Baylen Linnekin on Chicago's Disgusting New Food Truck Regulations

This week Chicago's city council voted 44-1 in favor of adopting new rules for regulating food trucks in the city. When a terrible and stifling set of outdated regulations like Chicago's is replaced, one might expect it to be cause for celebration among those who had suffered under the old rules.

And it's true that supporters of mobile vending in Chicago are pleased the new regulations will allow trucks to extend their operating hours and will finally legalize the preparation of fresh food on trucks—something the previous rules did not. But as Baylen Linnekin explains, the new rules are mostly disgusting. The Windy City's treatment of mobile food vendors is a case study in how to stifle entrepreneurship and innovation in the name of protecting powerful, entrenched interests.