hhhmmmm . . . . . I can see some dangers so . . .I am just unsure about it. not enough to be for or against it. Rocket River
I'm fine with it, but it doesn't really seem necessary when the Houston Food Park is right next to downtown on the other side of 59.
Yeah, but you have to drive there and find parking and then end up taking it back because there is no seating. In the summer it's killer. I'd rather go down to the street, get the food and run back in to AC.
Don't see why it was illegal in the first place. This propane terrorist attack stuff is BS. Also the brick and mortars should welcome more traffic in the area. If the don't survive, it's probably because they have mediocre food (El Big Bad).
There is seating, but it is limited. You have a good point. However, the likelihood that a food truck is close and is one that you would actually go to seems pretty low (for me anyway). I like the variety one can find on any given day at HFP. I don't work downtown though, so it really doesn't affect me. Also, I have no clue what traffic is like over there during lunch.
Parking is not horrible but you might have to walk a half block or so. The food is made when you order which means you'll have to stand around. With no shade or seating that can suck, though I guess it wouldn't be different if it was on the streets of downtown. And like you said, there is canopy covered seating but it's limited. And if they made it legal downtown, I would imagine there would be many more trucks than there are currently at HFP. Or the guys there now would add more trucks themselves. And I would probably eat at any of them happily. And if they rotated their location daily, that would work out just fine.
More traffic. Hurts businesses that pay for leases downtown. Propane tanks might be an over rated danger but they are a danger. More downtown fumes. But yeah, im not walking 15 blocks to HFP.
Not sure how much of a danger it is considering New York City has food carts all over the city and is much more dense, unless these are two different scenarios. The danger ban is a bit of a stretch to me. I can see how local businesses that pay property leases could definitely be against it.
Obviously there is no threat. It's a political ploy by the brick and mortars who lobbied against it. If they feel the food trucks have a competitive advantage then they need to open a food truck themselves. If it's more beneficial to have a brick and mortar then that will bear out. I thought we're Texas and we're supposed to let the market figure it out.
How will that work out? You will have food trucks for lunch time and then downtown is a ghost town for the rest of the day. Also those tiny food carts use tiny propane tanks smaller than your home BBQ. These trucks use massive tanks to run everything. Like I said the danger is over rated but it is NOT as safe as a kitchen built to code. <script type="text/javascript" charset="UTF-8" src="http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/portableplayer/?cmsID=265604921&videoID=IUEQJ9r18yrM&origin=nbcphiladelphia.com&sec=news&subsec=local&width=600&height=360"></script> As for the free market: The real estate the food trucks are using is paid for by the public so it isn't on the same playing field.
How is that different than 70% of the food businesses downtown? Most of them only open for lunch and close at 3pm. The same playing field is exactly what it is because those shops have the same ability to go out and use that public real estate.
That was the intent. The problem is when you park a business on public property that is in an ideal and high priced area. It gives massive advantage. Downtown is way better than it used to be. I don't want to roll back the clock.
It's not really an advantage if customers want to sit and have a certain type of service. But even if it is an advantage, so what? And the argument that downtown is succeeding because there were no food trucks there or that food trucks will make it a ghostland is questionable. How exactly would that happen?
The point of a food truck is you don't need to lease space and you can change location based on market. You use a street to do business anbd you have not invested anything in that location right? They take up street space for parking or pickup/drop offs and create more downtown smog. There are restaurants downtown that only offer a lunch but many that are open at night and need the lunch crowd to stay afloat. I can't say it will lead to a ghost town but I think it would be easy to say it would devalue leased kitchen property downtown.
Maybe devalue kitchen property (which isn't clear, but just for the sake of argument) but if food trucks are successful then it means people are there and frequenting other businesses for drink, music, bowling, etc. It's also not necessarily true that current restaurants will lose. If this draws more growth to downtown then it will be a great thing. This happened in the heights with Torchys (not a food truck but relevant example). The business across the street ended up getting more customers from more people walking in the area. I'm more likely to go downtown if there are a variety of choices and venues. I may do a food truck once but then next time I'll be in the mood for Fusion Taco or Market Square Grill or something like that. But if there's only a limited amount of options, I may never go at all.
I'm not sure any increased foot traffic will result in benefits for established kitchens. The food trucks tweet where they are and people on lunch don't really roam. You also have to dodge them when you need to go to a real lunch and pick people in other buildings up. UPS trucks are bad enough, these things are bigger.
