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]
The Government can suck more tax money out of food establishments with fixed real estate locations, that is all that matters. Plus, restaurants contribute more money to political campaigns and they view the food trucks as unfair competition. This is pay back to campaign contributors to keep out competition.
The City has no sense of creativity or appreciation for the struggling entrepreneur. It’s idea of local color are those street fairs selling tube socks and Italian sausages.
One of the reasons to have parking meters is to create turn over – you park for an hour, do your errands and move on so someone can do the same after you. Feeding the meter makes it harder for people to shop, because it makes it harder to find parking – that’s bad for business. (Of course the worst meter feeders are store owners, who love to get that parking space out front and feed the meter all day.)
Do food trucks pay a special fee to the city for the right to sell on City streets? Do they get a “franchise” for a particular location, like sidewalk vendors do?
dibs – One’s from Dist. 5 in Manhattan & the other is from Queens. I’ve just emailed both of them asking them to stop their campaign.
DIBS, it isn’t a revenue source, since someone else would park there instead.
I think the councilwomen are going about this issue all wrong, but I too question the use of parking spaces for retail, not to mention the competitive imbalance with brick-and-mortar restaurants. I mean, if have a produce stand, can you stack fruits and vegetables in the street as long as you keep feeding the meter?
Since you asked, Lappin was elected from the Upper East Side and Roosevelt Island and Koslowitz represents Forest Hills, Rego Park and Kew Gardens (and vicinity).
They obviously don’t eat lunch from a truck…
Also, Arkady, you’re talking crazy. You want consistent enforcement of the law?! Crazy talk.
Arkady, those outfits have an agreement with the city to pay $XXXXX to cover all the tickets written.
The issue here is that these guys stay in one spot for a few hours and apparently it is illegal to stay more than the allotted time on the meter.
Who cares who parks in that spot. These guys do pay a lot of money in meter fees and tickets. It’s a revenue source.
And the people of NYC will be outraged if their favorite truck loses its license over bullshit like this.
Where are these two jackass councilwomen from?????
But if they do that, shouldn’t it apply the same way to UPS, Fresh Direct, US Mail, etc.? Seems really stupid to me.
CH Renter
Pretty sure that street sign is the other street – perpendicular to where the truck is parked.
In the picture, the falafel truck is parked in a “No Standing Zone”. Pretty damning as far as I’m concerned.