2010-856- Transient Vendors in Jacksonville

[danno]

In Chicago.  You cant unwrap or alter food once it is placed on a truck.

from http://reason.com/blog/2010/12/13/chicago-cupcake-crackdown

In today's WSJ, a tale of back alley cupcake sales in the Windy City: Slammed with a $275 dollar ticket for selling cupcakes out of a van, one food entrepreneur is on the lam.

Ms. Kurtz, a 41-year-old entrepreneur who quit her corporate marketing job recently to launch Flirty Cupcakes, told her fans to meet her in the alley. "It was like a drug deal," she says. "I said, 'Just take them and run."'

Unlike other cities, where chefs are free to actually cook inside their trucks, Chicago chefs can't unwrap or alter the food in any way once it's on a truck. And food trucks aren't allowed to park within 200 feet of a restaurant. Such roadblocks have kept all but a few chefs from taking to the streetsâ€"even as the food trucks fight to change the rules.

Take note of the sentence in bold. In many cities where food trucks and flourishingâ€"including Washington, D.C.â€" restauranters are siding against the mobile vendors, and using law enforcement to eliminate the competition:

The City Council is currently considering some changes in food-truck laws. Brick-and-mortar restaurants are fighting the mobile insurgency, chasing trucks from their street fronts, calling police and snapping photos of the vendors in hopes of catching them illegally parked.

Holly Sjo, owner of The Cupcake Counter, a year-old downtown shop, called the cops when she spotted Ms. Kurtz parked near her business in a spot she believed to be illegal.

"She seems to only park next to other people's cupcake shops," Ms. Sjo says.

Ms. Kurtz denies the accusation. "I would never want to do that to another cupcake business," she says.

Food truck operator Matt Maroni has the right idea:

"Just step up your game," he says. "McDonald's doesn't ask Burger King if they can open up across the street."

[Ocklawaha]

Chicago cupcakes arrests? Please don't give these idiots ideas!

QUESTION: If we had a Jacksonville Shipyards retail/hotel complex with a waterfront pier and market wouldn't it be illegal to buy crabs off the boats? This is pure tori merdae!

Time to do a photo essay with these guys with interviews maybe?

OCKLAWAHA

[Noone]

Today at the St. Johns River Alliance meeting there is discussion of a Paddling Trail of the St. Johns River Blueway. I took the opportunity to make the other 12 counties aware of 2010-856 and the transient ban and asked if other counties have a ban if a transient kayak trailer showed up. The Duval county representative made the members aware of Duval counties pending legislation.

After the meeting other county members were shaking there heads.

Lisa Rinaman showed up after the presentation and I told her that I mentioned 2010-856. She asked me if I spoke with councilman Webb and Redman. On the way back from Palatka I called and left a message for both Webb and Redman. I'll let everyone know if I get a response back. Be concerned.


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3 years later. An item on the agenda for the 11/13/13 Jacksonville Waterways Commission meeting was number III Blue Way Designation Request of St. Johns River Alliance. Terra Meeks, Chief of Waterfront Management Programming.

I'll post more later but it just reinforces the total crushing of the Public Trust in Jacksonville. Paul Astleford the new guy with Visit Jacksonville is a super hero. The new guy with DIA Aundra Wallace (None of this can be pinned on you) Councilwoman Lori Boyer District 5 is just AWESOME! Duval county should be in total absolute shock. RICO guys, snap out of it.

You've got to love it when the CRA consultants use a Public comment period to tell the DIA Board members to tighten up because people go to jail. I believe this was before Aundra Wallace.

2013-384- Councilwoman Daniels are you going to attach an amendment now?

Of coarse this is all positive.

[fieldafm]

More on Chicago's battle

http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/2828400-418/trucks-restaurants-mobile-restaurant-field.html

Restaurants choke on food trucks proposal

Chicago restaurant owners are mobilizing to block City Hall from creating an “unlevel playing field” for their brick-and-mortar businesses â€" by legalizing mobile food trucks with cooking on the premises.

Five months after Ald. Scott Waguespack (32nd) championed the idea, restaurant owners are trying to bury it.

“We spent almost $9 million on two restaurants. It’s unfair to people who invested so much to allow someone who has a minimal investment in a truck . . . to pull up 200 feet from our door,” said Glenn Keefer, managing partner of Keefer’s Restaurant.

“They can barely get enough people out to inspect brick-and-mortar places. I don’t understand how they’ll be able to supervise and enforce sanitation on these trucks and where they trade.”

Dan Rosenthal, owner of Trattoria No. 10 and Sopraffina Marketcaffe Restaurants, argued that Waguespack’s ordinance creates an “unlevel playing field” for brick-and-mortar restaurants.

“The reason I’ve located where I have is there’s a very dense population close to my locations. Why should somebody be allowed to take advantage of that for less than one-tenth of the expense?” he said.

“Every dollar I lose in sales to a food truck down the street costs me 50-cents in profit. It doesn’t take a lot of decline in sales for restaurants to go out of business, particularly in this economy.”

Rosenthal further argued that legalizing mobile food trucks will not create the “warm, fuzzy, boutique-type of food service” that proponents envision.

“People think you’ll get all these hot, young chefs who don’t have access to capital creating all these great, exotic dishes. But, there’s nothing preventing Corner Bakery from doing food trucks,” he said.

“People had better be careful what they wish for. They could end up with food trucks serving standard fare, rather than unique street food.”

Matt Maroni is the chef and owner of Gaztro-Wagon, a mobile food truck and storefront that specializes in modern street fare. He helped write the ordinance that Waguespack introduced in July.

Maroni was not moved by the argument about an unlevel playing field for restaurants.

“It’s a capitalist society. If they’re worried about competition, maybe they need to look at their concept,” he said.

“It opens a street-food culture to the city. Chicago is such a great food town. This just adds to it.”

Mobile food trucks are currently permitted in Chicago, but they can only sell pre-packaged foods.

Waguespack’s ordinance would legalize cooking on the premises and establish strict operating conditions to ensure sanitation and avoid unfair competition with stationary restaurants.

Mobile food trucks would be required to have at least three sinks, but prohibited from having tables or benches.

They would have to follow designated routes so the city would know where they are to conduct random inspections. They would have to be located at least 200 feet away from a restaurant and 100 feet from any retail store that sells food.

The annual license would range from $660 to $1,100, depending on the size of the truck.

Despite the opposition, Waguespack said he’s hoping to get a City Council hearing on the ordinance sometime next month.

“We have some of the biggest chefs chomping at the bit to open a food truck. They see it as beneficial to their business. Other restaurants don’t see it as a good thing. It boils down to what you want to do,” Maroni said.

[thelakelander]

“It’s a capitalist society. If they’re worried about competition, maybe they need to look at their concept,” he said.

+1

[fieldafm]

Exactly.
It's already not the easiest thing in the world for say a food truck to operate in this city now.  You have to pay for a biz/food permit and all the normal stuff, PLUS a permit for every location.  That permit per location is a killer.  Think about the great food truck culture in Southern California.  A Kogi BBQ truck that tweets they're location(which may change 2-4 times a day) just wouldn't be feasible having to constantly comply with the rules already on the books now... why make it THAT much harder with even more ridiculous rules?

The internet makes it hard on local retail stores, should we ban the internet too?

[Noone]

In 8 days there will be a special committee meeting of RULES, RCD, and LUZ at city hall on this legislation. Ask the mayoral candidates and city council candidates their position. Sweeping legislation

[YellowBluffRoad]

The joint committee meeting is posted for Wednesday January 5th, 11 AM, Council Chambers. Joint meeting of Rules, Land Use & Zoning, and Recreation & Community Development Committees to discuss this bill.

I was thinking about this bill as I drove past several Christmas Tree vendors this year. If this bill passes, I think nearly all of them would be shut down; I can think of very few of those locations that are more than 1 mile from the nearest retailers, big box store, or grocery store already selling trees. Growing up, I remembered many of those vendors being Lions Clubs or other exempt charitable organizations, but I wonder what the ratio of profit to non-profit vendors is for the Christmas Tree tent sales nowadays. We'll see the same effect on 4th of July "fireworks" sales too.

[ChriswUfGator]

Wonderful. No Xmas trees, no fireworks, thanks COJ. Brilliant idea!

[Seraphs]

Agreed.  No body goes 'out to dinner' only to hit up the closest hot dog cart. 

The only business that I see this affecting is A&W, and I go there for the root beer on tap anyhow.
[/quote]

A&W?  Wow, I haven't seen one of those in 20 years.

[danno]

None left here in JAX..... closest one is Daytona.  Last one I remember was out on Beach near San Pablo.

[cayohueso]

I thought there was still an A&W/KFC on Normandy near Fouracre.

[ricker]

A&W TacoBell  @ Westberry and SanJose.
Gone?

back to thread
Noone and Yellow bluff!

Jan 5th  11am
thanks for the alert!

[YellowBluffRoad]

Does anyone know how fair vendors are licensed? Is there a master license for the fair itself (similar to how the flea markets get licensed)? If not, and the vendors all have individual licenses (similar to most art and crafts shows), they might have some challenges with the food vendors if they did relocate the fair out of downtown. I know there's not that much out near the equestrian center, but surely there are some stores within a mile of that venue that sell food, or maybe even stuffed animals that the fair merchants would then be "unfairly" competing with under the proposed ordinance? Yes, pun was intended - I couldn't resist. 

[ricker]

In 8 days there will be a special committee meeting of RULES, RCD, and LUZ at city hall on this legislation. Ask the mayoral candidates and city council candidates their position. Sweeping legislation

tell us more!
I see your comments everywhere but I know so little.
I see the importance in turning up the volume but I dont feel the fever from the readers.
this is huge.
permanent impact.
we have to make sure our "leaders" get this right.
pull us back from the tipping point and give Jactionville a fighting chance again.