I oppose allowing food trucks in our city.
Imagine a current restaurant operator competing with a truck not paying property taxes day in and day out — not having the same scrutiny for food safety, site debris, city development costs, etc.
They are a drain on our local businesses with no long term commitment to the city!
Perry Beaton
Lakeshore
Comments (6)
Add commentYes Food Trucks
If you oppose them, then don't eat there...actually, I don't recall them saying they were coming anywhere near Lakeshore.
If you were referring to Brainerd, imagine being sick of the same old, sub-par, greasy food that is served in the we-haven't -done-a-thing-to-update-since-1980 restaurants in downtown.
Pretty sad when the best food in town is what they serve at the hospital cafeteria.
If Brainerd restaurants are worried about competition, let them step up their game and serve better food...then let the customers decide.
Don't have to look far to see food truck problems
I'm glad a few folks on the council did their homework. Past councils would have dove right in and then been dealing with problems for years--bickering back and forth about it.
Here's a picture from downtown minneapolis.
http://www.minnpost.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/article_detail/im...
In minneapolis, the # of food trucks grew from none to 40--in just a few years. In St. Paul, it went from none to 90!
We wouldn't see that many here--but how would like to be an eatery business with 4 or 5 of those things parked along the sidewalk in front of your business? Or even a non-eatery business whose customers can't park in front of your place because most of the block is taken up by food trucks?
These folks broadcast a nice story about food truck issues in the cities.
http://www.kare11.com/news/article/986953/391/The-food-truck-pickle-in-downtown-Minneapolis?odyssey=tab|topnews|bc|large
This is well worth taking time with, due to all the issues and problems that can come along with allowing food trucks.
Competition
makes us better but to much competition makes for poor business for everyone.
When looking at the #s we in the lakes area have our share of competition. Over 150 restaurant choices per urberspoon.com. Compare this to Winona, MN at 105 and Willmar at 99. These are close to the our size but Winona has 2 - 4 year colleges and a tech school. Willmar has about the same demographics as we do.
Bemidji has 90 with a 4 year college and tech school.
All Brainerd needs is more so we have more restaurants that can not remodel and look like the 80's.
Why should not the food trucks pay for police and fire portection?
Why should they not pay for infrastucture like water and sewer? The people that eat in the food truck do need to use these items also.
That is why the cities need to charge a fee and need to control how they interact with the other businesses to enhance the total experience of the Brainerd Lakes Area.
If I was a restaurant in downtown Brainerd
I would build a food truck and send it over to Baxter. Even the playing field a bit. Hint Hint.....
Have you ever eaten at a food truck even??
I agree with Rockfish. If local restaurants are worried that ONE food truck is going to be a drain on business... step up your game. Serve better food! Plus think about it... Food trucks cannot offer as much as restaurants anyway.. very little seating.. if any, outdoors, no bathrooms, very small menu. These are set up to be a quicker, cheaper food option... and if you don't like it, don't eat there.