Mayor Bloomberg Comes Out on Both Sides of the Food Truck Issue
I have to admit, when Mayor Bloomberg’s office submitted a letter in opposition to Council Member Jessica Lappin’s proposed anti-food truck law, I was pretty surprised. There is no question that food trucks are hated by the rent paying business owners in New York City, and if there is one thing you can always count on with Bloomberg- it’s siding with the rent paying business owners. Well, it turns out the Mayor’s support was in fact too good to be true. On Friday morning Bloomberg spoke out against food trucks on his radio show:
“The Health Department does not have the staff to go and do it the way [Lappin] wants, but we’re trying to find another way to accomplish it because she is right… Moving stores into the streets is not what the streets were designed for, and that’s exactly what we’re doing. We are moving stores into the streets and they sit there and they park and they take up parking places and they block traffic.”
Really? But that’s not what you said on Wednesday!
The letter the Mayor’s office sent to the City Council hearing on Wednesday stated that we need to “balance the need for a congestion and pollution free environment with the need for small business owners and their employees to earn a living.” So which one is it? Do we need balance… or is there no place for “stores on the streets”?
And if that’s not enough to make you sick of stupid politician backtracks… you can watch this video of Mayor Mike appearing on MSNBC last year calling the Calexico cart fantastic (in a segment meant to pit him against the Mayor of Portland in an argument over whose street food is better.)
Related:
Liveblogging: City Council Anti-Food Truck Hearing
Anti-Food Truck Council Member Lappin Says It’s Ok to Break Parking Laws if Nobody Complains
Anti Street Vending Law Officially Introduced; Opposition Growing Louder
Posted by Zach Brooks at 9:30 am, June 21st, 2010 under Street Vendor Issues.
22 Comments | RSS comments feed for this post
He’s a two faced duplicitous wanker