The food truck battle in Buffalo reinforces some ridiculousness that I foolishly thought was disappearing. We spend so much time thinking about what might happen, almost nothing ever actually does.
The notion that the downtown restaurants “are sick” of the food truck “invasion” is rather nutty. It reminds me of the anuerysms that coffee shop owners had when Starbucks entered the region. Those shops made good product and everybody was fine. There has yet to be a food truck park right outside the Ellicott Square Building or right in front of the local pizza chain, but apparently that has to be guarded against. I guess my question is why. The acclaimed taco truck does lunch time business at the corner of Main and Mohawk, an intersection served mostly by the occasional homeless guy. The others go to spots where there aren’t much in terms of alternatives.
It amuses me that one of the leading squawkers is a former tea-party less government is better candidate for state office. It’s interesting that some of us want less government except when it comes to lazily protecting a bottom line. The Truck Owners are meeting the Brick and Mortar guys more than half way. The Festival Buffer Zone seems silly to me, because that should apply to the trailers some of the dealers bring out too. Parking lot restrictions? Please, much of life in the city is finding a place to park. It is a little hypocritical to be hiding under zoning restrictions that don’t apply to who could set up next door as long as they are inside. Step up your game, not your lobbying.
I can’t help but think that if people are walking past reheated pizza slices to stroll a couple of blocks for a freshly made lunch, perhaps those screeching should look at their own operations instead of screaming for regulation.
If people aren’t buying your stuff, maybe your stuff needs to improve. If you are worried about people continuing to buy your stuff, maybe you need to find a reason to keep them buying your stuff.
Reading about the permit process that the Ice Cream Bicycle dudes had to go through when nobody else was vending was mind boggling and we haven’t evolved any further when one truck got ticketed for a law that didn’t exist yet. Um, what??
Things get unnecessary hard when paranoia has people staking turf out instead of trying make something that doesn’t suck.
This is a battle riddled with inconsistencies as a local brick and mortar pizza chain had no problem dragging a trailer next to the food trucks at the Music is Art fair. That’s all well and good, and I hope everybody made money and a grand time. My son ate pizza, I had a nice burger from the truck next door and we were happy.
Choice is good, folks.
Mike's Pub 