Athmar Park

Illegal Peddlers in Athmar Park

Jul 09, 2005

by Carol e Campbell

APNA has been working with the Dept. of Environmental Health and DPD in an attempt to stop the large number of noisy, unlicensed food peddlers with stolen grocery carts going up and down our neighborhood streets and congregating in our parks and around our schools, selling food. Neighbors report many negative impacts from the peddlers such as blocked sidewalks, trash, people using their yards as a bathroom, the make-you-crazy-noise from the peddlers?’ non-stop ringing of bells and honking of horns. Perhaps more importantly, there are serious health and safety issues also associated with how the food is prepared in home kitchens and then stored at improper temperatures in unsanitary containers. Let?’s not even discuss the audacity of the whole stolen grocery cart issue.

On April 23rd, EH & DPD conducted an enforcement effort at Huston Lake Park. Food prepared by an unlicensed vendor was confiscated and he was given info on the process to get licensed by a bi-lingual police officer. Also, 3 ice cream vendors and a corn vendor were directed to leave the park as no food sales are permitted within 300' of Denver parks unless a vendor is permitted through Parks & Rec. Huston Lake Park has no such permits issued.

As neighborhoods all across Denver are now experiencing what we?’ve been dealing with for over a decade, EH has responded to neighborhood concerns and have shifted their staffing so that EH inspectors will now be working weekends on a rotating basis and making passes through all the city parks to help get the peddler situation under control.

Unfortunately, the April 23rd sting did not help for long, as two weekends later, on Sunday, May 8th, between 5-5:30pm, there were THIRTEEN illegal peddlers seen selling food at Huston Lake Park. See APNA?’s website, www.neighborhoodlink.com/denver/athmar, to view photos of these offenders. We need your help reporting peddlers in our area?—in the parks, at the schools, on the streets, so that EH and DPD will know the most effective time to do another enforcement effort in our neighborhood. Call EH at 720-865-5401 and have as much information as you can when you call?— number of vendors, any identifying info; e.g., license plates, location, time and date. Click a photo! Please don?’t think this will get resolved without your participation! We need many, many neighbors to get involved.