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| Picnic tables in front of Papa's Tapas on Wilshire |
I know being a restaurant owner is no picnic, but I despite my generally good feelings for councilman Tom LaBonge, I think his
call for more regulations for food trucks-- including prohibiting them from using metered spaces at all -- is generally a poor idea. Take the stretch of Wilshire which seems to be the source of the most complaints. I've worked there for 15 years, and I've been complaining about the food around there for just as long. The lack of street life around there was dreary, considering that thousands of people work in the area and need to eat lunch. On Thursday our office building at 5900 Wilshire set up picnic tables in front of the piece of the Berlin Wall improbably propped up on the lawn. There were kids in strollers, office workers, museum visitors, all sharing tables and talking about which trucks they liked. It was worlds better than the sterile sidewalks with only a few chain restaurants of the previous 14 years. The
petition put together by the Mobile Food Truck Vendors is up to nearly 6,000 signatures -- it couldn't hurt to sign it. Do you think the trucks require any more regulation than they already have?
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| Veggie, garlic shrimp and beef tacos from Papa's Tapas |
3 comments:
I signed the petition. Then I looked at the signatures. There are multiple MULTIPLE signatures by the same people and entities. The count of signatures is closing in on 6000, but the number of unique signatures is mostly certainly fair less. This petition may collapse under the weight of the well-intended.
I ran into the food truck HQ on Wilshire for the first time a few weeks ago, and I thought it really livened up the area. And the food options! People were actually outside on a gorgeous day eating and socializing. Hope they can stay.
I don't know if you've been following this story or not, but there is a bit of a war that has broken out on mid-Wilshire, with local restaurants fighting against the lunch trucks. See details here:
http://www.thepopview.com/wordpress/2010/07/01/food-trucks-wars-on-wilshire/
To cut a long story short, the maintenance crew from Museum Square is parking a bunch of cars on Wilshire so there’s nowhere for the mobile food trucks to park. It’s become a bit comical this week, with the trucks and the junk cars fighting for spots and blocking traffic in the process.
I think landlords and LaBonge shoudl stay out of this, and let the free market decide.
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