Should D.C. be more like Los Angeles--at least where food trucks are concerned?
Kathleen Rooney, a communications associate at the libertarian Institute for Justice, says so. Writing in Forbes, Rooney describes how D.C.'s food truck legislation differs from LA's.
The city officials [in Los Angeles] reject the kind of provincial protectionism found in other locations—protectionism designed to protect brick-and-mortar businesses from food-truck competition. Second, L.A. provides clear, narrowly tailored and outcome-based rules that are generally based on public health and safety concerns, not protectionism.
In the District, food-truck "Armageddon" was narrowly averted when the D.C. city council rejected the most onerous parts of Mayor Vincent Gray's proposed legislation, specifically the lottery that would require trucks to compete for coveted parking spaces. But, Rooney says, "D.C. missed its chance to trademark itself as not only the nation’s capital, but also the nation’s food-truck capital."
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