Food Truck Crack-Down Begins?
Less than 24 hours after City Council Members Jessica Lappin and Karen Koslowitz introduced a new bill designed to crack down on food trucks in New York City, we spotted this cop writing up a ticket for the falafel truck that started camping out on the corner of Front and Main Streets in Dumbo a…
Less than 24 hours after City Council Members Jessica Lappin and Karen Koslowitz introduced a new bill designed to crack down on food trucks in New York City, we spotted this cop writing up a ticket for the falafel truck that started camping out on the corner of Front and Main Streets in Dumbo a few weeks ago. Under the new bill, the DOH can revoke the vending permit of any truck that gets three parking tickets within a 12-month period. Lappin told the blog Midtown Lunch: “The piece of it that gets under my skin is the feeding of the meter. These are public streets and nobody has the right to use them exclusively. People were willing to look the other way, until it was being abused. It’s against the law but clearly the penalty [parking tickets] is not severe enough to make people obey the law.” Not surprisingly, food truck vendors are up in arms. “Revoking [a permit] at 3 per year sounds like a Stalinist sabotage of the industry,” said the man behind the popular Wafels & Dinges truck; he says he gets an average of three per month.
Food Trucks Could Face Ban for Too Many Parking Tickets [WSJ]
NYC Council to Introduce First Anti-Food Truck Law [Midtown Lunch]
New Bill Could Be Big Trouble for Food Trucks [Gothamist]
Ishtar – you are NOT allowed to sit at the meter all day. I don’t think NYC does the tire marking thing, but the meter cops do keep tabs on who is meter sitting, and can and will ticket for that. They probably aren’t consistent in the application of the law, but the law is there.
The City’s truck policy in general is screwed. Delivery and trade trucks, which the city needs, just have to factor in $150 a day as the cost of doing business in some neighborhoods. The City should have a permit to allow trucks to park in restricted zones for up to (say) half an hour at a time. Passenger cars in those zones (neighborhoods like Lower Manhattan or certain spots on a block in other neighborhoods) would get double fines for parking in a truck zone. (Yeah, yeah, the city is happy with the cash cow it has – it’s just another form of stealth taxation, which we all pay for.)
As for the food trucks, if they want to be stationary, charge them a franchise fee. Hot dog vendors on the sidewalk pay it (and pay dearly for it), why shouldn’t a waffle truck two feet away?
What MM said. Also, a study like Boerumresident said. This overreaction by these two is not well thought out, like most things that come out of our various gowvernmental bodies.
How do you know that the cop in the picture is not just getting a donut?
I’m confused.
Are people saying that in NYC you can stay at a meter as long as you want provided you feed the meter on time? If so, I’ve never heard of such a thing. In other cities, your tires are marked and if you do not MOVE your car when the maximum time limit is reached you will get a ticket (fed meter or not). The reason I was told for marking the tires, is to ensure other people have an opportunity to park and patronize businesses. If this is not the case in NYC, this whole “turn over argument” might be moot.
In my experience there are a surprising number of people who do drive even in congested areas.
Anyway, it seems there should be a good study of exactly how these vendors should be analzyed — in one way they provide a social benefit derived from the very mobility, but on the other hand they do take up spaces for long periods of the day, and these are spaces that are by their nature designed to have relatively fast turnover. (You don’t really see food trucks on side streets that permit parking all day.)
What would be smarter is for the city to designate certain spots along the street as vendor zones, and charge a fair amount, such as what they would be paying to feed the meter anyway, with perhaps a SMALL surcharge, and let legit vendor trucks continue to do business.
Like anyone else with a business, a vendor truck depends on a following, which depends on them being in the same general area every day. The city demands licenses for these businesses, demands certain health standards in their upkeep and food storage, preparation, etc, motor vehicles has their standards, sanititation, and on and on. It’s a wonder you can get a cheap falafel after all of that. Not everyone can afford, or even wants a bricks and morter restaurant. These are great alternatives for them, and for the consumer. Why kill it?
During daylight hours, you’re allowed to “stand” in front of a fire hydrant… as long as you’re behind the wheel.
“Between sunrise and sunset, a passenger vehicle may stand alongside a fire hydrant as long as a driver remains behind the wheel and is ready to move the vehicle if required to do so.”
Seems like paying some 16 year old kid (at least in the summer months) like $8/hour to sit behind the wheel playing on his PS2 or talking on the phone would be worth it…
They should just raise the fee for their licenses and then allow them a certain spot during the day.
Very simple.
Why these two moronic jackasses have to complicate things is beyond me.
Maybe they should take away people’s drivers licenses if they rack up more than three parking tickets.
These two need to get laid.
From what I understand, the food trucks do pay a licensing fee to the city as well.
It would be the selective enforcement of the law which is troubling. As DIBS said, UPS, FedEx, etc. have an agreement with the city to pay a certain amount to the city and chalk the tickets up to their cost of doing business. There are plenty of people all over the city that use metered parking while they work and run out every couple hours to feed the meter.
The trucks are really doing nothing different but would be singled out under the new law. While I would still hate it, the only fair approach if it passed would be to have it applicable across the board not just to food trucks.