Hot Dog Vendor Feud to Be Settled by Lottery : Regulation: Redondo Beach to allot prime locations, but pushcart operators will pay additional fees and insurance costs.

Redondo Beach hot dog vendors who have been fighting for weeks over prime vending spots along the Esplanade will soon be limited to separate sales territories determined in a city-run lottery.

The City Council decided Tuesday to impose a lottery system on the feuding vendors as part of an emergency ordinance that restricts the vendors’ hours of operation and requires them to purchase $1 million in liability insurance.

The ordinance also imposes a $10 application fee and a $25 permit fee on all pushcart operators. That comes in addition to the $214-a-year business license fee already paid by vendors. The city manager will determine next week which four vending spots will be available to vendors, said Assistant City Manager Ken Simmons.

The council made its decision at the end of a sometimes tense discussion, including comments from a civic activist who opposes allowing any pushcarts on the Esplanade.

“What we have to look at is do we want to turn the Esplanade into the Venice boardwalk,” said activist Larry Cote. “ . . . I just don’t think the Esplanade should be legislated into a ghetto.”

City officials said they adopted the emergency ordinance out of fear that the vendors’ turf wars could escalate into violence during the busy summer months. The emergency measure allows the new restrictions to take effect two weeks earlier than they would have otherwise.

The new guidelines disappointed at least two of the three vendor families who sell hot dogs and sodas along the Esplanade, a 1 1/2-mile pedestrian walkway overlooking the ocean. Both vendors said the new ordinance could seriously hamper their ability to do business in the city.

Longtime pushcart vendor Cathy McDowell, who with her husband John has been battling with newcomers Tony and Vee Colangelo since the spring, said she was disappointed that she will have to take her chances on a lottery for the prized vending spot at Avenue C.

“I feel they should have given some consideration to our being there for five years,” said Cathy McDowell, who operates a pushcart at Avenue C and another at Veterans Park. “But instead they just dismissed us.”

She also complained about the insurance requirement, which she says will cost her nearly $200 a month. And she criticized a cart-size restriction in the ordinance, saying it will force her to buy new pushcarts. Both of her pushcarts are 48 inches wide, but the ordinances says no pushcart can exceed 36 inches in width.

Her rivals, Tony and Vee Colangelo, were not available for comment.

Hot dog vendor Manny Goodinez, who has not been involved in the feuding, said he is not worried about the size limits because his pushcart is less than 36 inches wide. But he said he fears the insurance requirement could put him out of business in Redondo Beach.

“The only thing I can do is accept whatever (city officials) want and if I can’t afford it, then I will leave Redondo,” Goodinez said. “What else can I do?”

Before the council adopted the ordinance, Councilman Joseph Dawidziak, who had proposed banning pushcarts altogether, urged his colleagues to consider raising the cost of the permit to $500. His suggestion was rebuffed.

“We’re dealing with hot dogs here. How much money could you possibly make on hot dogs, or sunglasses or shaved ice?” Councilman Stevan Colin said. “These people aren’t millionaires--they are out there selling hot dogs.”