Letter to the Editor: South Pas Should Repeal its Food Truck Ordinance

I can say that I normally do not give much thought to most of the happenings in this town, especially if they don’t affect me, but this whole food truck fiasco that the city is embroiling themselves in really irks me.

Ever since I read the article  here on Patch.com, something has been gnawing at me. Burning questions that I feel need answering. The City of South Pasadena has issued all of these “offenders” a business license, yet they turn around and have the cite them according to SP City Ordinance 19.49 that states "no person shall park a vehicle upon any roadway for the principal purpose of selling therefrom or therein any article, service or thing."

In citing these “law breakers,” is the city discriminating against food truck proprietors by not fully enforcing the ordinance? My firm belief is that they are. If the police and city were to wholly enforce the ordinance, they would be obliged to cite gardeners, the mobile auto detailer, the mobile pet groomer, handymen/contractors, painters, pool cleaners and a host of other vehicular proprietors that are too numerous to list.

All of these listed businesses (like the food trucks) have a “brick and mortar” address to which the business license is attached, but they sell/provide their “article(s), service(s) or thing(s)” from a vehicle. And just like the food trucks, the money changes hands at the curbside for most of these services. This ordinance is bad for all mobile businesses.  

As this ordinance is written, the police are obligated to cite many—if not all—of the above mentioned mobile businesses. Where is the justice in that proposal? Nowhere; it is a ridiculous proposal. Common sense dictates that a city cannot issue a business license and then cite someone for operating the licensed business, does it not? This flip-flop makes no sense and is ludicrous to the average person. The city should repeal this ordinance and halt the harassment of mobile business owners; people whose businesses pay their city employee salaries instead of engaging in taxation by citation.

Now don’t get me wrong, I understand the complaints from the business owners and residents near . If you analyze these complaints carefully, all are non-issues. We have business owners that are in town for one day a week at the , and they all pay for not only a business license, but a spot fee to peddle their wares.

The residents of this area love this weekly get-together and my friends and I go every week. We don’t complain that it has “commercialized” our neighborhood, nor do we complain about the lack of parking on Thursdays due to the people who patronize the Farmers Market.  

Having grown up in this town, I’ve seen residents get riled over some of the dumbest things. It has been big deal after big deal made about non-issues as long as I can remember. I’ve seen leaf-blower ordinances come and go, skateboarding restrictions, smoking bans that no one adheres to (or enforces) massage business scrutiny/discrimination and this current debacle. All of which, were ordinances enacted under the guise of the greater good.

The problem is these restrictions clash with free will and free enterprise. Where is the greater good in any of this? The greater good should be a live and let live approach where business owners are free to make an honest dollar and are free of discriminatory citations. If the city chooses to wholly enforce this ordinance, most of this city’s residents will be up in arms when their gardener refuses to work for fear of citation.

To be honest, I’m surprised that some residents of our city, which was incorporated to escape Pasadena’s prohibitions, would be so adamant about creating and enforcing more prohibitions. South Pasadena needs to repeal this ordinance now!

Regards,

Chris Colburn

South Pasadena resident