Proposed City of Sheboygan ordinance would limit activity of food trucks
Sounds kind of good, I could handle a Gyro right about now. There was a Middle Eastern food truck (or maybe it was Greek) at Summerfest one year that served the best falafel. I watched the Great Food Truck Race on Food Network religiously both seasons it has been on. Food trucks seem to be the latest fad around, and good for them. It is an interesting and novel business. But make no mistake, it is a business, operators are just as cutthroat as a small business can be.
Therefore, when I heard comments about how awful it was that the city was raising fees on the trucks, I smelled a rat.
"The ordinance, which was unanimously recommended for approval by the city Law and Licensing Committee, also would increase the fees paid by vendors from $100 to $500."
Part of a comment went like this:
"But the rest seems to be standard "justify our existence" and "Moneygrab" crap. Just let everyone sell their stuff, (The $100 fee was perfectly fine before, why not now all of a sudden? This is one of my biggest beefs with government currently. The costs go up (fee's/taxes) and yet the level of service we receive in return is lower than ever, and going down... what the hell? I understand increased costs, but if we pay more, at a minimum, shouldn't the level of service be the same?) and get the hell out of the way! This is why nothing ever happens around here. There's always some government body with a hand out, and a form to fill out, and it quickly goes from "This could be a cool idea!" to "Oh... the hell with it! It's just not worth it!"
This is from the same guy that defended the former mayor's right to get falling-down drunk in public.
"Moneygrab" love it. His governor yanked away all sorts of funding for local services, said cities can't raise property taxes to offset the cuts, but this guy acts like the fees will be going into the councilmembers pockets. Oh well, understanding economics was never his strong suit.
Now, there is no mention of whether this fee is annual, or just initial when you apply to open a business. If it is one time, then a fact escaped the guys whining about it. Even if annual, this is standard operating procedure for local businesses. Yes, the same crowd that objects to smoking bans is going to cry that they cannot get food after stumbling out of the bar at 2:30 am. But, the established truckers bought themselves a ticket out of competition. Service suffers when you have official protection, no fear from a new guy in the business who might care more about serving drunks. You might not oppose some regulation so strongly if it also meant your market share would be protected by law. Just pass on the cost increases to the
Someday, I have hope that my friend here will realize that business is ammoral. They do not exist to "serve" you, they exist to separate you from your money. This kind of corruption is insidious, it breaks one of the central tenets of capitalism. That being unobstructed entry and exit from the market. Perfect information is another tenet, competition is only fair when people know what is going on. But hey, it's all about you right? And your rights and your freedom.
I am so glad I escaped from this culture.
You are glad you escaped the culture, yet you're right on top of the city's current events with strong opinions? Sounds like a jealous ex-girlfriend of mine.
ReplyDelete"strongsuite"? I'm guessing english isn't yours, buddy. And you tell me where the money's going. This whole issue is Sheboygan thinking that somebody has the edge on the city, and they hate it. Our former mayor, as falling-down drunk as he was, wouldn't have had a problem with these food trucks as he was a proponent of economic growth through business development. So these guys have wheels on their restaurants. Stick them in a food court or a strip mall or the lakefront on the Fourth of July and everything's gravy? But a public street corner on the busiest road in town at that time of the day wouldn't be smart, it's a questionable business tactic.
Forget the fact that me driving to Taco Bell, Perkins, or anywhere else on the edge of town after drinking could pose a safety risk to myself as well as the others in my community (or for that matter path of travel in my vehicle). Forget the fact that being able to walk a half a block to grab a bite and then a taxi home is the most responsible thing a bar patron could do at 2:00AM.
The businesses take our money and that's all the want. I know this. They are smart business people to serve easy-to-prepare food at convenience prices to drunk people. Nothing illegal about that. Our police and city administrators on the other hand, civil servants that they are, have no right preying on the business people in the same manner (scratch that, worse manner) that they prey hungry drinkers. Increasing a person's cost of business in the city as well as limiting their opportunities to virtually nothing are hardly good for local entrepreneurs.
Did you create a profile just so you could get cute about this? Really got under your skin eh? Yes, strong suit, a phrase we often say but rarely write, thank you for bringing it to my attention. I could do without the juvenile slanders though, somehow I doubt anyone is jealous of you. I have some more everyday phrases for you, like "proof read" or even "spell check." Apparently I should have spelled out what I meant by culture for you aggressive simpletons. The "work all week in the factory to come out to the bars on the weekend" culture, and all that goes with it. As a veteran of Eclipse, PLENCO, and Kohler, I remember it well. Nothing but a bunch of angry, introverted poseurs trying to look cooler than and judging the group of angry, introverted poseurs next to them. That's when outright fights aren't breaking out. Good riddance, you can have it. You obviously rode the short bus to school rudy, I haven't seen so many run-on sentences and half-formed thoughts in quite a while.
DeleteI suggest you go back and reread the post, please pick out where I said something akin to "food trucks bad" or "city government is the greatest." I was suggesting a shade of grey, apparently one just out of your comprehension.
I just wanted to throw my observations in from the side of the civil servants who have to deal with food trucks.
ReplyDeleteMy comments are based on the following:
1) I worked for Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department (TPCHD) in Food Safety as an inspector from 2007 to 2009 until we moved to Fort Bragg, NC. (Thanks, Uncle Sam.)
2) My opinions come from dealing with the 3 food trucks in my inspection area in Tacoma, WA, and not Sheboygan, WI.
3) There are state-by-state interpretations of the FDA Food Safety Code, and no two states are alike in what they enforce.
I fucking hate Food Trucks for the simple reason that most overreach their intended purposes and try to do things that they are not permitted for nor are safe to do. Regulating and inspecting food trucks is a pain in the ass for several reasons:
1) You have to track them down. If they operate on a vending route, you have to try to get them as they go from site to site and do your inspection without disrupting their established route. Easier said than done, especially if the truck has problems.
2) While the majority of Food Trucks operated during the day, a scenario like you describe above - where trucks operate only at bartime - would necessitate having an inspector actually inspect their operations at bartime to see what goes on during the cooking process. I had many places that only opened after 6PM in my area, and I had to do night inspections and smoking inspections late at night, and at an overtime pay rate. Inspecting places outside of normal business hours does not come cheap.
3) By TPCHD's definition, Food Trucks are meant to be mobile and return to a base of operations each night to dispose of wastewater, take on supplies, put food into appropriate temperature storage, prepare produce, etc. but many of them are built in as permanent structures and are, in essence, a way of having a restaurant without going through the formal permitting process and accompanying fee for doing so.
4) In every inspection that I performed on my 3 trucks, there were always serious violations for things that would get you sick in a hurry because Food Truck people often do things that aren't what their trucks are intended to do, such as cooling food, preparing produce or hot-holding food in steam-tables overnight. While these things go on in brick-and-mortar restaurants as well, taking a per-capita approach, there were more sickness complaints attributed to Food Trucks than regular restaurants.
5) During my time of inspecting these trucks, I've never had one pass on the first go. This is not because I'm some anal-retentive bitch on a powertrip - it's because the violations were THAT FUCKING OBVIOUS. A routine inspection on a Food Truck would usually take me an 1-1/2 or more because they were always so assed up and I usually had to close them. With a closure, a reinspection is mandatory, and reinspecting them was usually another 45 minutes or more, depending on how assed up they still were.
6) ALL of my Food Trucks were operated by limited English proficiency speakers. While I am bilingual in Spanish, I had to learn an entire new technical jargon to be able to effectively communicate with and educate the owners and workers of those trucks (as well as other restaurants). This learning I did on my own, at no cost to the department, and while I was with TPCHD, I received no additional pay for being able to speak another language even though Private Sector people doing the same jobs - like at Ecosure - would have had such a bonus. I'm not complaining about it - just pointing out that us crappy ass civil servants do go out of our way to do things that aren't in our job description.
(cont)
During my time working for TPCHD, the funds provided to our health department from the State of Washington for enforcement and other programs was dramatically scaled back. Did we raise fees? Yes, and in many cases, the rise in fees helped to keep our program running and, in turn, helped to keep people from getting sick from poorly run establishments that were, in all honesty, more about making the buck off their marks than providing those marks food that was made in a safe manner.
ReplyDeleteIt is people like the first poster that are the first to get outraged, bitch and wonder what the fuck the health department was doing to prevent his case of food poisoning shits and vomiting, but at the same time, have no qualms against reducing the funding for that very same health department to be able to inspect establishments, and thereby prevent people from getting sick in the first place.
You see it time and time again. Agencies like the USDA and FDA are not fully supported or are beholden to special interests, lobbyists, and industry and lack the manpower, resources and just plain legal bite to be effective. Because of that, consumers are the ones that have to suffer with recalls, tainted products and unsafe food. You can't have it both ways. Either you fully fund a program and deal with permit costs that will rise or you take your chances and eat food that isn't safe.
Finally, as a former resident of Sheboygan (and chow-slinging kitchen veteran of the now parking lot formerly known as the 24 hr Country Kitchen), I also bemoan the lack of post bar nosh options. Sheboygan is a city of 50K+, and should be able to sustain 24 hr restaurants without a problem. Why Sheboygan cannot seem to do that is beyond me. However, my guess is that it's probably location, lack of late night transpo options, and the general hassle and the increased cost of business of dealing with drunks in a brick-and-mortar restaurant, but the civil servants and our fees aren't the sole reason that these establishments don't flourish.
Thanks Hally, I did not think a public safety angle would make any difference. You have demonstrated that it definitely does. Combining our ideas renders the objections to this "I trust business, not government." There was a saying in the '70s that a conservative is a liberal who has been mugged. Liberalism suppoesedly coddled criminals so liberals could not be trusted to protect the public. Conservatives today coddle business, but there is no similar reaction that "a liberal is a conservative who has been poisoned, defrauded, or otherwise harmed by business." Instead, they would be likely to respond to getting sick or ripped off by blaming government and demanding tax cuts and more deregulation.
ReplyDelete