Quote:
Originally Posted by Wooster
We put a cap on the pilot (not permanent) until things can be sorted out internally to handle the enormous workload for City staff that have been working on the pilot on top of all their other duties they had before (not to mention the huge amount of work it's taken within the Mayor's Office). It's been a bit overwhelming. It just buys time until we can figure out how to properly resource managing the program/permits and how to pay for it. Thus far the cost of permits for the trucks hasn't been anywhere close to cost recovery.
Certainly not permanent. The market will ultimately determine the number as it moves from pilot to a regular permitting system.
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Oh okay, good to hear. The radio report I heard misrepresented things. I was worried that we would end up with something like the taxicab situation, with a few greedy vendors hoarding the licenses and driving the value up.
I think that street food it a easy way to bring vibrancy to our streets. I spent some time in Bangkok recently, and that city undoubtedly has the best street food scene of anywhere I've ever been. It's truly unbelievable how much variety they have. Every major street is packed with vendors that change throughout the day - noodles for breakfast and lunch, more substantial rice dishes for dinner, and delicious snacks throughout the day. Often these stalls are timed to open once the adjacent business is closed in the evening, to avoid any conflict.
I realize that things here will never be anything like BKK, due to our cultural differences and climate, but there are a few innovative ideas that we should adopt.
1) Street Food Zones: I'm not sure how these are organized or if they regulated at all, but every night around 10pm certain sections of sidewalk will transform into vibrant outdoor restaurants. What was a bland, dead stretch of sidewalk mere hours earlier becomes filled with locals devouring treats from many different vendors. There are tables and chairs set up, and it becomes a pleasant experience where you can enjoy a huge variety of food at cheap prices.
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2) Pop-up Pubs: After the food stalls have packed up for the night, pop-up bars take over the street. Most of these are in the form of old VW microbuses that have been retrofitted with a bar in the back, and they set up bar stools and a few tables in the adjacent parking spaces. There are also smaller ones that are just stands on the sidewalk. It adds something to the nightlife of the area, and provides a cheaper place to relax with a drink and watch the bustle of the streets. I realize that something like this would likely never fly here in puritan Canada, but I thought it was an innovative way to make use of unoccupied parking spaces in the CBD after hours. Imagine a few of these along Stephen Ave or 11th Avenue on thurs/fri/sat nights in the summer:
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