Terrible Restrictions on Food Trucks Are Still a Thing | Hacker News Reader

Terrible Restrictions on Food Trucks Are Still a Thing

reason.com

23 pointsmhb9 comments

I'm still curious what all the 'red tape' is.

> Just to operate around metro Atlanta today, [gyro truck owner Ali] Moradi has to have seven county permits and 13 city business licenses

He needs a food permit for every county he goes to? He needs a business license to operate in the cities he wants to operate in? Yeah same as everyone else. The difference is that his food truck can move easily, but metro Atlanta is an 8000 square mile area. We're talking about an extended metropolitan area with multiple jurisdictions.

I want the food permit scheme because food safety regulations are critical to me mostly being able to just go somewhere and not worry too much about getting sick from it. The Daily Harvest debacle terrifies me that it'll start happening in places and things that aren't fad influencer driven junk.

As long as the food truck isn't disrupting others, its fine. They should have to pay if they're going to use public space for profit, however. Why should they be able to use the street to set up a for-profit business on, then use the sidewalks as free standing space? If they're renting out some giant parking lot from a local business that's different, but whining about not being able to profit from taking up public land is laughable.

Beyond that, Reason cherry-picked two or three locales besides Atlanta to try to push their point.

Isn't the current food truck trend mainly a mitigation of terrible restaurant and real estate regulations? It's not surprising that the same power structures that crushed those two original markets would continue on crushing.

I know nothing about “terrible” restaurant regulations, but in my experience after seeing behind the order counter of some restaurants… I think most of them need to be shut down for being incredibly disgusting

I'm not arguing against all regulations. There are certainly many that aim to keep food cleaner, and can be done efficiently. But there is also a lot of red tape and permitting processes that add large costs to new restaurants and keep them from opening.

Is there a specific (potentially country-specific) background to this?

For me as a (pre-2020) office worker, food trucks setting up near my old office seemed like a win-win-win:

* the food truck operators make profit

* the students and employees around the area had more variety in food available

* I reckon the employees took shorter lunch breaks because they didn't have to travel further for the same variety/quality of food

(I'm not even sure if the food trucks were charged rent, or encouraged to show up by the local business/college. I would describe the space they used as 'semi-public', think 'the middle of a plaza between 5 buildings')

The ones you describe could have been fixed structures instead, say first floor commercial of taller office buildings. There just needs to be a desire to create mixed use walkable areas, rather than the tendency towards single use sprawl (eg the concept of an "office park").

I do see some advantage if a single truck can serve offices for weekday lunch, public parks for evenings, and special events when they exist. And not having to commit one's startup capital to a single fixed location. Such food trucks have always existed. It just feels like food trucks really became a popular trend in response to the lack of good restaurant options.

For instance in the OP, they're talking about food trucks at a beach. Those could also be fixed stands, who would then supply appropriate number of trash cans, garbage removal, etc. Instead those details have punted to the public commons, in a not particularly sustainable way. It's not particularly imaginative of city officials to prohibit them rather than making them fund appropriate trash cans etc, but it is a predictable result of reactionary politics.

> And not having to commit one's startup capital to a single fixed location.

Ultimately I suspect it's about the renter-rentee relationship. Property owners and existing fixed businesses aren't very keen on mobile competition that doesn't have to pay continuous ground rent.

No. Food trucks are a lower-capital investment, which is the primary driver. They predated all the restaurant and real estate regulations you're commenting on, in the US predating such things as "liability for the meat you sold me making me sick"

well the city has to make money somehow. normally businesses pay taxes and fees to operate. 3600 dollars a year to operate in 13 cities doesn’t sound bad all.

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