When I sell my Street Sense papers downtown and at Eastern Market, I notice that there are more and more food trucks around. During the lunchtime rush, people line up to get the food of their choice. And believe me, the food is very good. But one thing I do know is that it hurts McDonald’s, Cosi, Lawson’s, Pret A Manger, and other local food places.
For instance, when I was working at Eastern Market, the lobster food truck parked his truck near the Silver Spork. As people lined up, the manager of the Silver Spork told me he was losing money. He said the food trucks take money away from local businesses. Some local restaurant managers that I talk to want city officials to restrict parking for the food trucks. Some people say that there’s enough money to go around for everybody to make money and the food trucks should be left alone.
At Eastern Market one day, the police were called and the manager of the vendors inside the flea market had the food trucks ticketed. I just hope that they can work out some solutions to make things better for the food trucks and local businesses.
As one food truck manager told me, they aren’t going anywhere. But until they can work it out, there will probably be more problems.
