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A Taco Truck on Every Corner, or Not?
- monksy 8y agoGreat article! How did you manage to visualize those maps?
- badrequest 8y agoUnfortunately, I merely found the article. :)
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- cbcoutinho 8y agoThese look like maps rendered/exported from GIS software such as ArcGIS.
- RosanaAnaDana 8y agoThose are the default color schemes for QGIS.
- RosanaAnaDana 8y agoI'd put all my fake internet points on it that that was done in QGIS.
- itgoon 8y agoPretty safe bet, since that's what the article says. - QGIS, for quick sandboxing and ad hoc visualization - PostGIS, for the actual parcel/zone computations - ogr2ogr, for inserting Shapefile data into PostGIS
- RosanaAnaDana 8y agoDidn't rtfa, just scanned over it and looked at the maps.
- a2civictech 8y agoThanks! Indeed, I used QGIS for visualization and PostGIS for the processing (with a wee bit of ogr2ogr for some data munging). I really want to do something with OpenLayers to make things a bit more interactive (or at least so I don't have to keep taking lots of screenshots), but that involves either serving up huge GeoJSON blobs or hosting GeoServer. I'll need GeoServer soon anyway so I might as well, but it's more backend work than I have free weekends for at the moment. It's on my list for sure, though. By the way, hats off to the awesome QGIS, PostGIS, and GDAL (ogr2ogr) projects. I couldn't have done this nearly as easily without their efforts.
- HillaryBriss 8y agoif this had been about LA instead of Ann Arbor, the title might as easily have started with "A French Fry truck," "A Banh Mi truck," "A Po Boy truck," "A Poke Truck" or "A Gyro Truck"
- luhn 8y agoThe title is referencing a phrase from the 2016 US presidential elections. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taco_trucks_on_every_corner https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taco_trucks_on_every_corner
- HillaryBriss 8y agook. wow. why the downvotes? what did people think this comment was trying to say?
- djsumdog 8y agoHN isn't Reddit. Jokes that don't add something to the intellectual discussions are typically downvoted. Also asking/commenting on voting is discouraged by the rules.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- mmcniece 8y agoReally good article, great idea for a blog too "A site dedicated to exploring Ann Arbor civic engagement through technology."
- a2civictech 8y agoThanks, I appreciate it! I've never been HN famous. Ann Arbor has a vibrant tech scene and a responsive local government, which makes it a fantastic environment to use technical skills to get involved, I think. I already have a few ideas about what to do next (I know at least one person who was interested in seeing a heat map of building permit issuance, which would be pretty cool).
- zrail 8y agoa2civictech you've been shadow banned for whatever reason.
- minikites 8y agoI clicked "vouch" on their comments so I think they should be visible now? I'm not 100% sure how that system works.
- oxymoran 8y agoThe food truck laws in Michigan in general are pretty annoying. You need to have a commissary kitchen where all the food is actually made in order to be in compliance. Which defeats one of the main points of having a food truck to begin with(not having to rent or own an expensive building)
- NickBusey 8y agoThis is also the case in Boulder, CO. In addition to that, each truck is required to install a fire suppression system that start around $3,000.
- jimmaswell 8y agoGotta love when regulations are why we can't have nice things.
- matt4077 8y agoThis reads like a complaint about vaccines because nobody has seen Polio in like a lifetime... Just as a reminder: Up until the early 20th century, any large city that wasn't home to a Molasses-based catastrophe had at some point burned more or less completely down, usually killing thousands: Chicago, SF, London are well known.
- alonmower 8y agoNot sure if you were alluding to this with your comment but people DO complain about vaccines because they haven't seen the widespread ill effects of their not existing
- Kalium 8y agoIt's highly probable that the commenter to which you have responded chose their wording precisely because of how correct your point is.
- 8y ago
- pochamago 8y agoWhat's the motivation behind ordinances like this? I've never spoken to anyone who likes them, so I'm not really sure why cities are so aggressive about it. I assume there must be a large segment of the population who are really bothered by food trucks for some reason, but I genuinely struggle to imagine why
- booleandilemma 8y agoI’m guessing these laws are made by people who don’t eat at food trucks.
- paxys 8y agoNot hard to see why people wouldn't want food trucks in a residential area.
- thrmsforbfast 8y agoIt is for me. Why wouldn't you want a food truck parked outside the neighborhood park? Walk down to the park and pick up some dinner instead of hopping in a car and driving 10 minutes to apple/chilis/etc.
- chrisseaton 8y ago> Why wouldn't you want a food truck parked outside the neighborhood park? Noise, smell, litter, crowds, extra traffic, taking up space from people who wanted to use the park, fumes from generators or burners... lots of reasons. > instead of hopping in a car and driving 10 minutes to apple/chilis/etc I mean these aren’t really the only two options are they, come on.
- tikhonj 8y agoThe same dynamic that results in zoning that prohibits food trucks also results in large swathes of residential area in suburbs with no real restaurant options inside walking distance.
- cascom 8y agoI feel like a municipality should have to create these maps when proposing legislation, and maintain them on an [annual?] basis There are so many areas of our lives where its becoming de facto impossible to comply with all the laws/regulations without devoting an unreasonable amount of time/resources towards compliance
- fiter 8y agoThey'd probably benefit by making it easier to enforce, so I agree that they should absolutely do this. This assumes easy enforcement is what they are looking for.
- a2civictech 8y agoTo be fair, this original draft ordinance was FOIA'd. Our Ordinance Revisions Committee looked at it at a recent meeting and made some substantive changes. Then our awesome Planning Commission looked over it last night and, with the input of our City Planner, had some really good discussion about things like the number of food trucks you can have per number of parking spaces as well as discussing interactions with residential and mixed-use zones. The Planning Office also released a map of the updated zones allowed under the ordinance, which, if you ignore setbacks, should include every parcel that isn't straight residential. I believe it was our City Planner who mentioned that someone had FOIA'd the updated map about 20 minutes before the Planning Commission meeting. I only wish I could've mapped it sooner! ;)
- Consultant32452 8y agoThis didn't even cover things like how county and city sales tax can change if you move to the other side of a street. Also doesn't account for the fact that each different level of government (state, county, city) may have different licenses, so you might have a license to sell on one side of the street, but not the other, regardless of zoning. I've been considering potential targets for "radical deregulation." An experiment in getting rid of all licensing and certifications and just "see what happens." The risk here is too many taco trucks, and some minor fear of food poisoning. Personally, I'd be willing to accept that in exchange for massive increase in consumer choice and greater opportunity for small businesses to get out from under corporate overlords.
- Glyptodon 8y agoI don't really get why they wouldn't want food trucks to be near residential parks and such. I'm also curious if this would effectively ban residential area ice cream trucks.
- a2civictech 8y agoThe Planning Commission had a working session last night where they discussed lots of these issues, including ice cream trucks (everyone was very concerned about accidentally banning ice cream trucks heh). I forget what the conclusion was, but our City Planer mentioned that ice cream trucks operate in a public right-of-way (the road) and aren't parked on private property to serve food. I think they're going to revise the ordinance for clarity, though, because an ice cream truck and a food truck serve different purposes, I'd argue.
- frankharv 8y agoI work at a large employer with 150 employees and no real cafeteria. So there a food truck makes sense. They only do 1 hour at our gate. Quick money. Plus fastfood is a 10 minute drive so a captive audience. They just need to be reliable. Otherwise I pack a lunch. So other use cases are weird to me. I can see festivals. But the food trailer out front Lowes. Who eats there? I rarely see customers waiting...
- daveFNbuck 8y agoThe food truck in front of Lowes is probably there for day laborers.
- Nasrudith 8y agoMy guess is wanting to avoid the downsides of parks turning into backdoor commercial food courts and possible maintenance annoyances as residential parks have trashcans filled far less frequently than disposable dish only restaurants. And ice cream trucks usually spend less time stopped I believe (it could vary by urbanization as well).
- MetallicCloud 8y agoPersonally, I wouldn't mind banning ice-cream trucks. Where I used to live in queens, at about 8:30-9:00PM an ice-cream truck would drive down our street with ear piercingly loud music, and start our kids complaining that they want some after we'd just got them to settle down for the night.
- quequepasamane 8y agohmm yeah why not
- quequepasamane 8y agowhy not cabron
- mlindleyjr 8y agoAs an A2 resident I want to thank you for this post. Awesome stuff!
- tim44 8y agoI love taco trucks, and I'm a pretty picky eater. My probably weekly order is about: 6 tacos asada, no salsa, 4 jalepenos, radishes and extra limes. Maybe a plate of rice. Proceed to cover the taco in deadly amounts of salt and lime. What I can't ever seem to do is find a "street taco" in a mexican restaurant that's near as good tasting.
- Hesavard 8y agoReally nice article and really cool maps! And I kinda get both sides of the argument.
- normaldotcom 8y agoStarted reading the article... and realized that it was about my favorite BBQ spot in my own hometown! Hope that they can find a way to continue operation.