Luncher Calls For Anti-Truck Brick and Mortar Boycott
We here at Midtown Lunch have long recognized the precarious position that gourmet food trucks are. Stuck in a grey area between legal and illegal, most veteran food trucks have chosen to lay low and fly under the radar, rather than stand tall and fight the all powerful rent paying brick and mortar businesses who would love to see them disappear. Well, now that the fight between cops and food trucks has escalated Lunch’er Meghan has said enough is enough:
I work in midtown (52/51st and 7th), and suddenly all of my favorite trucks are being driven off by the NYPD. This used to be one of the best spots for food trucks, and now it is becoming a ghost town. Apparently it just takes one business owner to complain and the cops will force the trucks to leave their spot. Could you maybe do a post on effective ways to fight this?
I would love to participate in a boycott of the brick and mortar restaurants on this block in an effort to get them to stop calling the cops. Alternatively, it would be great to get some sort of legislative support going for this, which would allow food trucks to park without the threat of being forced off. -Meghan H.
I don’t know. Push too hard and you might ruin it for all street vendors. After all, money talks. And in the eyes of the government those who pay rent are always going to win a battle over those who don’t. Then again we wouldn’t mind seeing the people rise up to protect our street food. What do you guys think?
Posted by The ML Team at 8:30 am, June 14th, 2011 under Street Vendor Issues.
46 Comments | RSS comments feed for this post
46 Comments
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Hey look a fancy ‘reply’ button.
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COOL! THANKS!!!
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I’m all for seeking a legislative solution to the situation. It’s the best way to give the food truck owners some certainty about their rights & obligations. Perhaps a letter and town hall meeting with Council Member J. Lappin to get things started?
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Letters to council members are great, but rather than just focusing on one council member, calls and letters to multiple council members will bring their attention to trucks and vendor issues in general. These specific issues are all part of the larger issues ALL vendors in NYC face, and convincing council members that their communities care about the trucks and the carts is key to the success of any legislation (particularly for the ticket reform bills already being signed and awaiting a public hearing).
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So we just need a letter/petition and a website created that will all be dedicated to supporting the cause. Do we have any volunteers?
Guess we need to be clear of exactly what we need first I think.
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Anyone have an inside on the Daily Show? Now THAT would get some attention.
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They could lampoon that UES lady and all her hypocrisy really well.
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How is this for a title: “We Support Mobile Food Vendors being free from harassment by the police and the health department” ?
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*NYC Mobile Food Vendors
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I have no problem with a rule or practice that would limit how close a truck can get to a store, but there’s lots of store-free sidewalk space on 51st and 52nd, yet the trucks have been chased out of the whole area, so clearly the issue is not that they were parking right in front of someone’s business.
Perhaps a better angle is to fight for the support of the landlords, whose biggest tenants by far are the large commercial ones with loads of lunch-buying employees, not the small restaurants. If these landlords realize that the trucks are an amenity highly valued by their tenants, the situation might well be remedied pretty easily.
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Some trucks are just stupid though. I saw one of the cupcake trucks got kicked from their spot…right outside of a cupcake B&M. You are just asking for trouble in a situation like that.
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Is anyone coordinating a legitimate, credible way to get legislative support for this issue?
“I support ALL small businesses, not just the ones that happen to be hip at the moment. The truck fad will certainly fade.”
Right, because $15 salads from Chop’t DEFINITELY aren’t a fad or anything. And what non-truck small business are you referring to, Europa Cafe?
Look, midtown can certainly support food trucks, and is really the one part of town that most needs it during business lunch hours. And I agree with Nordeats that the trucks can actually be helping surrounding businesses, not hurting them. We need a legislative solution to this, and I’m more than willing to boycott any establishment (or halal cart) that calls the cops on food trucks.