Poll: Thoughts on the Regulation of Food Trucks & Carts?

ABOVE: Customers lined up to buy pizza from Pi on Locust St recently

Saw this bit of information last week about a new regulation regarding food trucks in the St. Louis suburb of Maryland Heights:

The code requires rolling merchants to operate within health regulations and have a trash receptacle available. They may operate only on occupied properties, with the owner’s permission, and only while the primary establishment is operating or for 12 hours, whichever is less. Also, they may not establish a stand within 25 feet of a public road. (STLtoday.com)

Unlike urban places, I don’t think Maryland Heights has any on-street parking, except maybe in residential neighborhoods. Still, food trucks are booming in St. Louis:

The food truck trend has hit St. Louis with a bang, with more trucks than ever now trolling the streets to serve up everything from pizza to tacos to cupcakes to hungry St. Louisans willing to track down their mobile meals on Facebook and Twitter. (Sauce Magazine)

Cities, including the City of St. Louis, are grappling with how to regulate food trucks and other food vendors. Health regulations seem a no-brainer but the issue of where they are or are not allowed to vend is the big issue.

ABOVE: Mangia Mobile at the recent GroupHugSTL event

Officials may long for the day when the most mobile food vendors just had a stainless steel hot dog cart.

There are 190 food-service establishments in downtown St. Louis, and some restaurateurs fear being pushed out of business. “Inherently, it starts out being unlevel, because of the cost to operate a food service in a truck versus an established lease,” said Maggie Campbell, president and CEO of Partnership for Downtown St. Louis. While food trucks reflect the vitality of the neighborhood, Campbell wants to make sure their presence doesn’t end up hurting brick-and-mortar restaurants. “The most ideal outcome would be for food trucks to enjoy being downtown and have a strong enough customer base to invest in a storefront,” she said.

So there you go, regulation isn’t about public safety, it’s about protecting other businesses. Pi has two locations in the City of St. Louis and will open a downtown location at 6th & Washington in the Mercantile Exchange bldg (formerly known St. Louis Centre).

ABOVE: Sarah's Cake Stop vending at a recent event downtown

I personally love street food from carts and trucks.  I’ve purchased food from all four trucks pictured in this post, but I understand the need to have some regulations in place so it’s not a free for all (like valet parking).

ABOVE: The Fire and Ice Cream Truck is often on 9th Street in Citygarden

I recently started a Street Food STL list on Twitter to help track the growing number of trucks and other mobile food vendors.  The newest truck on Twitter is literally the oldest:

The Fire and Ice Cream Truck beat the food truck trend by a few years, quietly selling locally made ice cream from a rehabbed vintage fire truck along the riverfront. But now the truck has joined the fray, moving to a semi-permanent location on Tenth [Ninth!] Street between Market and Chestnut, in the middle of Citygarden (Ninth and Market streets; 314-802-9571 or citygardenstl.org). And it couldn’t be more perfect. (Riverfront Times)

The poll this week seeks to find out reader’s thoughts on efforts to regulate mobile food vendors. The poll is in the upper right corner of the blog, results will be published Wednesday June 29th.

- Steve Patterson

Endangered species: the sidewalk newsstand

ABOVE: Euclid & Maryland, June 2008

With demand for the printed newspaper decreasing I fear the loss of an already rare sight in St. Louis: the sidewalk newsstand.  You need content to have a newsstand.

ABOVE: NYC newsstand in 2001

I love the colorful newsstands of New York City but I don’t know that we will ever have these in St. Louis.  For a long time a stand was located at 8th & Locust, but that went away a few years ago when the current plaza was built.  The benefits to the newsstand are numerous: creates activity, vendor can offer directions, sell snacks and water to pedestrians, eyes on the sidewalk help with safety.  They do require space but smaller versions than the New York example exist.

I want to see the printed newspaper and magazine survive if only so the newsstand will also survive.

– Steve Patterson

The new street food venders

The host of this site, Steve Paterson, has long been a proponent for more street vendors, and specifically hot dog carts, in downtown St. Louis.  I’ve always been a bit lukewarm to the concept, assuming that supply and demand is probably near equilibrium already, since several permit holders choose to operate now only on an irregular basis.  Still, there are types of street food that I see having some real potential, and that’s with mobile catering trucks, a.k.a. “roach coaches”, that have “evolved” into more interesting forms in other cities.

One format, that could work great at any of our local universities, has become established at Rutgers University, where their “Grease Trucks” have been both embraced by the university, both its students and the administration, and appears to be cranking out some good, affordable food.

On the other coast, gourmet dining has joined with Twitter to create a mobile gastronomic experience:

Portland’s bustling street-food scene may soon be rivaling the hawker centers of Singapore in terms of quality, scope, popular appeal, and value for money. In other words, the Pacific Northwest is doing for street food today what it did for coffee in the 1990s. Picking just eight venues out of the veritable sea of stands, stalls, carts, trucks, trailers, and even bicycles was a tough job-but hey, we’re not complaining.  (full article: Gourmet Magazine)

The infamous $16 pho. The $10 kaya toast that everyone loved but that I’m used to getting for less than $1 back home. These were all reasons I haven’t checked out Susan Feniger’s STREET until now. The concept is awesome. Street food from all over the world, all in one spot. In Hollywood. But one kitchen and how many countries? Can they pull it off? (full article: Gourmet Pigs)

Numerous restaurants in Seattle feature gourmet dishes prepared with local and seasonal ingredients. But only one serves its meals through the window of a 1962 Airstream trailer.

Skillet, a roving kitchen that stakes out different street corners during lunch hour, is known for a Kobe-style burger served on brioche with bacon jam, blue cheese and arugula. The locally and seasonally inspired menu continually changes, prompting customers to line up every day and debate between crispy ginger pork wontons accompanied by a sweet chili dipping sauce or Thai cured confit of duck with a coconut rice salad.  (full article: Forbes)

Even Denver has Biker Jim and his gourmet dogs.

The advantage that enclosed vehicles offer over open carts is primarily the ability to do more real cooking.  The typical hot dog cart keeps dogs warm and drinks cold.  Some assembly is required, but little culinary skill.  St. Louis also apparently allows our vendors to work off of portable grilles, which partially blurs the lines.  But to do real cooking requires running water, refrigeration and more control than just one gas or charcoal grille.  Plus, more than a few of us are suspicious of the sanitation any open location can maintain, day in and day out.

The two big challenges that these vehicles face are the impact on the urban environment (do we want one or more parked on Washington every weekend night?) and the reality that they “steal” business from existing brick-and-mortar restaurants with higher overhead.  Plus, like what happened at Rutgers, there’s a tendency for them to become non-mobile when they find a successful location.  Denver requires that they actually move on a daily basis, as apparently does LA, but with the ability to reach out via Twitter, it’s become a lot easier to find one’s favorite.

Personally, I think they’d be a great addition to St. Louis’ street and dining scenes – I’d like to hear what others think . . .

– Jim Zavist

Old Post Office Plaza Still Young

Open for just under two months, the Old Post Office Plaza is starting to have some activities as well as users even when there are no scheduled events.

The above is from a recent after work musical performance as part of a series from the St. Louis Public Library, which has a branch in the Old Post Office across Locust Street.  I was actually surprised by the size of the total crowd.  I ran into a friend I hadn’t seen in a while and met a co-worker of his.  They had both walked over after work to hear the music.

My new friend Sam Davis from Hot City Franks was there selling hot dogs. brats and my favorite, veggie dogs.  Since this plaza is privately owned he is able to vend there with the permission of the owner.

As this plaza and as other spaces, such as the soon to open City Garden, I hope that our level of downtown pedestrians & bicyclits will continue to grow.  I hope for the time when this plaza is full of people without any sort of “programming” being required to get them there.  Have you been?  What are your thoughts?  Here was my take the morning of the day it opened, Downtown Gets Yet Another Plaza.

Five Easy Solutions to Help the City of St. Louis, Downtown – No Stimulus Funds Required

We here all the time about the need to assist multi-million dollar projects such as Ballpark Village.  St. Louis and cities nationwide have been helping fund big ticket projects for decades.  Some deliver on the initial promises while others do not.  But this post is not about the massive project costing hundreds of millions.  It is about little things.  Things not dependent upon federal stimulus money.

The following is my list, you may have others:

#5 – Reduce most six lane roads to four by striping outside lane for bikes and/or parked cars.

Yes stripes do take some money but not that much.  Jefferson, Market, and Natural Bridge quickly come to mind.  We have a fraction of the population we had in 1950 yet we have the lane capacity for a much larger population.  These streets all need expensive diets but paint on pavement can do wonders.

#4 – eliminate all minimum parking requirements throughout the city.

Our entire zoning code is 60+ years old.  Much has changed and the code needs to as well, but that takes time & money.  In the short term we should just 86 those sections in the zoning code that require parking.  Just delete them entirely.

#3 – allow on-street parking on all streets in CBD, reducing 4 lane one-way streets to just two travel lanes.

Downtown St. Louis is blessed by short city blocks that are both walkable and easily biked.  Unfortunately in many places what would be a pleasant two travel lane street has four travel lanes in a single direction.  These should all be reverted to 2-way traffic and reduced to two travel lanes.  But changing signals to go back to two-way streets takes money.  .

#2 – street performers

St. Louis has many talented residents that could help animate our staid streets while earning a buck or two.  Changing the ordinances to make it easier for performers to do their thing on St. Louis’ public sidewalks would do wonders for residents & visitors’ perceptions.  Again, no massive debt-laden project is necessary.

#1 – street vendors

Related to street performers, street vending is as old as cities.  For decades we’ve gone the wrong direction with respect to street vending, being too busy trying to emulate suburbia.  Time to lighten it up Francis.  The vendors are there and they are well aware of the obstacles.  It is sort of the chicken-egg debate.  The first step is to loosen the regulatory grip and in time the vendors and customers will find each other.

—

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St. Louisans Want More Street Vending!

This past week I asked a simple question in my weekly poll (see post):

Many cities have active sidewalks with: numerous street vendors selling hot dogs and such. What are your thoughts on allowing more street vendors downtown?

I’m never sure what the sentiment among the readership will be.  I just put it our there and see how people vote.  Here are the final results for the above question:

This poll was not scientific.

Out of 161 responses only two indicated either to retain the status quo or eliminate the little bit of vending that is permitted.  Overwhelmingly you the readers want more street vending.

So now what?

Legal permits are severly limited in number.  I’d never advocate just setting up shop on the sidewalk illegally.  I also don’t want to see all barriers brought down so we have chaos on the sidewalks.

Like valet parking, I think we need to review best practices from other coties so as to allow, but not stifle, the activity while not infringing on neighboring brick & mortar businesses.

My guess is that several decades ago well meaning men thought it best to restrict street vending to protect restaurants hurting from downtowns dwindling role in the region.  Your elected officials at city hall need to understand you want the current politically imposed limitations eased.  We, as consumers, need to support street vending if we hope to see more street vendors on the sidewalks.

Poll, Street Vendors in St. Louis

One of the great things I love about dynamic cities is the diversity of choice when it comes to dining. These cities have a range from affordable street food to cloth napkin fine dining.   Here in St. Louis we’ve got the latter nailed but we are lacking on the former.  Street food, in my view, is a prerequisite for achieving the 24/7 downtown our leaders speak about.

Last year around this time I wrote on the same subject.  My intro was:

Bustling sidewalks and numerous food vendors are hallmarks of great urban streets. Food vendors sell everything from hot dogs, pretzels, nuts, ice cream, water/soda, kabobs and all sorts of other street food. In St. Louis our laws severely limit food & other street vendors leaving our sidewalks less than lively than they could or should be.

Downtown St. Louis has a limit of 10 vendor permits.  Outside of downtown there are only a couple of spots where vending can legally take place.

This week’s poll (upper right of main page) is about street vendors.

Flower vendor in Philly

So take the poll and use the comments below to share your thoughts on the subject.

Hot dog vendor in Toronto

Newsstand in NYC

Food vendor in Philly

Street vendors come in all shapes and sizes.  Some form of regulation is certainly necessary but I feel we’ve gone too far by limiting the number of permits to 10 for the central business district.  I’ve never seen all 10 out at the same time.

If you agree that downtown and other parts of the city could benefit an increase in the number of street vendors, please take a moment and contact 7th Ward Alderman Phyllis Young.  Politely ask her to introduce legislation before the Board of Aldermen to allow more street vendors so that we can begin to activate our sidewalks.

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