Imagine if all the Pensacola movie theaters fought to outlaw DVD rentals, if hospitals wanted a ban on open MRIs outside their facilities or outpatient surgery centers or retailers wanted to block online shopping. Goods and services, in today’s world, are delivered to customers in a variety of ways.
Food trucks aren’t unique to Pensacola. They successfully co-exist with restaurants all over this country (See Eat Street). City Administrator Colleen Castille has presented the Pensacola City Council with ordinances from other cities, including Orlando and Tallahassee, and asked for the council’s input.
Mayor Ashton Hayward has turned the issue entirely over to the council, although if the council decides to proceed with ordinances on the issue, the mayor can still make his recommendations.
Our paper endorses Food Trucks. We’re glad that the Pensacola City Council is discussing changes in city ordinances. When we did our research on the issue in August, we were surprised that the city had no definitive regulations for food trucks. We had hoped that the mayor’s office would have been more proactive and addressed the issue sooner, but, alas, this is Pensacola.
Public forums should have been held, input from restaurant owners, truck vendors and the public could have been gathered and the mayor could have proposed a set of ordinances for the city council to review, modify and approve. Sadly that did not happen.
However, Castille’s work does give the council a foundation to discuss the issue. We hope the city council won’t let this issue die or overreact and ban food trucks all together.
Here is what has been presented to the city council: CityFoodTrucks.