Food Truck Ordinance Passes, But Don't Soil Yourself

So. After a series of byzantine amendments that utterly mystified Gambit's Charles Maldonado during this afternoon's food truck vote, New Orleans City Council passed a revised food truck ordinance that, according to Gambit, "would increase the availability of permits and allow more food trucks in New Orleans."

The new ordinance, which includes amendments to prevent food trucks from operating within 200 feet of a "brick-and-mortar" restaurant unless food trucks have a written waiver from that restaurant, as well as to cap the limit of new permits at 75, passed with a council vote of 6-1. District D council member Cynthia Hedge-Morrell was the only "nay" vote. Approved amendments to Head's proposal also include rules prohibiting food trucks from operating in front of a "residential structure," and requiring mobile food trucks to display their permit number prominently.

The long, winding road to this up vote has recently been paved with bathroom tiles?the issue of forcing food trucks to operate within 300 feet of an available restroom quickly became a divisive issue in the push to ease some of the city's outdated restrictions on mobile vendors. Stacy Head, the biggest food truck proponent on the council, admitted that, even she thought the restroom restriction was "silly," the amendment was added to assuage the (so-far baseless) anxieties "particularly from the LRA."

The Gambit quotes Alex del Castillo as saying he has "managed not to soil myself" in the time spent on his Taceaux Loceaux truck. "Why is it suddenly important now?" he asked the council. "What are you fixing? Has there been a spate of illnesses from truck owners?"

Still, the council adopted the restroom requirement, as well as a second amendment to the restroom requirement with several amendments tacked onto it for good measure, including this bit of bureaucratic mind-bending: Cm. Jackie Clarkson proposed that a food truck have "written permission" (as in, a hallpass) from a restroom-boasting business within the 300-foot radius of operation, unless of course that food truck can demonstrate that there is no restroom.

· Food truck ordinance passes in New Orleans city council [Gambit]
· All Food Truck Coverage [-ENOLA-]