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> But I don't want every neighborhood restaurant in the South Loop replaced by Potbelly's, Jimmy Johns, and Dunkin' Donuts, which is exactly what will happen S
by Empact 16y ago
> But I don't want every neighborhood restaurant in the South Loop replaced by Potbelly's, Jimmy Johns, and Dunkin' Donuts, which is exactly what will happen
Speculate much? Food trucks and restaurants offer substantially different products (restaurant = food truck + service + cozy environment). Of course food trucks would put competitive pressure on restaurants (which would lower prices, to the benefit of consumers), but why would they totally wipe them out? Would consumers switch wholesale to food trucks? Of course not. More likely, a handful of weaker, low-end restaurants lose out and close, funneling their customer bases to the fewer remaining restaurants.
But if they did, why would be go about saving them? Where's your evidence that a few brick & mortar restaurants is better for society than multiple food trucks + a park?
- hugh3 16y agoBut if they did, why would be go about saving them? Where's your evidence that a few brick & mortar restaurants is better for society than multiple food trucks + a park? An awful lot of American downtown areas already have too many shuttered shops and too few parking spaces. Driving business out from commercial real estate and into public space will only exacerbate that trend. And if you're proposing knocking down all those restaurants to build parks that people can sit in while they eat their foie gras hamburgers, who is going to pay for that? It's a massive transfer of wealth from the pockets of the city and the owners of commercial real estate (whose value plummets before their buildings get bought by the city and knocked down) to a bunch of dudes with vans.
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]