Meet the youth shining the light on an underreported area of Los Angeles

From left: Samantha Soto, Noemí Pedraza, work on Radio Pulso, Boyle Heights Beat’s podcast, earlier this year before the coronavirus pandemic. (Courtesy of Kris Kelley)

Noemí Pedraza was a high school junior when her father, Rodrigo, heard the Los Angeles City Council was considering an ordinance for street vendors to work under a new permit system. He suggested she write about it. Pedraza pitched it to Boyle Heights Beat, a bilingual community news publication produced by youth and focused on the Los Angeles neighborhood of Boyle Heights. It took her a while, but after some research, Pedraza was able to find Caridad Vázquez, a longtime vendor who sells tacos and pozole — a traditional Mexican stew — on a street corner. Vázquez, in an interview with Pedraza, said she was thankful for the forthcoming legislation. “We will be able to work legally and people will see that we, too, contribute money to the city,” the vendor told the reporter. That was nearly two years ago. The story titled “Los Angeles City Council agrees to legalize street vending” was Pedraza’s first byline for Boyle Heights Beat, sometimes referred to as the Beat. “Being able to have that as my […]

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