Nanny State of the Week: Food truck destruction by the health nannies
The threat of too many food options could overrun hungry lunchtime diners in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. Unless the nanny-state bureaucrats have something to say about it.
The Williamsport city planning commission is considering rules that would harshly regulate food trucks in the downtown drag in Williamsport, as local brick-and-mortar restaurants complained enough to get their considerations on the agenda. The claimed rationale is for increased safety for consumers, but it’s clear the city is just kneeling to the whim of the more powerful restaurant businesses.
Currently, the food trucks pay $80 per year for health and safety permits and $10 per day for parking. The new proposals being considered would increase permits to $150 per month and harsher restrictions on where food trucks could park and operate, as well as restrictions on the time of day they could serve customers. The proposals would decimate the food truck industry in the city, effectively outlawing more than one in any high-traffic area.
“These trucks have had a negative impact on many businesses downtown, especially when they park in front of the restaurant,” said Mayor Gabriel Campana, according to the Williamsport Sun-Gazette, “and it becomes a deterrent to citizens making a choice of going inside or receiving food as soon as possible on the streets.”
Of course, this goes against the benefits the food truck industry provides to a city. Upwardly Mobile, a study from the Institute for Justice on the industry, found that regulations like thousand-dollar permits for food trucks can decimate business in a smaller town. However, when food trucks aren’t regulated out of existence, they both increase business to the downtown area and to the traditional brick-and-mortar restaurants who think their businesses are being threatened.
he survey findings also suggest, the Institute for Justice report says, “that vendors are exactly the types of entrepreneurs cities should want to encourage. Vendors are hard workers and risk takers.”
Bowing to the demands of incumbent, powerful industries while instituting regulations that stiffle innovation in the name of “health and safety” is, unfortunately, what frequently happens in cases like these. The food truck industry has already provided benefits to Williamsport, but the nanny bureaucrats are threatening to snuff those out.
The threat of too many food options could overrun hungry lunchtime diners in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. Unless the nanny-state bureaucrats have something to say about it.
The Williamsport city planning commission is considering rules that would harshly regulate food trucks in the downtown drag in Williamsport, as local brick-and-mortar restaurants complained enough to get their considerations on the agenda. The claimed rationale is for increased safety for consumers, but it’s clear the city is just kneeling to the whim of the more powerful restaurant businesses.
Currently, the food trucks pay $80 per year for health and safety permits and $10 per day for parking. The new proposals being considered would increase permits to $150 per month and harsher restrictions on where food trucks could park and operate, as well as restrictions on the time of day they could serve customers. The proposals would decimate the food truck industry in the city, effectively outlawing more than one in any high-traffic area.
“These trucks have had a negative impact on many businesses downtown, especially when they park in front of the restaurant,” said Mayor Gabriel Campana, according to the Williamsport Sun-Gazette, “and it becomes a deterrent to citizens making a choice of going inside or receiving food as soon as possible on the streets.”
Of course, this goes against the benefits the food truck industry provides to a city. Upwardly Mobile, a study from the Institute for Justice on the industry, found that regulations like thousand-dollar permits for food trucks can decimate business in a smaller town. However, when food trucks aren’t regulated out of existence, they both increase business to the downtown area and to the traditional brick-and-mortar restaurants who think their businesses are being threatened.
he survey findings also suggest, the Institute for Justice report says, “that vendors are exactly the types of entrepreneurs cities should want to encourage. Vendors are hard workers and risk takers.”
Bowing to the demands of incumbent, powerful industries while instituting regulations that stiffle innovation in the name of “health and safety” is, unfortunately, what frequently happens in cases like these. The food truck industry has already provided benefits to Williamsport, but the nanny bureaucrats are threatening to snuff those out.
