FARK.com: (7500164) If you're a City Commissioner pushing for a ban on all food trucks, it looks a little hypocritical if you also own a restaurant right by where the food trucks would park

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		If you're a City Commissioner pushing for a ban on all food trucks, it looks a little hypocritical if you also own a restaurant right by where the food trucks would park (sun-sentinel.com)		58
		More: Florida, morning, food truck, Institute for Justice, commissioners

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cman		2012-12-22 06:41:39 PM

"Hypocritical" is not the right word. "Suspicious", however, is acceptable.

OregonVet		2012-12-22 06:45:24 PM

Very misleading headline.

BronyMedic		2012-12-22 06:51:49 PM

Can anyone tell me what the definition of "Conflict of Interest" is?

ZAZ		2012-12-22 07:30:07 PM

"The government is not allowed to make protectionist laws that protect one business over another"

Sure it is. There is even an exception in federal antitrust law for state-authorized monopolies.

fusillade762		2012-12-22 07:47:23 PM

"The government is not allowed to make protectionist laws that protect one business over another," said Justin Pearson, executive director of the Institute for Justice, Florida Chapter. "That's unconstitutional."

Constitution knowledge FAIL.

Theaetetus		2012-12-22 08:00:25 PM

OregonVet: Very misleading headline.

TFA: Sunrise Commissioner Joey Scuotto is urging an all-out ban on food trucks. Scuotto, who owns a pizza place down the street from City Hall, says the rolling restaurants draw away customers from brick-and-mortar establishments.

I think you misspelled "accurate" there.

lordargent		2012-12-22 09:20:41 PM

Theaetetus: I think you misspelled "accurate" there.

Hypocritical would be if the guy also owned food trucks. So yes, the headline is inaccurate, this isn't hypocritical at all.

nytmare		2012-12-22 09:21:29 PM

Maybe the word you are looking for is "self-serving".

_{/mmm, buffet}

APE992		2012-12-22 09:27:00 PM

nytmare: Maybe the word you are looking for is "self-serving".

/mmm, buffet

Or "farkwit".

Real Women Drink Akvavit		2012-12-22 09:33:07 PM

I used to love stalking the taco trucks when I lived in SoCal. Some will even tweet their locations nowadays, so it's even easier. You can get some surprisingly tasty food from those things if you don't have time to go out to the fields and get truly authentic Mexican food from one of the trucks that parks out there. It would be a horrible thing to do to the people of Sunrise to take that joy away from them.

/also chases the ice cream man down

Funk Brothers		2012-12-22 09:34:47 PM

Apparently food trucks are popular is because they don't have to collect a sales tax or yet a property tax since they're mobile.

Mutt Farkinov		2012-12-22 09:39:31 PM

This sort of thing seems to be pretty common. I've seen similar with a real estate developer sitting on the city council. She made a lot of money from her influence. Of course, she stepped out for all the votes that involved her business but to my knowledge, a vote never went against her.

/unethical vs. illegal?
//she got voted out in a recall election along with most of the others

Warlordtrooper		2012-12-22 09:39:50 PM

happyleper		2012-12-22 09:45:52 PM

Funk Brothers: Apparently food trucks are popular is because they don't have to collect a sales tax or yet a property tax since they're mobile.

Food sold from a food truck isn't exempt from taxes in my state, nor is it exempt in states where all food is taxable.

keithgabryelski		2012-12-22 09:48:07 PM

i've tried to enjoy food trucks.

but basically it's bad restaurant food that is so because it is restricted by the amount of preparation and made to stay in a truck for hours before serving, the diversity of the meal (because of the size of the truck), the prices are no better, and the lines are long.

some one tell me when I'm supposed to be impressed.

/has eaten at a lot of food trucks
//not all are bad, but this phase of food truck mania is a fad that I will not miss

gerbilpox		2012-12-22 09:48:19 PM

Also, isn't it ironic?

/Subtard, here's a pro tip:
//merriam-webster.com

TomD9938		2012-12-22 10:03:59 PM

Keeping trashy sandwich wagons off the city streets is a legitimate function of government.

thisisyourbrainonFark		2012-12-22 10:04:04 PM

Food cart thread?

When I worked in Portland, I probably gained 20 lbs from this place. Best Thai I've had for about $7. Don't know what their prices are now, but goddamn was it great and nearly impossible to resist at lunch.

Link

/yes, sound fat, got it.

Strobeguy		2012-12-22 10:11:37 PM

Went down to mexico. Had a little bit of the runs first night. By the 3rd day was eating breakfast and lunch off the mexican roach coach for two weeks..good times...good food

BigRightRear		2012-12-22 10:13:34 PM

This is Sunrise, Fl. we're talking about here. Anyone remember John Lomelo? He set the bar and the others followed accordingly.

Meethookz		2012-12-22 10:21:08 PM

Real Women Drink Akvavit: I used to love stalking the taco trucks when I lived in SoCal. Some will even tweet their locations nowadays, so it's even easier. You can get some surprisingly tasty food from those things if you don't have time to go out to the fields and get truly authentic Mexican food from one of the trucks that parks out there. It would be a horrible thing to do to the people of Sunrise to take that joy away from them.

/also chases the ice cream man down

As a 3rd shift worker, I hate the neighborhood ice cream trucks. They play this ear shattering music that I can hear... and of course they park right in front of my house.

/it haunts my dreams

moefuggenbrew		2012-12-22 10:37:02 PM

Rick Scott

JohnCarter		2012-12-22 10:44:36 PM

"The government is not allowed to make protectionist laws that protect one business over another,"

As has been noted, that is EXACTLY what GovCo does, day in and day out. Barriers to entry that favor existing businesses, bizarre zoning laws, random code enforcement just to name a few laws and activities and local, state, and federal governments participate in 24/7 (well actually more like 10 to 4 with about 20 holidays)

WayToBlue		2012-12-22 11:06:54 PM

"We have so many restaurants struggling to stay afloat in Sunrise," he told the Sun Sentinel. "I see it as a disadvantage to the businesses that the food trucks come in here."

Quick, someone find me the world's smallest violin!

/farking capitalism, how do it work?

lack of warmth		2012-12-22 11:11:47 PM

Hey, why the hate for the commissioner? The man puts bacon on pizza. Bacon on Pizza! The man knows how to reach the public.

4tehsnowflakes		2012-12-22 11:12:50 PM

ZAZ: "The government is not allowed to make protectionist laws that protect one business over another"

Sure it is. There is even an exception in federal antitrust law for state-authorized monopolies.

Hush, your milk is ready.

In 1978 the Supreme Court nuked a NJ law that prohibited landfills in NJ from accepting most waste from outside the state.The law was unconstitutional because it was discriminatory and protectionist.In 1951, the Supremesz [typo and it stays] said a city could not allow only sales of milk produced within a five mile radius of the city.Same doctrine.

The constitutional basis is the Commerce Clause, specifically the so-called "dormant" clause that impliedly prohibits state and local governments from making laws that unreasonably restrict business in restraint of trade. It underlies antitrust law and the act of a state is not exempt from scrutiny for restraint of trade because of what the antitrust laws say. When the rationale for the law is openly protectionist of local interests, it gets struck down most of the time.

Here the local official who thought he was too smart to need any advice and is pushing the measure already trumpeted a naked protectionist rationale for the law, soooooo it oughta be DOA.

//strictly scrutinized and thoroughly overcooked

Radioactive Ass		2012-12-22 11:16:32 PM

WayToBlue: /farking capitalism, how do it work?

This. If a restaurant is that good then people will come. If the issue is sanitation then increase public health inspections (food trucks are not exempt). If it's because they can offer food for less because of less overhead (and less amenities as a result) then either change your business model (in other words get your own food truck) or figure out a way to generate more foot traffic coming into your business.

Don't go out and abuse a public trust to simply drive away the competition just because you can.

Real Women Drink Akvavit		2012-12-22 11:28:10 PM

Meethookz: Real Women Drink Akvavit: I used to love stalking the taco trucks when I lived in SoCal. Some will even tweet their locations nowadays, so it's even easier. You can get some surprisingly tasty food from those things if you don't have time to go out to the fields and get truly authentic Mexican food from one of the trucks that parks out there. It would be a horrible thing to do to the people of Sunrise to take that joy away from them.

/also chases the ice cream man down

As a 3rd shift worker, I hate the neighborhood ice cream trucks. They play this ear shattering music that I can hear... and of course they park right in front of my house.

/it haunts my dreams

The dude who usually drives the ice cream truck most commonly spotted in my neighborhood seems to be a bit of a sadist. He'll see the little kids running out after him and keep driving for a block or so. I'll start chasing him down on my skateboard, the kids will all cheer cuz they know I can catch him, and I'll see him looking right toward us in the side mirror and still going. I think a bit of sadism might be a job requirement for those guys.

/or maybe he's concerned for their fitness and wants to make sure they get their exercise
//now give me my Astropop, you evil bastard

Mixolydian Master		2012-12-22 11:50:46 PM

lack of warmth: Hey, why the hate for the commissioner? The man puts bacon on pizza. Bacon on Pizza! The man knows how to reach the public.

Then the food trucks should fear him, and find a different locale.

Agatha Crispy		2012-12-22 11:52:38 PM

4tehsnowflakes: ZAZ: "The government is not allowed to make protectionist laws that protect one business over another"

Sure it is. There is even an exception in federal antitrust law for state-authorized monopolies.

Hush, your milk is ready.

In 1978 the Supreme Court nuked a NJ law that prohibited landfills in NJ from accepting most waste from outside the state.The law was unconstitutional because it was discriminatory and protectionist.In 1951, the Supremesz [typo and it stays] said a city could not allow only sales of milk produced within a five mile radius of the city.Same doctrine.

The constitutional basis is the Commerce Clause, specifically the so-called "dormant" clause that impliedly prohibits state and local governments from making laws that unreasonably restrict business in restraint of trade. It underlies antitrust law and the act of a state is not exempt from scrutiny for restraint of trade because of what the antitrust laws say. When the rationale for the law is openly protectionist of local interests, it gets struck down most of the time.

Here the local official who thought he was too smart to need any advice and is pushing the measure already trumpeted a naked protectionist rationale for the law, soooooo it oughta be DOA.

//strictly scrutinized and thoroughly overcooked

So I can start driving people around and charge them? And I can open up a salon and start cutting hair?
And I can start making beer in my basement and sell it on the street? Sounds good to me.

SmithHiller		2012-12-22 11:57:16 PM

nytmare: Maybe the word you are looking for is "self-serving".

/mmm, buffet

This

More_Like_A_Stain		2012-12-23 12:07:05 AM

Agatha Crispy: So I can start driving people around and charge them? And I can open up a salon and start cutting hair?
And I can start making beer in my basement and sell it on the street? Sounds good to me.

If you can meet the licensing and operational requirements, yes. Guess what? The food trucks meet the same requirements that restaurants do. The same business/occupational license and the same health and food service regulations.

Agatha Crispy		2012-12-23 12:13:41 AM

Radioactive Ass		2012-12-23 12:20:30 AM

More_Like_A_Stain: Agatha Crispy: So I can start driving people around and charge them? And I can open up a salon and start cutting hair?
And I can start making beer in my basement and sell it on the street? Sounds good to me.

If you can meet the licensing and operational requirements, yes. Guess what? The food trucks meet the same requirements that restaurants do. The same business/occupational license and the same health and food service regulations.

Exactly. The only difference is in operating costs. No rent\mortgage\ADA\etc = lower prices at the point of sale while still making the same amount of profit as a brick and mortar storefront. For the obvious reasons restaurants don't like them. Of course the restaurants don't mention that they offer plenty of other things (service\seating\no exposure to the elements\bathrooms and so on) that food trucks don't have.

There's also nothing preventing them from having their own food truck that can directly compete with the existing ones. I'd think that a pizza one selling product by the slice would be especially easy as all it needs is a few pizza warming lamps with the pizzas being made in the store and then delivered as needed to the truck wherever it may be.

4tehsnowflakes		2012-12-23 12:22:47 AM

Agatha Crispy		2012-12-23 12:35:12 AM

Have a friend from the Philippines who opened up a shop for defoliation. She had some kind of fish that ate dead skin off your feet and did nails (not the fish, but the lady....never mind). Started doing really good and then the town shut her down because she didn't have a cosmotology license in New Jersey. $2,000 and had to pay to attend classes. Sure the fish thing sounds strange but there were a lot of Asians she knew that liked that. But the locals felt they were being pushed out so they started throwing around their clout. She couldn't afford it because she was doing it out of her house and one of the regulations in her township was that barbers and hair stylists couldn't work out of a private residence. But she never cut hair nor wanted to.

felching pen		2012-12-23 12:42:22 AM

He serves pizza with bacon strips on it. PIZZA WITH BACON STRIPS. He has nothing to fear!

BarkingUnicorn		2012-12-23 01:05:02 AM

When did they stop calling food trucks "roach coaches?"

4tehsnowflakes		2012-12-23 01:13:27 AM

Agatha Crispy: fish that ate dead skin off your feet

Cool story, companheira.

bunner		2012-12-23 01:22:34 AM

"Yew cain't eat food from a TRUCK! It's in a TRUCK! It's unsanitary! Next thing you know, the neighborhood will fill up with kneegrahs and hippies and Messkins and people with them there oblong glasses and stupid haircuts, eatin' tofu!" This message brought to you by some political hack who owns a restaurant,

redcard		2012-12-23 01:34:49 AM

Here's the thing, though, they DON'T meet the same licensing and regulation requirements to operate in the city.

Read the article. There is a standing ban on outdoor sales. You must be in a building to sell. And that requires a local tax id and property taxes.

The problem is, you have to catch someone in the act of making a sale.

What this guy wants to do is go one step before that. He assumes that because a truck is in the city, parked on the side of the road, with windows open and sign and price guide visible, that they WILL make an outdoor sale. He's wanting them banned on that knowledge.

I do agree there's a conflict of interest, but let's not act like the food trucks are following the law. They are not.

bunner		2012-12-23 01:41:33 AM

redcard: let's not act like the food trucks are following the law. They are not.

Fair enough. As long as we don' pretend that the law doesn't exist for the sole sake of screwing over entrepreneurs who don't want to pony up for a building and it's hefty revenue stream for the city and / or don't want their business tied to one location and the vagaries involved in limiting your customer base to that location. These are the same dildos who legislate what school children may or may not eat for lunch, from what source and in what containers. It's protectionist horsesh*t and favors a viable method of commerce for those who already HAVE money. It's good old boy lawmaking.

ArkAngel		2012-12-23 02:14:59 AM

keithgabryelski: i've tried to enjoy food trucks.

but basically it's bad restaurant food that is so because it is restricted by the amount of preparation and made to stay in a truck for hours before serving, the diversity of the meal (because of the size of the truck), the prices are no better, and the lines are long.

some one tell me when I'm supposed to be impressed.

/has eaten at a lot of food trucks
//not all are bad, but this phase of food truck mania is a fad that I will not miss

You think brick and mortar places don't keep food under heat lamps/in hot holders/steam trays for hours at a time?

Agatha Crispy: Have a friend from the Philippines who opened up a shop for defoliation. She had some kind of fish that ate dead skin off your feet and did nails (not the fish, but the lady....never mind). Started doing really good and then the town shut her down because she didn't have a cosmotology license in New Jersey. $2,000 and had to pay to attend classes. Sure the fish thing sounds strange but there were a lot of Asians she knew that liked that. But the locals felt they were being pushed out so they started throwing around their clout. She couldn't afford it because she was doing it out of her house and one of the regulations in her township was that barbers and hair stylists couldn't work out of a private residence. But she never cut hair nor wanted to.

In most places, barbers require more schooling than police.

der Glitzkrieg		2012-12-23 04:02:15 AM

Agatha Crispy: Have a friend from the Philippines who opened up a shop for defoliation. She had some kind of fish that ate dead skin off your feet and did nails (not the fish, but the lady....never mind). Started doing really good and then the town shut her down because she didn't have a cosmotology license in New Jersey. $2,000 and had to pay to attend classes. Sure the fish thing sounds strange but there were a lot of Asians she knew that liked that. But the locals felt they were being pushed out so they started throwing around their clout. She couldn't afford it because she was doing it out of her house and one of the regulations in her township was that barbers and hair stylists couldn't work out of a private residence. But she never cut hair nor wanted to.

Cosmetology covers hair, nails, and skin. New Jersey has a separate license available for those that only want to do nails. She was fined for breaking state laws and regulations. Being licensed to perform services means that they know basic sanitation procedures and how to deal with blood spills.

WhyteRaven74		2012-12-23 04:41:51 AM

But remember the government comes up with crippling regulation on its own. At least according to some people.

Real Women Drink Akvavit		2012-12-23 06:00:36 AM

BarkingUnicorn: When did they stop calling food trucks "roach coaches?"

Don't rat me out, but I still do that a lot.

dstrick44		2012-12-23 08:33:37 AM

wasn' t this an episode of "The Glades"?

Flab		2012-12-23 08:45:42 AM

Agatha Crispy: More_Like_A_Stain: Agatha Crispy: So I can start driving people around and charge them? And I can open up a salon and start cutting hair?
And I can start making beer in my basement and sell it on the street? Sounds good to me.

If you can meet the licensing and operational requirements, yes.

I was referring to someone else but since you feel the need: Who writes up the licensing and operational requirements?

The ~~Restaurant owners association~~ totally impartial government officials, why do you ask?

/Food trucks are banned in my city for "sanitary reasons" and Big Restaurant intends to keep it that way!

payattention		2012-12-23 09:27:10 AM

Isn't it amazing that businesses don't want regulations.... until they need one to stop someone from competing with them? I always thought a capitalistic system was about offering products and then watching who wants them? And, I supposed that the idea of making a better product when one is challenged on one's original product was how this worked. I guess I was wrong. We don't live in a capitalistic system... we live in a land where the few existing wish the rest to go away and die... and to buy their product... sometimes whether you want it or not. (Yes, there are laws in place to force you to buy certain things from certain people, regardless of whether you want it or not, or need it or not.)

keithgabryelski		2012-12-23 09:49:00 AM

ArkAngel: You think brick and mortar places don't keep food under heat lamps/in hot holders/steam trays for hours at a time?

I think that brick and mortar places have less restrictions and therefore have an advantage.

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