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My letter on street vendors
Perhaps you've been following the effort by some City Councilors to make life harder for the city's street vendors. (If not, check out these links from Worcester Magazine and Radioball.)
The council is still pretty split on this, and it's worth your while to contact your at-large and district councilors to let them know how you feel. Here's what I wrote:
Dear City Councilors:
I oppose efforts to further restrict the street vending business in Worcester. As a consumer, I value the convenience and variety of products provided by vendors. As a Worcester resident, I think street vendors are an important part of the "business ecosystem" and can be key to neighborhood redevelopment.
I spent Saturday night saying farewell to a dear friend preparing to leave the city. We had a few drinks at a local bar, then stepped outside to grab some hotdogs (his was meat, mine soy) from a street vendor. This neighborhood had no other places for a quick meal that time of night.
Please don't make great experiences like that any less likely.
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Re: My letter on street vendors
Hold the phone....a street vendor had a Soydog?????
Re: My letter on street vendors
Yes tofu dogs and tofu sausage with peppers & onions too! His name is Chris and he is now parked out in front of The Dive every Thursday , Friday and Sat night. He also has linguica, chourico, Italian sausage and steak&cheese..
Re: My letter on street vendors
Anybody got a take on it getting sent to committee last night? What are they up to?
Re: My letter on street vendors
from the liveblogging at worcesteria
6:10: Street hawker ordinance items are referred to subcommittee for further discussion with no debate. We’re waiting for the spin from both sides, but Phil Palmieri is talking to restaurant owners who support the tight ordinance. Essentially, this kills the current ordinance proposal for a month, and allows time for advocates of a looser ordinance to hammer out an acceptable agreement. (Also: Barbara Haller is absent this week, and she could easily be the deciding 6th vote.)
Re: My letter on street vendors
Yeah, I saw that. And I was there. I'm more wondering if anyone's got a take on it. What would be "an acceptable agreement"? What are the possible sticking points?
Also, as a street vender friendly forum, what are people thinking about it?
Veggie dogs!
This veggie dog and sausage thing is an HUGE.....I might be able to stop driving arund with that cooler in my backseat soon
Re: My letter on street vendors
I feel that it adds vibrancy and vibrancy attracts people.
I think that if you are scared of street vendors stealing your business then you need to figure out ways to make people choose your business over a street vendor. You need to figure out what makes them choose the street vendor over your business and take care of it.
I think that a more vibrant urban atmosphere will attract more people to the city streets which in turn will create more potential customers for everyone. The city council needs to focus on doing things that help to create a vibrant atmosphere when making any decisions involving business and atmosphere within the urban core.
Anytime taking a vote about anything within the urban core they should ask themselves, how does this affect vibrancy?
Re: My letter on street vendors
Geez, any big metro area have street vendors as mainstays...they don't take away any business from the sit-down leisurely eating crowd, and I assume they have to obtain permits to sell their wares, so I feel they are every bit a legitmate business as the walk-ins. This topic is just more petty nonsense from parties that have no new ideas to help their business flourish and would rather lash out like a cornered cat.
Tired stuff. I happen to like street vendor grub on the go tho...so I guess I'm biased...I just don't see any real harm... last time I checked there was a difference between an on-the-run sausage dog and a nice sit down & enjoy plate of linguine & clams...
Re: My letter on street vendors
We need these politicians to make decisions on matters like this because as a society we simply don't know what is best for us. Thank god we have politicians with enough time on their hands to tend to these pressing issues. I hope that next week they can decide what color I should paint my house.
Re: My letter on street vendors
We need these politicians to make decisions on matters like this because as a society we simply don't know what is best for us. Thank god we have politicians with enough time on their hands to tend to these pressing issues. I hope that next week they can decide what color I should paint my house.
This is exactly it. This shouldn't even be an issue. As a manager people comes to me every day with problems and complaints. I have to sort out the problems that are legit and need attention and the problems that are mostly just from people whining.
An old cliche that I think needs to come and come back with force in Worcester is, "that's life in the big city."
I don't know what the city governments plan is for urban Worcester but I hope that it includes a busy vibrant people filled atmosphere. If this is to happen we will have a congested busy downtown where one guy is selling widgets and another guy is selling widgets 30 feet away. I can't wait for this to happen.
Until then though, that's life in the big city.
Re: My letter on street vendors
I don't have any problem with street vendors specifically, but I'm surprised at the absolutely unabashed embrace of capitalism and the virtues of an unfettered free market in this thread. Governments intervene in the market all the time, and often for good reasons.
1) Environmental: Are the vendors preparing and disposing of their product properly? Is it contributing to trash on the streets?
2) Health and safety: Is there any regulation of how they prepare and serve food?
3) Community Welfare: Does it violate or contradict the standards or wishes of the community?
I have no idea what the answers are to this question, and whether they are motivating this move. But I don't know why everyone is suddenly throwing up their hands in disgust at government intervention in a free market. It happens ALL THE TIME. If it didn't, we'd all still be using lead paint and asbestos; food servers wouldn't have to wash their hands; communities would have no right to block a porn theatre from going in next to an elementary school. And so on.
Re: My letter on street vendors
Embrace of capitalism?
If you open up a 20 table store front restaurant and some dude with a cart comes along and steals your customers you really need to reevaluate.
Re: My letter on street vendors
yeah Jim, I think the bigger issue is that restaurants are complaining that Hot Dog carts are going to hurt their business which is horse shit. I think the embrace of hot dog carts is because the need for these carts would suggest that Worcester actually has people out walking around in need of quick eats, and that is a good thing.
Re: My letter on street vendors
Yeah, I understand. I guess the other way you could spin this is the big guys (restaurants) trying to crush the little guys (vendors), which would make me equally annoyed.
You can just ignore me--I'm just a very liberal and very grouchy democrat, and sometimes it bugs me when people complain about the government interfering in the market. Like I said above, there are often very good reasons to do this--even though this may not be one of them!
Re: My letter on street vendors
I think a few of the current councilors ate too much lead paint as kids so that ban is a GOOD thing!
Re: My letter on street vendors
Jim,
street vendors need two or three permits from the city and state (depending on what they cook or handle) to do their thang.
The Worcester health department inspects and regulates the envirnmentla and health and safety issues. (maybe not thoroughly, but certianly officially)
I did alot of research b4 I started doing my thang, and almost got suckered into getting a street licence.