Public health, not race

We already have used this page to call on City Hall to rethinkits approach to dealing with potential health problems from streetfood carts. But there is no evidence that the city's plan isracially motivated, as a Mexican-American street vendor organizationalleges.

The city's concerns in this issue has nothing to do with raceand everything to do with public health.

The city proposes to seize carts and impose fines when food issold under what it considers unsanitary conditions. The vendors havea right to demand the city find a way to regulate the carts andpreserve the industry as a cultural icon in Hispanic neighborhoods.But the vendors' recent City Hall protest, which featured criesof racism and placards reading "Irish Daley: No Mexicans Apply,"accomplishes nothing. Chicago has serious racial problems, asevidenced by recent hate crimes. But to inject race into the foodvendor issue smacks of race-baiting.