Some proponents of the new regulations claim that the space food trucks take up should be regulated and shared amongst bicyclists ie: opening up new bike lanes. Others argue limiting where food trucks can park would better the street parking situation in DC. Additionally, many brick and mortar restaurant owners, who supposedly compete against food trucks for customers, support the proposed changes because they are subjected to more and stricter regulations and laws than food truck owners.
 |
| Save DC Food Trucks! |
Now here is my take: These new regulations, that would
affect the 100+ food trucks in DC, hinder the growth of the DC food truck
industry. I’m neutral on the whole bike
lanes argument. However, I don’t think it’s a strong enough reason to limit
food truck parking in the city. Additionally, in my experience, street parking
becomes a problem more so at night time when commuters are traveling into the
city for dinner and/or happy hours. Opening up parking spaces during lunch time,
when the food trucks make their stops, impacts a much smaller number of
drivers. If the mayor is concerned with transportation and parking in the city,
he should start by improving the DC Metro system. If we had an operational and
more developed metro system there would be fewer drivers in DC struggling to
look for parking (that’s a whole other
can of worms).
When I hear about restaurant owners fighting to pass
these regulations because they think food trucks are stealing away customers…restaurants and food trucks belong to completely different
niches. Yes, they both serve food but patrons go to each for very different
reasons. Food trucks are convenient at lunch time for DC workers who need to
pick up food quickly. Some of us do not have over 30 minutes to walk into a
restaurant, order our food, and take it back to our offices. Also, from my
experience, a lot of DC restaurants are picky where they deliver to; thus
limiting a lot of lunch options and making food trucks a very appealing choice.
Although prices vary widely between trucks, one can easily grab a quick and
tasty lunch for under $10, which is a more difficult feat at a DC restaurant.
Food trucks also almost solely serve during lunch time, so restaurants should
not be affected during dinner hours. In other words, food trucks are not really
taking away business from restaurants. Instead, I view it as friendly competition; both restaurants and food trucks can push each other to come up with fresh, unique eats.
Besides the obvious negative economic implications, these
regulations are impeding the growth of a new food truck phenomenon that has recently
been catching on in DC; many other prominent cities, such as LA, SF, NYC, have
established food trucks for quite some time now. Implementing a lottery-based
parking system for food trucks is a prime example of why DC is stigmatized as
being up-tight, straight-laced, and ridden by politics (and what happens to the trucks that are unlucky and never win the lottery?). People wonder why young,
working Washingtonians are so fascinated and easily enticed by the laid-back, entrepreneurial
culture of LA, SF, NYC…Why must politicians feel the need to regulate
everything?
I understand that their primary concern is not how their city is perceived
or stereotyped but this is precisely why creative start-ups, underground musicians
and artists alike all move to other cities to start their careers/business. Additionally, food trucks bring culinary diversity to the nation's capital. They allow us to easily access new and unique dishes that we otherwise may not be exposed to or ever think about tasting, so why take that away?
We are shooting ourselves in the foot if we pass these regulations. Let
food trucks prosper in DC. Join the movement to save DC food trucks by signing the petition: http://savedcfoodtrucks.org/video/
Thanks for reading and let's hope the council makes the right choice!
#savedcfoodtrucks
0 comments:
Post a Comment