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Operation: Leave Our Food Trucks Alone
Posted: 1:33 pm, June 23rd, 2011 in Midtown Eating
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15 Comments
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YES WE CAN!
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Gonna have to get the Mayor's office involved.
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So we can't riot?
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I was told to contact the office of Public Advocate. http://pubadvocate.nyc.gov/contact-us
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I'm gonna take a dump every day at 11am in every steam tray in every generic deli in the city. PROTEST!
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WE'RE NOT GONNA PROTEST!
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Protesting is gonna do jack. Someone's gotta get some City Councilman/Rep to push something thru the legislature.
The exact law the brick and mortars are calling the cops to enforce is a parking regulation that prohibits vending/selling merchandise from a metered parking spot. (NYC Rules, Title 6, Rule 2-304,Restrictions on Vendor Vehicle Location.) The Court already ruled to enforce it in the Paty's Taco case and appealing it will likely be a waste of time.
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Everybody should bring food from home to protest. And I heard you could save money that way...
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If that's the case, wouldn't it be more convenient for the city to offer some kind of slips to them that would outline some kind of guidelines for parking when they are opening up their business? I mean, even if they were stationed around parks along with adequate trash receptacles, would that work?
They can offer a certain amount p/borough possibly?
I do prefer the possibility of getting an area in which they can all be in. Longer hours would = more money and more opportunity to build a clientele.
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get a big barge and float them in the East River?
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Put the guy with the cash on the sidewalk to take the orders, take a voucher to exchange for your food at the truck?
Something definitely has to get organized over this. It's such a shame to see these guys get muscled out.
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This is a tough battle. Legitimate companies, providing valuable services, like Fedex and UPS get no love from the city and each pays tens of millions of dollars in parking fines every year. The police only enforce the laws.
Food trucks have generally benefited from the police turning a blind eye to the fact that they were parked illegally for much of the day. Asking for or expecting this favorable treatment from the police, while hopeful, is not a great strategy.
They could petition for designated food truck spaces authorized by the city - maybe in Times Square where they closed off some streets to traffic?. Or they could make the case to park in front of designated fire hydrants for business - thereby eliminating the arguement that they are taking up valueable scarce metered parking space. Think about it, the danger/risk is minimal as the truck is always manned and could vacate the spot in a matter of a few minutes if the FDNY needs access.
If the city does not try to accomodate the trucks...the trucks will need to get creative.
They could disconnect the food delivery mechanism from the actual truck. Basically, park the truck at an out of the way 'friendly' location and set up a delivery mechanism where you can order online, by phone, or through a person stationed somewhere with a cell phone and your food is brought to you. Delivery is a huge piece of many brick & morter delis/restaurants so there is no reason that it couldn't work with trucks if the product is good.
Or perhaps several trucks could get together and find a private piece of property from which to sell. I see paved empty lots at the SW corner 53rd and Lex and the space behind the Intercontinental Hotel between 48th and 49th near Park Ave. If several trucks got together and created a food truck bazaar it would be awesome. Studies show that clumping similar retail stores near each other increase overall local traffic for the product exponentially. The owners of the property would also benefit from a healthy rent revenue - e.g., figure 8 trucks at $100/day (less than a single parking ticket) yield over $200,000 in revenue/year.
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park in front of fire hydrants because there is always someone in the truck?? really?
what happens when the truck doesn't start and they can't move it?
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With the news of The Treats Truck having to abandon their spots in Midtown, I think it's time that we do something about it. There's gotta be people we can call and send letters/emails out to. There are other sites that can come together and make things happens so I know that we can too.
Does anyone know what exact law that the police are using to usher out the trucks out of Midtown? Do we know who are the ones making the complaints & what are the complaints being made? What can we request to be done to counter it?
It would be naive to think that something will happen immediately, but if we can start making complaints to our representatives then it's a step in the right direction. I mean, it's one thing to say something needs to be done, but it's another to DO it.