By this time, we’ve all heard about the controversy surrounding the food trucks and their ability to operate in the region. On one side you have the people who enjoy having convenient food choices in areas where options can sometimes be limited. Then there are others who say that the food trucks are impeding on existing businesses that pay good money to be in a brick and mortar locations. There are lots of scenarios that could be analyzed over and over. How close to a restaurant is too close? How many food trucks are allowed to be operating (there are talks of a moratorium)? Who should be making these decisions and why are they leaning in certain directions? Sound ambiguous? Sound confusing. It is.
I’ve spoken to a handful of restaurant operators whose only concerns are that the food trucks don’t park in front of their places of business. I can understand that. But I’ve also heard of restaurateurs who just don’t want the food trucks around at all. There are battle lines being drawn. The food truck operators are upset, leaving their customers unhappy, After all of the original fanfare has died down, some of food trucks are left scratching their heads, wondering just how they got into this mess. Chris Taylor, owner of The Roaming Buffalo, reached out to me today and expressed his frustration with the process that he believes is leaving him to hang out to dry. Remember that Chris was the first food truck to jump at the opportunity to operate at the Court Street Plaza. Then his permit for the plaza was never renewed. From Chris:
“When they tabled the food truck legislation a month ago the vote was 8 to 1 with that one vote being Joe Golombek. They are all worried about getting re-elected rather than bringing small businesses to Buffalo, and that is really the truth. As far as Court St. Plaza is concerned the council law advisors found nothing in the by laws that would not allow me from jumping the curb (originally sited as a main concern). Unfortunately Pat Sole is on vacation and he is the guy that can issue the license. It was a very bad business tactic used by Taki’s restaurant to try and eliminate competition. This is really hurting us because we only have the month of September to serve in the plaza before the weather changes. We were just starting to bring more and more people to that area, and it was beginning to come alive. I have received nothing but positive feedback from the public and so has the BNCC. We went through a very tedious application process to obtain the license for Court St. from the city of Buffalo. Even though the property is owned by the County we wanted to play nice and follow all the guidelines given to us by Mr. Sole and his office. Also there was a letter sent out to two food trucks that stated that we would have to stop serving outside the Buffalo Place District. That limited us to one vending spot. This is just putting a strangle hold on our businesses even further. You would think that with four Buffalo food trucks in America’s Favorite Food Truck Race, two in the top 100 out of 216, and one in the second spot, the city would be promoting the hell out of us. Instead they are crushing us. I was just starting to turn a little bit of a profit, and then my license was not renewed. Maybe I should stick to the south towns (River Fest Park) where we are welcomed with open arms?”
I also spoke to Taki regarding the food truck and its proximity to his restaurant. Taki explained to me that he has been fighting the good fight in downtown Buffalo for many years, and that he’s only protecting his business. He told me that he isn’t against food trucks per se, but he wasn’t happy about having the food truck so close. Unfortunately, the Court Street Plaza is a dead space that is need of a food option – especially now that it has been designed to accommodate food service and customers. It’s not like there are a ton of places to get food (in an outdoor setting in downtown Buffalo) other than hotdog carts (nobody ever seems to complain about those). To me, a rising tide floats all boats. The more action downtown the better.
It’s too bad that someone at City Hall can’t come up with a solution that would make everyone happy rather than stifling these types of operations that apparently thrive in other cities.