Truckin'

More Food-Truck Crackdowns in Midtown

Dawn scofflaws!
Dawn scofflaws!

Just last week we wondered whether the food-truck era could be waning, and now the Times brings word of further crackdowns for mobile vendors in midtown. It seems the Treats Truck, Rickshaw Dumplings, the Desi truck, and others have been ousted from their customary parking spaces, much to the dismay of customers and owners. “I spent years building up customers in those locations, and we’re suddenly cut off from them,” fumed Treats Truck’s owner Kim Ima. Brick-and-mortar business in the area, however, might well be rubbing their hands with delight: Some food-truck owners suspect that increased police enforcement of a half-century-old law forbidding vending in parking spaces is the result of increased complaints from permanent businesses near the trucks. In other words: The immobile shops are just jelz! After all, Ima points out that ““a lot of out-of-town tourists put the trucks on their itineraries.” Can anyone say that about a Cosi?

Food Trucks Shooed From Midtown [NYT]

More Food-Truck Crackdowns in Midtown