MEAN STREETS: IJ Launches National Defense of Food Vendors
by Bob EwingThe Institute for Justice has been vindicating the rights of entrepreneurs for the last twenty years.
Across the country, IJ has teamed up with casket makers, florists, hairbraiders, horse teeth-floaters, interior designers, sign-hangers, taxi-drivers, trash haulers, vintners and numerous other Americans to secure their basic right to earn an honest living.
This week, we are proud to announce a new, nationwide effort in our fight for economic liberty: Our National Street Vending Initiative.
From coast to coast, we will team up with mobile food vending entrepreneurs whenever their rights come under attack, filing lawsuits and engaging in grassroots activism and media efforts.
In conjunction with the launch of this initiative, we have filed a major federal lawsuit against the city of El Paso Texas:
For thousands of years, vending has been a way for entrepreneurs to provide for themselves and their families. In the United States, this ancient trade is more popular than ever. By 2007, over 760,000 vending businesses were operating in the country. And consumers love them, so they continue to grow.
The Economist magazine predicted that in 2011 food vendors would create “[t]he biggest shift in America’s culinary landscape” and that “some of the best food Americans eat may come from a food truck.”
Unfortunately, government officials in El Paso recently decided to drive away their vending entrepreneurs. Institute for Justice economic liberty expert Matt Miller, who filed the lawsuit against El Paso, explains in the Daily Caller:
Officials in El Paso have recently made it illegal for mobile food vendors to operate within 1,000 feet of any restaurant, convenience store, or grocer. The city even prohibits vendors from parking to await customers, which forces vendors to constantly drive around town until a customer successfully flags them down—and then be on the move again as soon as the customer walks away.
Thus, instead of embracing their vending entrepreneurs, El Paso has decided to threaten them with thousands of dollars in fines and effectively run them out of town. This anti-competitive scheme is illegal because vending entrepreneurs have a constitutional right to earn an honest living free from unreasonable regulations.
Here’s a question for you: Should El Paso be allowed to turn itself into a No-Vending Zone in order to protect brick-and-mortar restaurants from competition?
We are arguing in federal court that the U.S. Constitution protects the right to earn an honest living free from unreasonable regulations. And that naked protectionism is not a valid use of government power.
What do you think? And, importantly, are you aware of any other cities that have similar vending laws? Please let us know on our facebook page. Thanks!
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57 Comments
Never try to suppress free enterprise. Competition is good for all of U.S.
Food trucks are great. They can bring high concept food to people who would never be able to go to a similar restaurant for the same food in a sit down venue. So long as the food trucks keep themselves clean and cook to the same standards as restaurants, let the consumer decide.
The problem once again is government. The restaurant owners have to put up considerable cost (public restrooms, building code specifications, licenses, etc.) that make it costly to open a restaurant or grocery store. Naturally, the owners of said buildings don't want competition (which with truck vending is a lot less regulated) as they simply cannot compete thanks to the government.
The happy medium would be to reduce regulations on grocery stores, restaurants, and other building food vendors so that they can compete with truck vendors. Then make sure the regulations on both are equal in terms of not harming the consumer with bad food, and let the truck vendors do their business and let restaurants do theirs.
Look for the political donations to politicians pockets from the restaurant lobby…. it's always about money and power, or both.
Sometime workers are not allowed to leave the work site, or do not have enough time to leave, get food , eat it and return. The market niche is there, so allow it to be filled. If you work in an industrial warehouse district, there are not usually any places to go eat.
Government…………………….get the phuck out of every aspect of our lives. Damn.
I'd lie to say I'm shocked, but I'm not… typical for government, at any level, to turn everything it touches to crap.
I once sat on a County Commission Task Force to determine the future of "Roadside Vendors" … while we (the Task Force) concluded that these Vendors had every right to be and do what they did, the County Commissioners had already decided to "outlaw" any Roadside Vendors. Why??? Oh, they are just "gypsies" or con-artists who don't pay their taxes, cluttered up the road, looked unsavory and just didn't fit "the mold" of the county. Yep, our Task Force was just a Dog & Pony Show that proved ALL of these Commissioners wrong. But the Lobbyists had paid them off. SCUMBAGS …ALL of THEM.
"Should El Paso be allowed to turn itself into a No-Vending Zone in order to protect brick-and-mortar restaurants from competition?"
Of course not. But you have to look at what would motivate these cities to do this. As with all things, follow the money.
It must be that tax receipts from brick-and-mortar restaurants are higher, because of property taxes alone. Also, consider that brick-and-mortar businesses are subject to far more pressure from city officials to stay in business (building permits, safety inspections, etc.). So add in the "unofficial contributions" that brick-and-mortars are coerced into making to those same officials. (Think pay-to-play)
So what does this make the city government in a situation like this? It's fairly simple. They are acting like a protection racket.
When government starts to act like the mafia, you no longer have a government; you have a white-collar crime syndicate.
Hahaha. A little note to the mentally stunted asswipe that follows me around to "thumb me down."————-
I DON'T CARE
You're a coward without the brains enough to argue with me. And if you tried, I wouldn't even waste my time on you.
If you get a chance, check out the local ABC-TV coverage of the case launch: http://www.kvia.com/video/26630395/index.html. It went online after I submitted this post or I would have included it. They have a woman on camera from the El Paso Restaurant Association admitting that the law is pure protectionism. It's amazing.
She says: “We wanted this ordinance in place to help established restaurants keep their business….We just don’t want the mobile units to get right on our doorstep and take our business away.”
Bob, welcome to the forum. We appreciate authors who join our discussions. And we appreciate the work you're doing.
Bob, welcome to the forum. We appreciate authors who join our discussions. And we appreciate the work you're doing.
I haven't eaten at a portable vendor since I was a kid and purchased popcorn from a popcorn wagon.
(I haven't seen one of those in some 60 years since) It is my problem, not their's of course.
Its just that I question, probably in error, the cleanliness or unsanitary conditions that may occur.
I don't live in New York city but I have heard stories of their problems, rightfully or not, of just
such conditions with their corner street vendors.
If portable vendors are inspected periodically and all is ok, health wise, then stay the heck out of their way
and let them prosper.
Thanks John! I appreciate that. And thanks for the tip on joining the discussions. Definitely makes sense. I will do.
I agree with the city. The brick & mortar people pay property taxes to the city. Funds the city needs. What do the mobile vendors pay? A permit fee? Trade off $50, $75, $100 or even $500 permit for thousand of dollars in property taxes? What good is a "ghost town" downtown. There's enough of those already.
WOW! I love this article and the work you're doing, Mr. Ewing.
Why does this anti-vending push seem like what the movie theaters were trying to do years ago, when VCRs first came out?
And what the heck are the restaurants afraid of anyway? I don't go to a mobile vendor to have a restaurant experience or vice versa. And if I find a great restaurant, I don't turn at the door if I suddenly see a food truck when I planned on going to the restaurant. If they give people a great experience when they get there, they have nothing to worry about. Even if they were parked "right at the door". This is about using government to eliminate any competition they can.
This is pure, job-killing protectionism. Welcome to one little slice of the paradise that the Central Planners have in store for us.
Yes, you CAN fight City Hall with some organized people and funding. Unfortunately, the US is not place where you get the justice you deserve, but a place where you get the justice you can afford.
Wouldn't it be wonderful to have the food stalls like they have overseas ? all the different kinds of food everywhere , so much Americans are missing out on because of Government Regulators.
More empty-headed libertarians aiding illegal immigrants. These people are modern gypsies. We need to get one of these trashy vendor vans to park itself outside Bob Ewing's house! See how long it takes for him to call the police to get them to move! LOL!!!!!!!!!!1
I vote to have them on your street. Watch your home values sink like a stone.
Ah, the "new" libertarianism which uses the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT to fight against what the LOCAL people want! LOL! What a farce.
Institute of Justice – protecting people ignorant enough to buy something from an illegal alien gypsie in a van. Who will pay for it when you need a liver transplant from getting hepatitis as a result?
Sounds like something from Confederacy of Dunces.
The most salient point made in that newscast was that if you're successful in getting this ordinance declared unconstitutional, it'll affect similar ordinances across the country.
This would be an amazing accomplishment, and I wish you luck in court.
Keep us posted!
Is this still America…?
So now we can't even have ice cream trucks sell Nutty Buddies and Creamsicles if they are near a Ben +Jerry's ?
Construction sites cannot have a roach coach show up if they are too close to a pizza shop?
What's next ? The neighbor kid can't cut my grass if there is a landscaper in the neighborhood…?
Or maybe the Girl Scouts can't sell butter cookies within 1,000 feet of a bakery.
Once again this is what happens when one or two city councilors think they own the town.
More interference by government will cause more problems, just like this. Those service vans now have to burn gas and leave town to protect a brick and mortar restaurant. Get government out of our lives at all levels. Keep up the fight.
Phuck El Paso I want my tamales and carne asada tacos from my favorite truck when I want it. I don't want to have to chase down my lunch
Taxes. On their trucks, their gas, everything the restaurant pays, except for the "bricks and mortar' experience. In a restaurant, you get the chance to sit, have a conversation over the table, get your food and drinks brought to you, more napkins, water, drinks, atmosphere, comfort, dessert, selection, etc. Two totally different experiences. As in going to the movies versus renting.
Shall we ban videos, in order to preserve the "brick and mortar" theaters? Motor vehicles, in order to keep horse and buggy companies in business? Ridiculous, right?.
This is government overreach at its finest.
Construction sites cannot have a roach coach show up if they are too close to a pizza shop?
Why not? So the illegal aliens can keep the money with "their own kind"? Where do you live – I want to bribe a roach coach to park outside your house. See how you like it.
The neighbor kid can't cut my grass if there is a landscaper in the neighborhood…?
No, the opposite. The IJ will surely side with the illegal alien interloper over the neighborhood kid. That is analogous to what they are doing here.
Good point.
Thanks! This is set up to be the first lawsuit in a whole nationwide initiative. We'll be looking to file lawsuits and/or engage the grassroots all over the country, wherever this harassment is happening. We're hopeful this first lawsuit will set solid precedent.
How fortunate are we as a country that we have such an abundance of food and people fighting to feed us?
How about a parallel government? You can pay enormous taxes to be a "citizen" of the corporation of the US or some new government that DOESN'T hand our money over to Israel and fights expensive wars on their behalf? They could issue real money rather than debt-money. We could use some competition. You can immigrate without moving.
They are in shopping districts stupid.
The dirty ones don't last long
People can see the kitchen on a truck
When was the last time a restaurant let you in the kitchen?
Oh, they are RESTRICTED to there?
What makes you think mobile vendors are less aware of or are less regulated in terms of food safety?
All businesses that sell food to the public are regulated, inspected and must have trained and qualified people on staff at all times.
Beyond the regulations and inspections you must understand, making people sick is bad for business – this is a very competitive low margin business. In the food service industry you will find some of the hardest working people you will find anywhere.
If you are interested I cannot recommend enough
http://www.amazon.com/Kitchen-Confidential-Advent...
Get the state off of their back!
Mr. Ewing, good work sir!
Competition drives every business to be aware of their shortcomings and successes. Without competition innovation and creativity suffers. If your business is a fixed establishment and you feel vendors are hurting your business…..why not find out why, rather than whine like a school girl? No longer does the 'competitive edge' have the same meaning it once did.
I thought Texas was a sane state.
"They are acting like a protection racket."
It's not like a racket.
It is a racket.
"The only proper purpose of a government is to protect man’s rights, which means: to protect him from physical violence. A proper government is only a policeman, acting as an agent of man’s self-defense, and, as such, may resort to force only against those who start the use of force. The only proper functions of a government are: the police, to protect you from criminals; the army, to protect you from foreign invaders; and the courts, to protect your property and contracts from breach or fraud by others, to settle disputes by rational rules, according to objective law. But a government that initiates the employment of force against men who had forced no one, the employment of armed compulsion against disarmed victims, is a nightmare infernal machine designed to annihilate morality: such a government reverses its only moral purpose and switches from the role of protector to the role of man’s deadliest enemy, from the role of policeman to the role of a criminal vested with the right to the wielding of violence against victims deprived of the right of self-defense. Such a government substitutes for morality the following rule of social conduct: you may do whatever you please to your neighbor, provided your gang is bigger than his."
Galt’s Speech, "For the New Intellectual", Ayn Rand
I've had some of the best food in my life at those food stalls. What fun they are!
Travel much?
Oh now hold on. You mess with the first amendment and you'll piss me off.
Mess with the second amendment and you'll get a fight out of me.
But mess with my chance to get good food while someone make a decent
and honest living then I call for a peaceful revolution of the El Paso Government.
OK not really, but who the hell is running things down there? A bunch of
whiny libs?
Excuse me? "Funds the city needs", is that your premise?
What of the business owners, the consumers, do they have no need for these funds?
You are a statist, you believe the state owns the money to begin with.
And you want all the little people to just slave away, do what they are told and eat what they are handed out.
Isn't that so?
We reject this.
We stand for individual liberty and the rights of man. Limited government needs limited funds.
How about you give them all your money first, how about that then.
Dude, I'm so conservative I make Rush Limbaugh look like Hilary Clinton and I'm against this.
What's wrong is wrong and this certainly is. Not all of them are illegal.
Shut up.
I had to share this comment with my co-workers. Excellent point and well put.
SWOOSHH!! Swing and a miss
You have great trust in your city's bureaucracy, maybe rightfully so, but that aside,
I won't enter a restuarant where the exterior is shabby, I don't know what the kitchen is
like but why bother. I don't know what the kitchen is like in a well maintained eatery
but chances are pretty good its OK. Roadside vendors are no different, some are well
maintained some are so so and some look terrible. I have avoided all rather than
then chance it, I am probably missing a pleasant experience but its my loss.
Perhaps my reasoning is flawed but I don't have the trust that you do in your
statement that " all businesses that sell food to the public are etc."
Hey Bob thanks for shedding light on this
I'm in the Mid-West now but I miss my old lunch trucks good food fast and cheap
Oh nice! Where from? I grew up in Cleveland.
I am increasingly aware of just how much we have turned over to the government, vis-a-vis our safety.
We just assume that the restaurants we frequent will be clean and safe. And, why? Well, because we pay our taxes, and part of our taxes go to that agency that inspects restaurants.
That is a pretty incredible statement, when you think of it. I can find myself walking into an entirely UNKNOWN dining establishment, and risking my well-being on the condition of the food, simply because I trust that the government wouldn't allow this institution to continue operating unless it was aboveboard.
Ugh… what a bizarre deal.
And, yet, I still hear plenty of "food poisoning" stories. We still hear about contaminations. We may insist that, "Well, no system is perfect, and it would be worse if we didn't have any government regulations at all." But, I wonder if that is true.
If restaurants TRULY had to build customer confidence in an unregulated industry… if they TRULY had to compete for my wallet, by being BETTER at everything (including cleanliness) than every other unregulated dining establishment… how much would they be willing to do (sanitation-wise) to earn and maintain my trust?
How many privately-owned quality assessment organizations would crop up who's sole purpose would be to inspect and investigate restaurants… thereby bestowing the organization's badge or commendation? "This establishment has been approved by the Hi-Qual International Inspection Association."
I dunno… 'twould be interesting to witness such a society. Sure, there would be pot-holes in such a concept; patrons would get sick because of irresponsible actions from unscrupulous restauranteurs. But, by removing all those regulations we would free up a number of government employees… and we would reduce the burden on individuals who want to enter the food service industry.
AND we would rid our legal/justice system of a (modest) number of criminals who are behind bars simply because they broke a food-service law.
Pointless to ponder, I assume.
I'm not sure that the government should be beholden to a "downtown". Especially if the government satisfies that obligation by creating a less-free society.
If the downtown wants to thrive, it should compete for customers, just like every other establishment in every other corner of the city.
"Saving the downtown" is a very territorial application of governmental power. What about the people in other parts of the city who don't live or work or visit the "downtown"? who don't consume the "downtown"? who don't take in the "downtown" as part of their daily lives? Are they lesser citizens or taxpayers?
I didn't imply that 'all businesses that sell food to the public are safe', mobile or otherwise.
They are however equally regulated and inspected.
"I don't know what the kitchen is like in a well maintained eatery but chances are pretty good its OK"
Trust me, it doesn't work that way. Read the book, you will enjoy it!
NW Iowa now
My city has zoned my business , and half dozen other businesses into non compliance in the" historical , cultural , district " of our community . The fact that they have specifically named the few remaining businesses , which surround a major intersection of a highway and our gasping and dying main street is not funny , but everyone I show this to has to laugh with me . Cant expand or rebuild after a fire or hurricane , and main street is lined with collapsing buildings and section 8 dwellings .
And this is exactly the kind of innovative thinking that is driving our national economic recovery .
"Once again this is what happens when one or two city councilors think they own the town."
Or when a group of businesses with a common vested interest own a couple of city councilors.
I fully support your efforts in attempting to dismantle this protection racket. However, could you please clarify which provision of the U.S. constitution guarantees you have the right to earn an honest living free from unreasonable regulations? Don't get me wrong, I believe something like that should be included in our constitution but it isn't there now… If this is your method of attack it is doomed to failure.
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