Anonymous
August 6, 2018, 11:25 am
8.2k Views
40 Comments
By an edhat reader
I was under the impression that food trucks were not allowed in Santa Barbara. I saw the School District mobile café selling food Saturday downtown. It was parked on the street. Are they exempt from the code that bans other food trucks or are exemptions provided?
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Yet another reason “Ban-A Barbara” is turning into such a vapid, dried up turd of a town. No food trucks allowed, but by all means, let your homeless population leave human waste any where they want. Time to fix SB!
I didn’t know there was a food truck ban. I do know that the Burger Bus, which served up excellent food, left SB for greener pastures in Colorado b/c of shenanigans by city council. One thing I heard was that one council member – or person behind the “regulations” (or apparently ban) – owns himself several restaurant / eatery establishments in town so that he had a motive to ensure he quashed competition – which yummy convenient and fun food trucks provide. Someone should do some investigative journalism to expose this croney-ism.
The homeless do not present a challenge to competition for some restaurant owners who are tied to our city’s politicians – or are part of them – as the food trucks do. Follow the money.
If you need to eat at a food truck, Oxnard is not too far away.
MAS GAVIOTA – or any town with an ounce of soul…..
Is ‘ounce of soul’ what the kids call the ghetto these days?
MAS GAVIOTA – no, it’s what a town that allows creativity and free market enterprise is called. You’ve clearly missed the bus on that. Enjoy your sterile (yet human waste filled) SB.
Yeah, because only “ghettos” allow food trucks……rolling my eyes.
So when the food truck pulls up and takes three or four parking spaces you would be this first to cry about no parking.
Having dozens of moving and parking traffic hazards aka food trucks does contribute to a third world / ghetto atmosphere.
Food trucks are way hip – have been for a long, long time. Every “with it” town allows, and encourages, them. SB – not hip.
You’re opinion only. They are doing smashingly well in way more hip CO.
All you need to research is – who owns, or has interest in (or relatives/friends who own) many restaurants here and you will have your reason for the “ban” – ties / enmeshment in our city’s governance. Total corruption, by definition.
Randy Rowse
These are all just opinions. BTW it is your. You’re means you are
MAS GAVIOTA – have you ever seen a food truck? They usually park in places where cars can not. They go to events, locations, etc where people want to try new foods. I’ve never heard anyone complain about them taking up parking places, well, except you that is.
Some of the best food trucks are run by sit-down restaurants. In Sitty of SB they’re pretty much only “by appointment,” catering business eats and private parties. Some of the best ones in Oxnard operate mainly into the nighttime hours, after the restaurants without bar operations close. I’ve pretty much given up on downtown restaurants, can’t afford the “red-tile” surcharge that shows up in their prices.
This thread is too funny. Have any of you actually looked up the new ordinance now being considered by the City Council? Probaly not. Here are two links for the Google challenged:
Proposed ordinance ,food vending on city streets:
https://civicaweb.santabarbaraca.gov/civicax/filebank/blobdload.aspx?BlobID=167621
Exisiting ordinance food vending on private property:
https://civicaweb.santabarbaraca.gov/civicax/filebank/blobdload.aspx?BlobID=200777
MAS – and? What does you citation of ordinance have to do with your proposition that only ghettos have food trucks?
My opinion is that they are tacky eye sores. This is an opinion section right? I cited the existing ordinance and the proposed ordinance to prove to the food truck fans that Santa Barbara does not have a ban on your beloved food trucks. Santa Barbara does have restrictions on them like any smart community would have.
Bingo! there is no ban. Just reasonable restrictions.
Ban/restriction intended to do away with something = the same thing effectively. That is, due to City Council decisions, food trucks are no longer allowed / able to operate here in SB. Are you honestly saying they are, but for some reason they do not choose to? That’s absurd.
Restricting a food truck from operating any longer than 60 minutes is effectively the same thing as banning them. It’s simply not commercially viable to try to open a food truck (and sell, then close everything down) within 60 minutes. So yes, food trucks are banned.
A 60 minute time limit to set up, cook, sell, and then take down is “reasonable???” Someone has clearly never worked a day in his/her/its life.
Food trucks are allowed in certain areas. Do you actually live here? If so take a walk or drive down Milpas. There are usually a few food type trucks parked on private property. Clearly some food truck operators are able to thrive. Once the council approves the street parking rules they will be able to park on most commercial streets. The city council clearly has not intended to ban food trucks. They are in fact working on expanding their legal operations.
Sixty minutes is plenty of time. Back in the good old days when they were called catering trucks, they would go from job site to job site every twenty minutes or so and they did just fine. Of course they were not serving Thai- Mex -Bulgarian fusion food so mebbe that takes longer.
Mas Gaviota – hahaha, yeah you have no idea what you’re talking about. At least you are comfortable with admitting it!
It looks like the Burger Bus whiners are out in force today.
The City of SB should take a trip to Portland, OR where food trucks are serving up fantastic food. Google, for example, “Lardo” Portland, OR. Food trucks are a destination there…stationary “restaurants” that are located permanently in a neighborhood. There are more than a handful of places in the City where otherwise empty, unused lots are utilized to an improved use. And Portland has a thriving brick and mortar restaurant scene. There is plenty of vacant land and blacktops in downtown SB that could easily be utilized as Portland, OR has done with stationary, food trucks. Could City of SB envision such a positive to the city core? Naaaah.
No one is “whining,” just trying to explain how 60 minutes is not enough time to set up shop for a food truck, thus they’re effectively “banned.” And no, these aren’t Mas Gaviota’s ancient “catering trucks” selling pre-cooked food. Why so much hate for new, creative food and innovative enterprises?
ROB@SB – exactly! I mean look at all the vacant lots and empty store fronts here. SB needs to put itself on the map with some new, exciting businesses. Lower State Street should be razed (for the most part) and rebuilt with more to offer than only bars and women’s clothing boutiques.
SB is not hip; nor does it need to be. It needs to go back to being small town, kind and and traditional. Not edgy and abrasive.
Portland, OR-bahaha. A town full of NIMBY hypocrites. Not exactly the model to look up to…
Why can’t we all just get along? Food feeds the soul!
The Food Trucks were not bothering anyone.
We even hosted the Great Food Truck Race in Santa Barbara and Goleta.
So it was all good back then.
Why does SB always screw up a good thing that is already going along fine?
Wow, food trucks who generate zero pollution running generators for refrigeration and outdoor cooking stoves. Now picture a few dozen of thee magical non-polluting food trucks and you have eco-heaven right here in town.
The only reasons to eliminate comments should be obscenity, crime solicitation, personal slander, predatory behavior and other things that are clearly a DANGER to others. If only things that everyone agreed on were allowed, this and every other publication would be blank. Mas doesn’t agree with the First Amendment, has too much time on his hands and should take up a gentle hobby–bonsai? build a ship in a bottle? make landmarks out of toothpicks?–to calm his troubled spirit.
The best food truck story I read about was by a travel writer who said she found fantastic food at a truck behind a gas station in Utah. Their sign said, “Mexican food so authintic Trump wants to put a wall around us.”
Imagine if you will a city that embraced small business and entrepreneurs. A city that fostered their development and in return offered its residents a wonderful option for dinner or lunch… But that is NOT Santa Barbara. Instead of food trucks serving families along the beach, we have dilapidated RV’s. Instead of small cafe’s getting their footing on State St. we have homeless affecting our footing while the City and the CoC spend more on consultants and corporate incentives… If you want to make SB great , start by fostering small, local businesses and encouraging locals to build something up. Not another tax incentive to developers who take their profits and our water out of our community and in return give us low paying service jobs and more traffic…
10 percent rise in support for Trump from Hispanics in a Harvard/Harris poll released in the past week. Please explain.
The “smart” money is now being invested in Goleta. God bless Santa Barbara, but it seems like she is in her sunset years.