Controversy abound for U.S. vendors

We don't usually hear or read too much about food cart vendors. You know the ones - everyone has grabbed lunch from them at some time or another - whether in an unfamiliar city with no immediate restaurant choices, on a quick break from a long meeting, food cart meals are the original "go-to meals," before the term "go-to meal" even existed.

But the anonymity of vendors has changed this week, as articles appeared in both The New York Times and The Washington Post about the food carts and the businesspeople who run them.

In New York, Latin food vendors who have served the players and fans at Brooklyn's Red Hook soccer fields for the past 33 years faced being ousted from their spots if the Department of Parks and Recreation succeeded in "regulating" its permit process. In the end, the vendors were all allowed to stay and were issued a new six-year permit. But despite vendor fees remaining about the same (about $10,500 per year), reps of the vendors worry that the permit's new rule of standardizing equipment will mean vendors paying hefty fees for updated ovens and plumbing.

In D.C., vendors are feeling similar pressure, but for a different reason: instead of cutting back, D.C. wants to expand, but not among the current food options. Instead, citing surveys of citizens who say they want a larger food selection, the city is opening up the market to companies like Zipcar, an electric car company that wants to expand into gourmet and healthy food vending.

The threat of new vendors isn't just worrying the current vendors, it's also a threat to WG Foods, the company that supplies the vendors with their food, from chips to soda to the standard: hot dogs. And there are other differences between the new and the old than just food type: most of the vendors pay fees to park their car in a depot every night to prevent rodents from entering. But companies like Zipcar don't have to utilize depots, as their vehicles are completely sealed and can stay on the street all night long.

It's hard to hear that hard-working vendors that have made their livings for decades serving the hungry patrons of America's cities are being threatened by new regulations and bigger, newer, flashier businesses. I can't help but be reminded of farmers who have worked for decades, only to be driven out by agribusiness and demands for bigger, faster, better food and service.

And for the record, I don't know anyone who goes to a vendor and expects a healthy, low-cal meal. You go to get good, delicious food quickly and cheaply, and to chat with the cooks and enjoy the outdoors. Yes, they cook most of their food on the same griddle and run on generators and probably aren't the cleanest. But amazingly, tons of us still frequent them. And the rest? Well, they go to the salad bar. But perhaps I'm just behind the times...

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