October is here and as the autumn leaves turn yellow, most of the food truck operators have begun to park their trucks for the season. 2014 will go down in the books as the year that the raging national food truck phenomenon landed in the Glass City. And those with skin in the game won’t soon forget the heated council meeting back in July—where legislation for heightened restrictions on food trucks, influenced by downtown stakeholders and brick-and-mortar restaurant owners, caused an uproar among the people. The proposed legislation was quickly sent back to Mayor Collins, and any talk of food truck sanctions was temporarily shuddered. But what happens next?
Where it all began
Over the last year, a designated section of St. Clair became a home base for a growing number of local food trucks. Leading the pack is Rosie’s Rolling Chef, with owner Phil Barone as the spokesperson in the fight for the food trucks. “Last year I was guaranteed a spot on St. Clair [Street]. Mayor Bell welcomed the food trucks into the downtown area. This year, it seems that has changed,” said Barone. In June of this year, the city shut off the electricity that runs the generator in Barone's truck.
In 2013, the city started bagging the parking meters along the block of St. Clair St. at Levis Square, allowing food trucks to have a guaranteed place to park right at the heart of the central business district—a prime spot for lunchtime patrons. By the spring of this year, a handful of other food trucks saw the opportunity to capitalize on the trend, and this kicked off the dispute with the brick-and-mortar restaurants. This month, the city decided that they would no longer bag the meters. Barone has stopped bringing his food truck downtown, and now that the weather is cooler, it seems that progressive talks have come to a standstill.
The brick-and-mortar argument comes across strongest from Dave Ball, president of STS Property & Facility Management, Inc. “Many in the community look at the cool vibe rather than the real economics of it,” he said. According to Ball, “If the city allows the food trucks more than one day a week, in any general area, it will have a long-term negative impact on downtown.” At the time of this article, no new legislation has been passed, nor have there been any further public forums. But instead of looking at the "cool vibe," let's look at the facts.
The last one standing
Since the heated council meeting in July, three additional meetings have taken place in order to resolve this issue. Hosted at 5/3 Field, the additional meetings were all open forum, and according to Ball they were “fairly well attended.” At the last meeting, however, Barone was the only food truck operator left. At this point in time, the focal point of the dispute is centered on the amount of days per week that the meters will be bagged at Levis Square. “One day a week . . . more than that and restaurants will close,” says Ball. But Barone contends that “the trucks will have a difficult time staying open unless we’re allowed at least two days a week at this location . . . the city of Toledo has invited us down one year and uninvited us the next.”
Ball insists that food trucks will destroy downtown restaurant business. “I think the food trucks can be part of the solution or part of the problem. There are a lot of options for them, and they can do good things for the city. But they want to take the prime spot downtown during peak lunch hours, and without those patrons, downtown restaurants will have nothing,” he said. The problem with Ball's point is that the city needs more business, not less—and the only way to achieve this is to welcome new small businesses. Food trucks are small businesses; they're not just hobbies or novelty attractions. Would Ball say the same if it were a brick-and-mortar opening up next door to another, existing restaurant? Eliminating competition in a free market is anti-Constitutional, and in downtown Toledo's case, anti-progress.
Finding solutions
The proposal Ball is behind suggests a $1000/month fee for food trucks, that they must park 300 feet from a brick-and-mortar restaurant, and that they can only be present downtown one day a week. And the thing is, these trucks, just like brick-and-mortars, are the source of many owners' livelihoods. Take the Tasteful Trolley, for example, whose owners spent their entire retirement fund on the purchase and development of their truck-based business. Barone himself has invested more than $10,000 in Rosie's Rolling Chef, and as the meters have been unbagged, bringing it downtown means that it will be towed.
With freezing cold weather just around the corner, much of the public scrutiny over this issue has subsided. But next spring, the trucks will be back out. The question is, where will they park? And, more importantly, will new laws pass under our noses, because we've lost interest? Both trucks and brick-and-mortars do share a common goal of increasing commerce and foot traffic in downtown Toledo. And while food trucks are a phenomenon that have swept major cities across the country, our city seems to catch on slowly.
Stay tuned for updates on the food truck debate. Have info or comments? Contact us at [email protected].