Council hearing exposes tensions over street vending implementation, proposed recriminalization and enforcement in Columbia Heights

Chair Brianne Nadeau convened the Committee on Public Works and Operations’ June 9 budget oversight hearing on the Department of Licensing and Consumer Protection (DLCP) to examine FY 2026 funding and agency implementation of recent laws. Much of the public testimony and subsequent questioning focused on implementation of the Street Vendor Advancement Amendment Act of 2023 in the Columbia Heights–Mount Pleasant vending zone.

Advocates and neighborhood officials described a failure of DLCP to carry out the law’s site-management responsibilities and urged the committee to remove language in the mayor’s proposed Budget Support Act (BSA) that would recriminalize unlicensed vending and raise fines. Janneke Mictin, an organizer who works with street vendors, said inspectors have repeatedly shown up without translators and that “DLCP clocks more hours on the street harassing street vendors than in their office actually trying to give vendors their licenses.” Jeremy Sherman, an ANC 1A commissioner, told the committee that sidewalks at Fourteenth and Irving are “overcrowded” and that licensing and management changes promised after the 2023 law have produced “little to no changes in Columbia Heights.”

Legal and vendor advocates asked the council to preserve the 2023 law’s decriminalization. Jeff Gilbert of Beloved Community Incubator said the mayor’s…