Source: https://pizzadijoey.com/fight-for-freedom/
Timestamp: 2020-01-27 09:01:24
Document Index: 373780246

Matched Legal Cases: ['Art. 15', '§ 17', '§ 17', '§ 17', '§ 17', '§ 17']

Fighting for Food Truck Freedom | Pizza di Joey
Fighting for Food Truck Freedom
via Institute for Justice
Baltimore adds 10 new food truck zones – Baltimore Business Journal
Judge denies motion to dismiss Baltimore food truck lawsuit – The Baltimore Sun
Navy Veteran Fights Baltimore Rules Restricting Where He Can Park His Food Truck – The Daily Signal
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Street vending has been a part of the American economy since colonial times.[1] Today, it provides for many an invaluable opportunity to achieve the American dream. Unfortunately, many would-be entrepreneurs are often shut out of starting street vending businesses due to complicated, costly and ever-expanding government regulations.[2] Proximity restrictions like Baltimore’s are one of the worst impediments to success for existing and prospective street vendors. That is why Joey Vanoni, Nikki McGowan and the Institute for Justice have joined together to challenge Baltimore’s 300-foot rule and create one less obstacle for Baltimore’s mobile vending entrepreneurs.
In 2014, the Baltimore City Council enacted the 300-foot rule.[3] Under the law, a “mobile vendor may not park a vendor truck within 300 feet of any retail business establishment that is primarily engaged in selling the same type of food product, other merchandise, or service.”[4] A mobile vendor is “any person that sells, distributes or offers to sell or distribute” food, merchandise, or services from “a motor vehicle on City streets or private property.”[5] Thus, a mobile vendor’s ability to operate on public or private property turns on whether it sells the same thing as a nearby brick-and-mortar business.
Penalties for violating the law are severe. In addition to $500 fines for each violation, the city may suspend or revoke the mobile vendor’s license.[6] After three violations of the mobile vending regulations in a single year, including the 300-foot rule, the City mustrevoke the mobile vendor’s license.[7] Once that happens, a mobile vendor cannot apply for a new license for an entire year.[8] Threatened with severe fines and the possibility of being put out of business, mobile vendors go out of their way to avoid neighborhoods with competing brick-and-mortar businesses.
Today, Pizza di Joey crisscrosses Baltimore providing authentic New York-style pizza from the truck’s nearly 4,000 pound brick oven. But the food truck is more than just a business to Joey. He sees it as an opportunity to give back to the community. Never forgetting the challenges he faced finding employment after his tours of duty, Joey now employs other veterans in need of work.[9]
Nikki McGowan and the Madame BBQ food truck
Nikki McGowan owns and operates the Madame BBQ food truck. Although it is a labor of love, Nikki got her start as a culinary entrepreneur because she was confronted with the sobering reality of providing for her three children as a single mother. What began as a business offering cooking classes for students in Howard County, Maryland, led to the opening of the Madame BBQ food truck. From the truck she dishes delicious pulled pork and other barbeque staples throughout the Baltimore metro area.
The Madame BBQ food truck, however, is not just another way to help support her family. Nikki uses it as an opportunity to inspire and give practical hands-on experience to future culinary entrepreneurs. Often former students help man the truck at special events in order to gain valuable cooking and customer service experience. Nikki hopes that her story inspires others to be bold in pursuing their dreams.
The defendant is the city of Baltimore. The City Council passed and enacted Baltimore’s 300-foot rule on June 9, 2014.[10]
For more information about the lawsuit, please contact:
[1] Ryan Devlin, Illegibility, Uncertainty and the Management of Street Vending in New York City, Address at the University of California-Berkeley Breslauer Symposium (Apr. 14, 2006), http://escholarship.org/uc/item/2dq8p606.
[2] See Erin Norman et al., Inst. for Justice, Streets of Dreams: How Cities Can Create Economic Opportunity By Knocking Down Protectionist Barriers to Street Vending 3–4 (2011); see also John Cross, Street Vendors, Modernity and Postmodernity: Conflict and Compromise in the Global Economy, 20 Int’l J. Soc. & Soc. Pol’y 29 (2000).
[3] Baltimore City Council, Journal City Council of Baltimore 1963–64, Bill No. 14-0305, June 9, 2014, available at http://www.baltimorecitycouncil.com/Council_Journal/14-06-09~13th.pdf; Luke Broadwater, City Council backs new rules to expand food truck areas, Baltimore Sun, June 2, 2014, http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2014-06-02/news/bs-md-ci-food-truck-vote-20140602_1_babila-lima-food-truck-baltimore-city-council; Payam Agha-Ghassem, Food Truck Legislation Passes in Baltimore City, Baltimore Magazine, June 18, 2014, http://www.baltimoremagazine.net/2014/6/18/food-truck-legislation-passes-in-baltimore-city.
[4] Baltimore City Code Art. 15, § 17-33.
[5] Id. § 17-1(e)(1).
[6] Id. §§ 17-42, -44(a).
[7] Id. § 17-44(b).
[8] Id. § 17-44(c).
[9] Amy Aubert, Maryland veteran starts food truck company, hires unemployed veterans, WMAR Baltimore, http://www.abc2news.com/news/in-focus/local-veteran-starts-food-truck-company-hires-unemployed-veterans.
[10] See Agha-Ghassem, supra note 3.