Vendors turn streets into places that people want to be just by being there. Cities should protect them. | Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

Vendors not only activate public space?they do so in places chronically ignored by city planners There are two ways I can walk home from the subway station in my neighborhood. At night, when I?m by myself, the choice is obvious. One route is almost entirely dark, with blank storefronts and empty sidewalks. The other is strung with lights, heavy with foot traffic, and scented with grilling onions.
While I was walking home the other evening, waving hi to my neighbors pressing pupusas into doughy discs on folding tables outside a church, I realized one of the most underappreciated contributions of street vendors to our cities. In places where city leaders have made very little effort to improve the experience for those walking, biking, or riding transit, it?s the people selling goods or serving food in those same spaces who make streets vibrant, welcoming, and safe for all. During the day, it?s easy to see how a cluster of carts topped with rainbow umbrellas or blankets layered with meticulously organized wares enlivens a plaza. But it?s only after the sun goes down that you can see how vendors fill a much-needed void in our cities. Vendors not only activate public space, they do so in the very places that have been willfully ignored by city planners in many neighborhoods?transit stops in disrepair, neglected storefr...