There’s one aspect of Anthony Bourdain’s television show “No Reservations” that I always connect with – I’m a big fan of street food. And not just for the obvious reasons of quick, cheap and sometimes really tasty meals.
More than anything, I like street food because, well, it gets people out on the street. And if we step back from all the beautiful renderings of attractive buildings and street scenes in our development plans, isn’t that the bottom line for what we want – life on the street?
It seems we have a constant tension in our communities between doing the things that actually create life and vibrancy and a desire to “tame” that, or at least pretty it up. In most cases, I’d urge us to let loose the reigns a bit, and allow more spontaneity in the street scene. Food carts, mobile trucks, etc. all fall into this category. I remember in my own city that at least one city councilman wanted to essentially eliminate most sidewalk operations downtown or corral them into a few designated areas. But good cities, (and by good I mean places where people actually walk) are not sterile mall food courts. The best places encourage these sorts of start-up operations as a means to encouraging other forms of business and to add local color and flavor.
In these times of tighter money, it’s also good to consider the other benefits of street food operations – they are cheap to start up (entrepreneurial), they can hide ugly parking lots in the short-term (aesthetic), they get people outside and visible (seeds the urban market), they are small enough that a few in a row can relieve monotony (creates pedestrian interest).
So, as you think about ways to take first steps in your walkable areas, please consider the value of street food operations. Review your ordinances and procedures to see what kind of burdens are placed on these operations. Remember the golden rule of community planning – make the good stuff easy to do.
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In Milwaukee we have recently seen a surge in new street vendors and it has been great. I completely agree this is an area we some deregulation is needed.
Street vending of any kind can serve a similar purpose. When Quincy Market was renovated in Boston back in the early ’70s, the developer hadn’t rented all of the market space. Somebody had the idea of using vendor carts to make the market look fuller than it actually was. Many cart vendors later graduated to renting shop space.
Another aspect of this is that vendors are going to have just as high an aversion to crime as property owners. They don’t want the cash they’ve earned to be stolen. They are, as Jane Jacobs put it, “eyes on the street.”
I’ve often wondered if there’s a connection between the change in the way we delivered goods and services, and urban crime just after world war II. (I have not researched this.) Imagine a guy trying to break into a city house circa 1920. If he’s out during the day, he could at any given moment bump into the milk man, the ice man, twice daily mail deliveries, and most importantly, beat cops on foot. There were also, if I’m not mistaken, produce vendors who wandered neighborhoods selling to housewives. And, as if that weren’t enough, retired people didn’t lock themselves into retirement enclaves. (The retired couple who lives on my street notice EVERYTHING.)
In other words, property crime was probably much harder to do eighty years ago.
Great comments – thanks. Casey, 2 things – 1) I think your point about many vendors later graduating to rent space is a critical item to consider. These are great, cheap incubators for business. 2) The point about crime is fascinating – it would be very interesting to research. I wouldn’t want to over-romanticize things; after all, there was plenty of crime 80 years ago, too. But, I would be inclined to agree that the presence of many more people on the streets (including cops walking a beat instead of driving) in urban neighborhoods helped to keep things in check better.
I was mindful of over-romanticizing as I was writing. It’s probably the case that crime wasn’t less decades ago. It was just different. That’s getting too speculative and I have no evidence for it. The list I gave of eyes on the street is a factual list. The only speculation I’ve made is that it had an affect on property crime. I think it’s a fairly safe speculation given the research that’s been done since Jane Jacobs coined the phrase “eyes on the street,” and given that some anti crime programs was focused on that issue.