Owning a Food Truck in New Orleans Really Sucks
"This is one of the greatest food towns in the country, and we should be open to different things," says [Company Burger restaurant owner Adam Biderman], sounding clearly frustrated. "There's no reason why there shouldn't be food trucks running all over town."
Operating a food truck in New Orleans is tough. Mobile vendors fueled hungry workers in the aftermath of Katrina. But when order was (mostly) restored, so was a ridiculously restrictive permitting process. There are only 100 permits available for vendors of all kinds, The Atlantic reports. That means that coffee vendors and taco makers have to go head to head with souvenir sellers and t-shirt hawkers for their legitimacy.
Even if a food trucker manages to get a permit, he'll face a a 30-minute cap on the amount of time he can spend in one place, he'll be forbidden from returning to the same block twice in the same day, and he'll be barred altogether from the French Quarter and the Central Business District.
Frankly, it doesn't seem to bright to ban food trucks from the places where a quick, cheap, alcohol-absorbing meal would be the difference between the Best. Night. Ever. and a night spent passed out on a bench.
Help us, Baylen Linnekin. You're our only hope!
Via Radley Balko.
