Thank you to all those who attended today’s Economic Development Committee meeting to show your support for NOLA food trucks!  For those of you who were unable to attend, here is a brief summary of the meeting. The next steps in this process are unclear at this juncture, but rest assured we will continue to move forward with the support of key City officials and community advocates. We will let you know as soon as possible.

You can watch a video of the City Council meeting HERE

Summary:

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The food truck fun just keeps on rolling! Or in this case Drive-in! From the Broad St. Food Truck Festival Event Page:

FRIDAY, NOV 16th, 2012
5-10 pm
300 N Broad Street, New Orleans, LA 70119

That’s right, Food Trucks (10!) and a Drive-in movie in one event!

The Broad Street Food Truck Festival & NOLA Drive-in will be on the roof of the old Schwegmann building. Parking is available in front of the building.

Broad Community Connections will be hosting the Broad Street Food Truck Festival and NOLA Drive-in as a part of its larger mission of promoting economic and community development on Broad Street. There will be 10 food trucks present including (more trucks will be announced soon) Empanada

Intifada, NOLA Girl Food Catering, Foodie Call, Frencheeze, Brigade Coffee, Slap Yo Mama, Grilling Shilling, and Rue Chow.

The movie showing will be Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. The movie will be showing from 8 – 10 pm.

This event is organized by My House: Empowering Culinary Entrepreneurs and NOLA Drive-In, and is supported by Council-at-large Stacey Head, Good Work Network, and Louisiana Main Street.

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Big news!  On Tuesday 10/08/12, Rachel Billow and Andrew LeGrand of the New Orleans Food Truck Coalition (NOFTC) met with NOLA City Council to discuss changing the City’s antiquated mobile vending laws. Councilmember Stacy Head acted as council “sponsor” for this discussion. This was a landmark moment - the first time the NOFTC and City Council have addressed this issue formally. The meeting was extremely positive, and as the Times Picayune reported:

No one expressed opposition Tuesday to the general idea of loosening the rules. Instead, much of the talk focused on how the city could give the burgeoning industry a boost.

While this was simply an introduction presented to Council’s Economic Development and Special Projects Committee about the issues and need for change, as well as a chance for the public to weigh-in, we believe this positive collaboration with the city and community to lift restrictive mobile vending laws, streamline the permitting process, and help support stronger small business mobile food development and neighborhood revitalization will be changed and improved as early as Mardi Gras 2013. You can watch the video of NOFTC’s presentation and Council discussion HERE, or simply flip through the NOFTC’s presentation: New Orleans City Council Presentation by The New Orleans Food Truck Coalition.

In summary: The discussion focused on 4 key outdated issues in the current ordinances – it should be noted these are laws that have not been updated since the 1950s: 1. the need to lift the current cap on 100 total mobile food permits in the city, 2. the need to change the 45 minute “parked in one place” language in the ordinances currently interpreted (or some feel misinterpreted) by the city, 3. Allow food trucks and other mobile vendors in the CBD, and 4. changing the current 600 foot parking buffer near restaurants and schools (that’s two football field lengths) to something more reasonable and in-line with other food truck friendly cities’ laws.

Other discussion points included clarification and assurance that food trucks and mobile vendors are required to have health permits and are inspected just like restaurants, and that the mobile vendors fully promote and agree to helping develop a “pack your trash clean-up” policy for their businesses to help prevent litter and garbage issues where they park.  Council also brought up looking at regulating mobile vendors such as push carts, those selling simple foods on parade routes, fresh produce and grocery vendors, snoball and ice-cream trucks, and full kitchen food trucks as slightly different entities, rather than lumping them into one group as they currently are. Permit fees were also discussed along with policies around parking on vacant lots and parks, and protecting quality of life issues such as noise, traffic and litter in residential areas. A key important discussion centered around laws that respect restaurants, but also support the development of small food businesses, many of whom are low income entrepreneurs. Councilmember Stacy Head agreed that food trucks and other mobile vendors are an important part of community revitalization and economic development efforts in the City, and feels she has seen the benefits of food trucks to existing restaurants and retailers (called complimentary retail clusters in the urban development world), as well as encouraging the ongoing evolution of the food industry in NOLA. All agreed that mobile food vendors help promote tourism and NOLA’s important and unique  culture and culinary heritage.

Council is now looking at best practices and examining the NOFTC’s recommendations, the current laws, and beginning to solicit input from the public. If you’d like to give input, Councilmember Stacy Head will be sponsoring a Food Truck Festival in Central City from 5:30 – 7:30 pm on the  2000 block of Oretha Castle Haley Boulevard tomorrow night (Thurs 10/9/12), with Stakeholder meeting right before the festival. Contact Councilmember Head’s office for more information and/or additional citizen input opportunities.

Once again, we are thrilled with the strong and positive support for food trucks by citizens, businesses, and City Council. Stay tuned for updates and news at here at Nolafoodtrucks.com. And a big ongoing thank you to New Orleans for recognizing how much food trucks benefit our community!

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Please come to show your support for New Orleans Food Trucks at two public events:

On Tuesday, October, 9, 2012 at 10:00 am, the New Orleans City Council Economic Development & Special Projects Committee will meet for a presentation with the New Orleans Food Truck Coalition regarding a proposal for changes in the mobile vending ordinances. The meeting is held in the City Council Chamber on the 1st floor of City Hall. Please come show your support. More information HERE

Then, on Thursday, October 11, 2012 from 5:30-7:30 pm,  City Councilmember at Large Stacy Head and Good Work Network are organizing a Central City Food Truck Fest. The event will showcase local food truck favorites and music by local musicians at the 2000 block of Oretha Castle Haley Boulevard, on the corner of St. Andrew Street. More information can be found below or HERE

Background: After a year’s worth of organized and collaborative efforts, the New Orleans Food Truck Coalition (NOFTC) recently met with the Mayor’s Office of Cultural Economy to discuss details on particular mobile vending ordinances that need to be changed to support food trucks in the city. The Mayor’s office will then put together a set of recommendations based on this discussion and submit it to the Mayor. It’s been a very collaborative dialogue. The City is really supportive of the NOFTC and have worked with us along with their own research to demonstrate the need for better changes to the laws and what better laws might look like. We believe with the public’s continuing support and ongoing collaboration with the City that NOLA will transform to become a national model for fair and progressive mobile vending laws.

In other great news, NOLA City Councilmember Stacy Head has agreed to act as “Champion” for the New Orleans Food Trucks and NOFTC’s efforts. This is needed as part of city process to help guide proposed changes to the existing NOLA mobile vending ordinances through City Council. A big thank you to Councilmember Head, her office, the Mayor’s office, and other city staff  and elected officials for their openness, willingness to listen, and collaboration.

And a big thank you to our readers, eaters and other supporters, including several restaurant owners. There’s no way we would have gotten this far without you, and we appreciate your ongoing support moving forward.

From the Office of New Orleans City Council:

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Photo from GoNola.com

The NOLA Food Truck roundup is now  weekly event every Tuesday from 5:00 to 8:30 pm. The exact trucks vary from week to week but expect the likes of Rue Chow, Empanada Intifada, La Cocinita, and a surprise or three here and there. We will tweet out and post more information to our Facebook page weekly as we get it.  See you at the Roundup!

The roundup is held in front of Zeitgeist Multi-Disciplinary Arts Center located at 1618 O.C. Haley Blvd. Zeitgeist has beer, wine and cocktails available for purchase, so you aren’t just supporting food trucks in New Orleans, you are supporting the arts too. It’s a twofer for Tuesday!

Come on out, meet your fellow food truck lovers, grab a bite and drink, and join us in the fun.

Over time we will work towards having more trucks, and maybe even music and other entertainment. Suggestions and ideas are welcome. We’d love to here from you. For more information or questions, please email info@nolafoodtrucks.com

View Larger Map

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Our wonderful friend and NOLA food expert/ambassador Poppy Tooker profiled the New Orleans and Baton Rouge Food Truck scenes on her WWNO and WKRF radio shows Louisiana Eats with guests who operate food trucks in both cities. Thanks Poppy! You can listen to a podcast of the show here.  Well known food writer John T. Edge also spoke about his Truck Food Cookbook.

Go Public Radio!

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We are excited to report that Nola Food Trucks will be speaking at  the La Cocina Food Entrepreneur Conference in San Francisco later this month. This conference brings together food entrepreneurs from all over the U.S., including mobile food vendors of all kinds, policy planners, economic development professionals, specialty food product creators, and food lovers to learn, share ideas, and of course eat some wonderful food.

Nola Food Trucks co-founder Lizzy Caston, Brett Burmeister from Nola Food Trucks and Food Carts Portland, and Rachel Billow of Nola Food Trucks, The New Orleans Food Truck Coalition, and the well lauded La Cocinita food truck, will be on a panel about “Creating Spaces for Mobile Food Vendors” on Monday morning August, 20th. Later that day Lizzy will also be presenting on ways to nurture food entrepreneurship in cities. Info on the conference can be found here.

If that isn’t enough NOLA representation in S.F. for you,  Ms. Linda Green of Ms. Linda’s Catering will be serving up her tasty New Orleans specialty – Yakamein, on Saturday, August 18th, at the 4th annual San Francisco Street Food Festival!

We are so honored to be attending this conference and Street Food Festival. If you are in S.F. that weekend, please feel free to come by and say WHO DAT!

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The mission of La Cocina in S.F. is to cultivate low-income food entrepreneurs as they formalize and grow their businesses by providing affordable commercial kitchen space, industry-specific technical assistance and access to market  and capital opportunities. We focus primarily on women from communities of color and immigrant communities. Our vision is that entrepreneurs will become economically self-sufficient and contribute to a vibrant economy doing what they love to do.

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Hey y’all. It’s GOOD IDEAS FOR NEW ORLEANS. We’ve partnered up with Neighborland, Good, the American Institute of Graphic Artists New Orleans Chapter and the New Orleans Food Truck Coalition to participate in this nifty event tomorrow, July, 12, 2012 in the evening.

It’s a free event to get GOOD Ideas for New Orleans to help with everything from community revitalization, to neighborhood food access, to street improvements, to small business creation and support. And guess what? There’s a focus on Food Trucks in New Orleans! Time, Location, and RSVP Details are Here

Here’s how’s GOOD and Neighborland describe the event:

GOOD Ideas for Cities taps creative problem solvers to tackle real urban challenges and present their solutions at live events across the country. Thanks to a partnership between GOOD and CEOs for Cities and a generous grant from ArtPlace we’ve brought the program to six cities in 2012, and New Orleans is the final city in our series.

Three months ago we issued a call for New Orleans creatives, who we organized into four teams. Each team has been issued a challenge proposed by the Neighborland community and paired with an urban leader working in the challenge space. At the event, they’ll present their ideas for a solution—and some real-life interventions already in action—to that challenge. The urban leaders will then join them onstage for a brief Q&A moderated by GOOD Ideas for Cities editor Alissa Walker. Afterwards, a reception will provide a perfect time for everyone to talk about how to move these ideas for New Orleans forward.

There will be some of NOLA’s wonderful food trucks at the event serving up their tasty vittles, Abita beer and other refreshments, and we will also be debuting NOLA Food Trucks’ new “look at feel”, as designed by a group of wonderful American Institute of Graphic Artists NOLA volunteers. Here’s a sneak peek. And yes, we have a limited amount of limited edition NOLA Food Trucks Go Cups available at the event, so RSVP now and get there early!

GOOD IDEAS FOR NOLA.

MORE FOOD TRUCKS.

LET’S MAKE THIS HAPPEN.

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Want to see a more vibrant, thriving food truck scene in New Orleans? Now’s your opportunity. Sign the petition to change New Orleans’ current food truck laws HERE.

We reported a few weeks ago that New Orleans food truck owners as well as community groups, restauranteurs, bar owners, property owners and other street food advocates were in the process of organizing to make it easier to receive permits and operate as a food truck in New Orleans.

The newly formed New Orleans Food Truck Coalition is getting ready to approach City Council with proposed changes they’d like to see happen to the City’s current ordinances. But they need your help! Show the City of New Orleans that street food is an important part of our city’s economy and culture – helping create jobs and small business owners, helping bring food options to undeserved areas, and helping reduce blight on vacant, underutilized properties. Not to mention the food, glorious food that is so much of what New Orleans is about.

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In case you missed it last month, the city has been all abuzz with the issues (and problems) around laws in New Orleans for mobile street food vendors. First there was a bit of a kerfuffle when a local truck set up near a local business on Magazine St., and someone complained to a City Councilwoman about it.

Then, the Times Picayune wrote this in-depth and thoughtful article about the problems with New Orleans’ mobile food regulations and how local vendors are trying to address them. Then, the Gambit also weighed in with this article. We felt the Gambit article was written with good intentions and brought up some good points. However, we do take issue with the article’s emphasis that this is a “food truck vs. restaurant” issue. We’ve heard very few complaints, if any, from local restaurants, in fact we’ve seen the opposite. Many local restaurateurs, including some of the biggest names in New Orleans dining have publicly stated they love Food Trucks and will go on record to help support mobile vending with City Council. Even groups such as the French Market Association and several bar owners are working to get MORE, not less food trucks as it relates to their businesses.

The biggest problems seem to stem from confusion on what the ordinances actually mean in everything from number of permits available, to where vendors can park, to enforcement. “It’s a bureaucratic Red Tape nightmare”, is how one vendor put it to us. Word is vendors often get different answers from different city officials, and enforcement seems to be based on the whim and confusion of whomever is enforcing whatever on any given day. This, as you can imagine has led to deep frustrations from vendors, customers, city staff, land owners, City Council, and just about anyone who deals with mobile vending issues. There are also complaints that the laws are unfair and biased, regressive, out of date, non-nonsensical and badly written.

Another big issue is around mobile food permits for Mardi Gras. Done on a “raffle style” basis, many local vendors feel this has created a situation where locals are given short shift. Instead of trucks and carts selling delicious local cuisine such as Jambalaya, Gumbo, Po’Boys and the like like one might see at Jazz Fest, Mardi Gras parade routes are filled with non-local vendors selling nothing but cheap and non-nutrious carnival style corn dogs, elephant ears, and other junk foods. Local vendors would like to see a Mardi Gras mobile food vendor permitting process that encourages the support of locally owned small businesses AND helps celebrate and showcase the diversity and unique offerings of New Orleans cuisine. As one vendor put it,

Wouldn’t it be great if Mardi Gras was known as much for our wonderful local food offerings the same way Jazz Fest is?

To this we say, YES, pass the Crystal Hot Sauce!

However, New Orleans’ mobile food vendors are a strong, savvy, and now organized group. They have gotten together to work with City Hall and are proposing new ordinances that are easy to interpret, more equitable for vendors and neighborhoods, and fall in line with cities such as San Francisco, Austin, Seattle and other cities who have recently overhauled their ordiences. Mardi Gras permits are also on the list.

Do note, the mobile vendors and supporters (including us here at NOLA Food Trucks) have made it very clear that they aren’t at battle with the City on this issue. The mobile vendors really want to work together with the City, storefront restaurants, neighborhoods and other stakeholders as active partners to create a better system that is more fair and easier for everyone.

We aren’t sure what the next steps are or how this will be received by City Council. However, stay tuned and we’ll let you know how you too can give New Orleans City Council your opinion and support our local mobile vendors when this issue moves forward.

So tell us Food Truck lovers, how do you think you can help support local food trucks and get City Council to fix these issues?

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