Street Vendor Ordinance Is For Weenies
Worcester has its fair share of problems.
So it was a wonder to us that the City Council decided to take on the less-than-pressing issue of food cart vendors on Worcester’s streets.
We hope the Worcester City Council rescinds its ordinance requiring street vendors to get permission to operate from all restaurants within 250 feet of their pushcarts. We also hope they move on to more important challenges facing Worcester, including economic development.
Compromising Compromise
When the council passed the street vendor ordinance by a 6-5 vote in mid-August, the council said it represented a good compromise between pushcart operators, public safety advocates and restaurant owners who have complained publicly about unfair competition from pushcarts.
What it really says is that for all its dreamy talk of a “vibrant” or “funky” downtown, what the city council really wants is for Main Street to be scrubbed clean.
As originally proposed, the ordinance would have banned street vendors from Main Street between Lincoln Square and Federal Square. As it is, it requires street vendors to ask the police chief for permission to do business during late-night hours.
After hours and hours spent in the kind of debate and discussion that should be reserved for contract negotiations and figuring out what to do with vacant and decrepit city-owned properties, the council dropped the Main Street ban but decided it was still willing to sacrifice the livelihoods of some of the city’s most unique, entrepreneurial, hardworking merchants to placate the owners of a handful restaurants that complained.
But the restaurant business is not as tenuous as many restaurant owners would have us believe. It’s an urban legend that 90 percent of new restaurants fail within a year of opening. In fact, restaurant failure rates are about the same as the failure rate for new businesses — about 33 percent — across the board, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration.
If a restaurateur complains that a street vendor parked outside his establishment is “unfair competition,” then maybe that fellow’s restaurant simply isn’t good enough.
We agree with those city councilors and restaurateurs who recognize that pushcarts and their operators bring a certain color and life to Worcester’s streets. Without them, life in Worcester would seem incomplete. And we applaud those street vendors who have reportedly banded together to see that the ordinance is reconsidered. We hope it is.
WBJ Web Partners
Most Recent
Most Recent
0 Comments