we have been getting a lot of pushback from law enforcement and just from the parking enforcement about us out here, you know, selling our food and just trying to make ends meet,” Morrison said.
Morrison says she also delivers through DoorDash, and street vending is a major source of income for her family.
But not everyone is happy with the South End vendors. Some nearby business owners, public health officials and law enforcement are pushing the Charlotte City Council to crack down on street vendors, saying the vendors block sidewalks, sell questionable food and merchandise and unfairly compete with brick-and-mortar businesses.
Business owners push for tougher enforcement
Bryan Napoleone is the manager of South End Hideaway, a bar and restaurant further down the block. Over the past four years, he says, foot traffic has decreased, and he blames the vendors parked a few feet from his bar.
“We’re paying the taxes, we’re paying the fees and then we’re losing the sales because we’re allowing this to happen in our city," Napoleone said. "It’s been a problem and it’s just getting worse.”
Napoleone said he’s also called police after witnessing a vendor pour grease down public drains.
In February, the city ended a six-month artisan vending pilot in NoDa, citing negative impacts to the area. Now, the City Council is considering a near-citywide ban on all street vendors, with the possibility of criminal penalties.
At a June 1 public safety committee meeting, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Major Stephen Fischbach said vendors can be fined $500 for blocking sidewalks, but many simply ignore the tickets.
“There are those that are out there that are like, ‘Give me the ticket’ because they know there’s no recourse, and they’re just going to be out there every night,” Fischbach said.
South End’s district representative, Council member Joi Mayo, says criminalization isn’t the answer. Instead, she’d like to see designated vending areas in places such as empty parking lots.
“How do we be proactive, but also just not penalize people?” Mayo said.
Waiting for a permit — and a decision
Both Morrison and Iskandar say they're trying to do the right thing. They say they have county food permits and have applied for vending permits through Charlotte Center City Partners, which manages the city’s uptown vending program.
“They have a wait list, the rules they have surrounding it … it’s kind of impossible to get a permit out here to sell food,” Morrison said.
Iskandar says he also applied, and like Morrison, he’s fed up.
“They told me you will be number 10 in the waiting list, then number five, then number three, then I find it was corruption,” Iskandar said.
Even as the debate plays out in city hall, the late-night crowd eating on Bland Street doesn’t seem to care much. Taha Kafasibuyuk says he often picks up late-night bites from the vendors after a night out.
“I just wanted to find some fries, some pizza, or some greasy things — some chicken or burger, it doesn’t matter. I’m just gonna eat,” Kafasibuyuk said, adding that he doesn't support expelling the vendors.
“Who’s gonna make the food after 12 o’clock?" he said. "Some people want us to go to bed early, but we don’t want that.”
A vote on the ban hasn’t yet been scheduled. City council members have floated the idea of allowing street vendors to remain in South End, but under a new permitting system.
Until the council decides their fate, the grills on Bland Street will stay hot and the party will stay fed.
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