(sign the petition by leaving your name and city and a note, if you like, in the comments below)
Recently, the Sacramento City Council almost-unanimously enacted an ordinance drastically restricting the ways in which mobile food vendors - principally taco trucks - may do business in the city. Even though the vast majority of Sacramento's taco trucks (including all those relied upon by downtown and Natomas third-shift employees) do business from private property - parking lots where they've received owner permission to be - the new city regulations basically tell property owners that they don't know what's best for themselves, and enact all sorts of new rules on the trucks.
And even though the ordinance claims to only regulate "operation on the public right-of-way," we've been told by two sources on the City Council staff that it will be enforced against trucks in private parking lots, as well, even if they have permission from the property owner to vend at that location.
5.68.170 Operation on the public right-of-way. (full text here)
It is unlawful for any person to operate a food vending vehicle while stopped, standing or parked on the public right-of-way:
- A. Between the hours of eight p.m. of one day and five a.m. of the following day during the months of April, May, June, July, August, September and October;
- B. Between the hours of six p.m. of one day and five a.m. of the following day during the months of November, December, January, February and March.
- C. For more than thirty (30) minutes in one location, without moving to a new location at least four hundred (400) feet away;
- D. Within four hundred (400) feet of a location where the same food vending vehicle previously operated, on the same calendar day;
- E. Within four hundred (400) feet of any other food vending vehicle; or
- F. Within one hundred (100) feet of any street intersection controlled by a traffic light or stop sign. (Ord. 2008-008 ยง 2)
Certainly it would be next to impossible for the trucks to move, heat up the grills, set up their fridges, cook & serve & then clean before decamping for their next location all in 30 minutes. In fact, it's almost impossible to set up and get the grill going - not to mention actually sell any food - in under 25 minutes, according to at least one truck operator; by enforcing these regulations, the city will actually decrease safety and cleanliness by reducing cleaning & proper setup times.
City Council staff have claimed that they did indeed talk to taco truck owners, but we've been able to talk to over a dozen - including the proprietors of every downtown, Arden and Natomas area truck - and not a single one can remember ever being approached by anyone from the city; none were told about the city council meeting where the vote was held, and none have been told about the new regulations.
The California Apellate court has already ruled that similar regulations in other cities were "prior restraint of trade," and while I'm no attorney, if the law says that other California cities can't put hardworking people who are providing a public service out of business, I don't see why such competition-killing tactics are allowed by the City Council (especially when the California Vehicle Code says very clearly that street vendors can't be prohibited).
This regulation is the same kind of anti-immigrant, classist abuse we've come to expect from the Sacramento City Council; it doesn't surprise me, but what does surprise me is that half of the council refused to reply to calls & emails asking if they talked to any of the vendors, and the rest flat-out lied, telling me there were links between the trucks and crime - even when the Sacramento Police Department says quite succinctly that they have no record of any such correlation.
Sacramento's taco trucks a part of our California culture, they are clean and safe to eat from (all are inspected as often or more often than restaurants, and on average all are substantially cleaner and have less violations than restaurants, due to the fact that most are owner-operated, cleaned out daily and have visible kitchen areas). Please help us keep them!
By signing your name and location below, you attest that you disagree with the Sacramento City Council's decision to criminalize most mobile food vendors in the city, and agree that you'd like our taco trucks back, health-inspected & safe, where they can serve Sacramento residents.
(sign the petition by leaving your name and city and a note, if you like, in the comments below)
