Commentary
To spice up city streets, give food vendors a break
by Jason AdkinsStreet food vendors are coming to Minneapolis. That's the good news. But if you were hoping to grab a falafel as you take a sunny stroll around one of the lakes, think again.
The City Council is considering an ordinance that would limit street food vendors to downtown, and is so restrictive in other ways that it will be truly surprising if anyone -- other than established Minneapolis restaurateurs looking for a downtown outpost -- invests the resources to participate, let alone to succeed. And food won't actually be sold along the streets, but rather just on sidewalks and parking lots. The city can (and should) do better.
Minneapolis officials deserve praise for introducing this idea. Minneapolis lags behind most cities when it comes to food carts and trucks. The plan is to foster some "vitality" in the downtown area, especially with the opening of Target Field. There's nothing wrong with that.
But the city's new street vendor plan should, first and foremost, be about creating opportunity. Street vending represents a way for people to reach the first rungs of the economic ladder to success. Many people start in the food business and save capital to start new businesses down the road. In all economic times, but particularly in these tough ones, governments should be doing everything they can to remove barriers and burdens to entrepreneurship.
In that light, the current proposal is too timid. It is not citywide; it does not allow food trucks on streets; it has arbitrary features, like limiting food trucks to one per private surface parking lot; it allows only current food license holders to participate; it caps the number of licenses at 25 total; and it preassigns locations to food carts rather than allowing them the flexibility to set up shop where they can be most successful.
These restrictions will likely suppress any street food renaissance before it begins. That's just what's happening in Toronto, where street food vendors keep leaving the scene because of excessive regulations that are too restrictive to allow businesses to flourish.
What's worse is that Minneapolis' proposed rules, like those in Toronto, are not at all attentive to the culture of street food, which is incredibly (pardon the pun) organic. Interest in niche and ethnic foods is on the rise, and local foodies can find out about new tastes and mobile eateries via social networking tools like Twitter, which allow food entrepreneurs to spread the word about their cuisine, as well as the locations around town where you can get it. If a food concept finds a market, it will grow and thrive and perhaps turn into a brick-and-mortar restaurant. But street vendors come and go. Thus, food carts and trucks offer a stepping stone to success for many vendors who do not have the resources to open up a restaurant and want to test their food creations in the marketplace.
Lots of potential street vendors crave the opportunity to sell their food, and lots of customers from all over the Twin Cities want to eat it. Apart from the established businesses that fear the competition, opening the city's streets to opportunity is a no-brainer.
Minneapolis could learn from cities like Portland, which has made it relatively easy to become a street food vendor. As a result, it has become a destination for people who want to sample the hundreds of foods available in the city's lively scene. Closer to home, Milwaukee has opened its streets and now has entrepreneurial crepe and pita makers who use environmentally friendly carts and trucks to sell their food. Although neither city's laws are perfect, each city has generally provided food vendors with the flexibility and freedom to be successful.
Vibrancy and vitality cannot be government-planned or government-manufactured. They are a byproduct of market forces meeting or creating demand for some good or service. And for there to be suppliers of that good or service, the city needs to create opportunities by lowering or removing the barriers to entry.
Minneapolis' proposed legislation is a step in the right direction. But the city can learn from the mistakes made in Toronto and the successes achieved in Portland and Milwaukee. Minneapolis should open its streets to vendors, not only because it's the right thing to do and will stimulate entrepreneurship, but also because it is the only way to realize the vibrant streets the city seeks.
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Jason Adkins is a staff attorney with the Institute for Justice Minnesota Chapter, which describes itself as the nation's only libertarian public interest law firm.
Comments (11)
This is a wonderful article and I hope that city officials take note. I lived in New York for many years and some of my fondest memories are street vendor delicious halal food and the street fairs. I think I am just one of the many people who would flock to the city to sample fares offered by local vendors. Bless you Jason, for using your prominence to advocate for the little man. Please loosen the restrictions and allow this vital part of city life to flourish!
I am so glad you have written this and I will send it out far and wide. The City Council and its supporters can clearly identify with the struggle business are facing in these difficult economic times though business do have assests. However in these tough economic times the challenges are even more difficult for those with little or no assests; yet the city council and there supporters cannot identify with those residents. Many of those residents live in the city, I wonder how many downtown business owners live in the City of Minneapolis and more to the point why is it so difficult for the city council members to identify, relate and support low income entreperneurs via stree vendors. Please share what you read and send it far and wide and maybe we can create the change we need to expand street vending opportunities to those in Minneapolis who can benefit the most. Its clear, the City Council won't help us. Thanks You, Val
I disagree completely. I live in NYC now although am from MN and find street food repulsive - carts jam the sidewalks, the quality is questionable and you can almost choke and pass out from the wood smoke of vendors grilling items on a wood fire. We're moving back to MN this month and I plan to urge our City Council member to strictly regulate or ban street vendors, they are nuisances. Go to a restaurant if you want to eat.
Jesus (Happy Good Friday!) Chris, I think that post is the definition of curmudgeonly. I live in the Middle East and here, street food is ubiquitous and delicious. Fresh baked bread in the morning and late-night greasiness is ne'er a bad thing.
Plus, I'm dying to try me some Korean BBQ sold out of the back of a truck.
Thanks, I respect your right to your opinion, but one of the beauties of the Twin Cities is it is *not* Beirut, New York, or anywhere else. It is (still overall but not as much as it used to be), clean, orderly and peaceful. If you love street vendors by all means enjoy, there are many cities where they exist. I for one, prefer a restaurant that has been inspected regularly and don't care for this *vitality* on city streets and will work to advocate tight restrictions on location, number, licensing and oversight of any that are approved.
Well I live and work in Downtown Minneapolis and I don't know what you mean by clean, orderly and peaceful., Its very noisy downtown along lasalle ave with its traffic. The Nicollet Mall traffic and activity is not peaceful, especially in the summer time. An about orderly, well the twin cities and downtown Minneapolis in particular is not a Military site., not yet anyways. About vitality of the city streets, I think its fine to see and enjoy the culture of a community and its people. I understand some prefer not to enjoy community diversity. How sad. About inspections, Its my understanding that the food must be prepared in an inspected facility. Inspected Kitchen. But if you are not going to consume the food from street vendors because it is so repulsive then you don't have to worry about eating the food that isn't clean or haven't been inspected.
Chris - I too respect your right to your opinion, but you need to come back and see how many *vacant* retail, commercial and restaurant spaces we have right now in Minneapolis. I am all in favor of appropriate regulation to protect the public, but agree wholeheartedly with Jason, that right now we need to lower the barriers for aspiring entrepreneurs, not raise them!
The argument about food vendors being unclean, or cluttering streets aside, if this does remain as it's been presented it will be pointless. Limiting to only 25, in pre-assigned areas, and to current license holders only will mean only one thing for the city; revenue from permits.
If I were the owner of a downtown establishment that served food and knew that very near was a permit location for a street vendor I would buy the permit immediately just to stifle competition if they could offer something that would take from my sales, or to keep my area "clean" if they couldn't compete with my offerings because I was a more 'affluent' establishment. I hope that there is a stipulation that the permit holder actually has to USE it, otherwise I see there being very few actual vendors out there.
Seems like a great recipe for fostering economic growth for lower socioeconomic groups to me.
I agree with the commentator, if you're going to do it, do it right. Open things up for competition. Street vendors could add a lot of vitality if this is done correctly, I say as long as they don't create a problem for traffic (all modes) and can pass the inspections, let them come. Our immigrant population has a LOT to offer, just as they always have. Bratwurst stand anyone?
Yes! Bring on the vendors! Part of the appeal of an urban area is to have variety and an ever-changing atmosphere. I love the one hot-dog cart on Nicollet Mall, and hope that competition doesn't drive them off, but it would be nice to have a variety of foods I can grab on the go, enjoying the sunshine and downtown atmosphere while I wait. I hate waiting in lines indoors, staring at the bleak walls and shuffling along like the floor is covered in ice. I'd love to live in a place like NYC, but can't afford it. Having a little piece of real city life here in the Midwest would be refreshing.
As an attorney living in Mpls that doesn't believe that there are nearly enough economic opportunities for food vendors in this area, I promise to work against Chris. Minneapolis is devoid of vitality because too many people here share his mentality. Street level retail is the energy a city a needs to thrive. Without it, the downtown area becomes a deadened financial graveyard. Also, the food is delicous: which is also something Minneapolis needs more of.
It really doesn't make any sense to limit the locations to just the "downtown" area. Downtown is where most of the restaurants are located! Why not let inspected clean vendors have their carts by the new stadium or at least near that area. People look for these carts before and after the games, but of course, politics seem to play a big role with these decisions because god forbid the vendors take away business from the stadium and surrounding restaurants that pay large overheads. Unfortunately, vendors will lose, and that will be a sad thing for Minneapolis.
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