New York City Is A Regulatory Briar Patch For Food Truck Entrepreneurs

NPR podcaster and blogger Adam Davidson describes how bureaucratic red tape, conflicting city rules and regulations, and expensive enforcement penalties have sent the food-truck business in New York City into a tailspin. Though many entrepreneurs have attempted to sell upscale fare from their trucks, the ratio of food trucks selling overboiled hot dogs and overpriced sodas to trucks selling upscale lunch foods is now 25 to one. In the first place, it is very difficult to leap all the bureaucratic hurdles required to start a food-truck business. And, once in business, operators are hampered by a slew of (often conflicting) regulations issued by the departments of Health, Sanitation, Transportation and Consumer Affairs, all enforced, with varying consistency, by the New York Police Department.