Food Trucks To Be Legislated Out of Existence?

[fieldafm]

Awesome map obsidian!!!

The more I think about it, if Subway goes out of business b/c of all that unfair, soul-crushing competition from food trucks.... I'd personally jump all over that space.

[thelakelander]

Thanks Lake.  I agree, I've been manually selecting the DT parks to be added later.  Of course there is the 300' B&M buffers to be added.  If I can locate layers on curbs and sidewalks, that will reduce it even more.  Any suggestion on how CRO, PBFs, etc. should be handed?

I have a citywide sidewalks shapefile I could send you later today if you need one.  I'll need to go through the legislation again to see how to best address CRO, etc.

[obsidian]

Thanks Lake.  I agree, I've been manually selecting the DT parks to be added later.  Of course there is the 300' B&M buffers to be added.  If I can locate layers on curbs and sidewalks, that will reduce it even more.  Any suggestion on how CRO, PBFs, etc. should be handed?

I have a citywide sidewalks shapefile I could send you later today if you need one.  I'll need to go through the legislation again to see how to best address CRO, etc.

Appreciate the offer Lake, but I just got a copy this morning.  I hope they consider using land use categories for future version of the ordinance...that would simplify mapping.

[obsidian]

Awesome map obsidian!!!

The more I think about it, if Subway goes out of business b/c of all that unfair, soul-crushing competition from food trucks.... I'd personally jump all over that space.

Thanks, btw adding the B&Ms will reduce the area available even more so.  I also have a dataset of over 3k restaurants that will have to be buffered 300'.

[thelakelander]

I can't wait to see your results.  I'm pretty sure, as written, food trucks would be prohibited from operating in most of the city.

[Overstreet]

I can see the fixed location resturants point of view. However, I go back by the deli's I used to eat at a year ago, two years ago, etc,  downtown and they are gone .............without food truck competition. Its not likely going to matter.

Even farther back, The Landing is now a shadow of what it was when it opened.  Back then it killed all the businesses on Heming plaza. For example, JP Mugs......made a great burger, but their lunch crowd dissappeared when the Landing opened........and so did JP Mugs. 

I used to visit food trucks in Hawaii all the time because they brought food to places that didn't have it. When we built the Landing we went to the food trucks because they were off site, close and brough food to an area that didn't have it.........in the time window we had for lunch.

I look at them differently. It is competition. They preform a service. Let them be. But I got to tell 'em when I say no they can't operate on the job site, stay out. If they whine to my boss the rejection will only get worse. If you block my site entrance it will only go downhill from there. At that point they are no longer a service, but a hinderance.

[thelakelander]

From what I heard yesterday, the downtown restaurant owners didn't want them in downtown period.  Looking at how one-sided the legislation was written, this appears to be a larger attempt to limit the growth of this industry in Jacksonville.  It seems that some don't want them catering special events or setting up in suburban office parking lots either. I'll be real interested to see how this all turns out.  Legislation should facilitate market rate growth and not go against it.  However, I'm sure those lobbying for this aren't trying to facilitate the growth of food trucks locally.

[CityLife]

Obsidian is bringing it. Those maps are excellent.

I'm very much looking forward to the first food truck rally at Talleyrand.

[Bill Hoff]

Looks there's push back to food trucks in other cities too.

NY: http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2011/06/29/food-trucks-being-chased-from-midtown-over-meter-rule/

Chicago: http://www.wbez.org/news/culture/are-new-regulations-helping-or-hurting-city%E2%80%99s-food-truck-industry-105265

LA: http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2012/12/13/l-a-city-council-approves-ordinance-restricting-food-truck-parking-near-lacma/

[I-10east]

^^^Yup, the exact same issues; The city approves the unfriendly food truck ordinance, and there's a major opposition against it. It's definitely not exclusive to Jax. 

[thelakelander]

There's nothing wrong with regulations. The problem arises when they are put in place to kill an industry due to the lobbying of another "entrenched" group who fears market rate competition.  What you're seeing now in Jax is that the public is getting to the point of not accepting the status quo and fighting back.  Jax will be a better place because of the push back.

[Tacachale]

^Well put.

[thelakelander]

Interesting comparison but unfortunately true.

[thelakelander]

Nothing food trucks and Jacksonville can do about this one....

Quiznos, the Denver-based sandwich-shop chain that has been grappling with debt, is preparing to file for bankruptcy protection soon and is working on a prepackaged restructuring, the Wall Street Journal reported online Thursday.

http://www.bizjournals.com/denver/news/2014/02/27/wsj-quiznos-set-to-file-for.html

[Brian Siebenschuh]

Wouldn't it be easier for all the suffering non-mobile downtown sandwich shops to just ditch their leases and start up super cheap new food truck operations?